Using panoramic stitching to increase the size of a Fuji X file

A beautiful light enveloped the city last night around sunset as storm clouds passed over us and the setting sun broke through for a brief moment. The scene was dark enough to capture the city lights as they were just beginning to come on.

This image is a composite of three vertical shots taken hand held with the Fuji X-T1 and 10-24mm zoom at its widest focal length. I have been experimenting with PTGui panoramic software for stitching multiple images together to make one large panoramic file and used it for this image instead of Photoshop. Stitching an image from multiple shots results in a much larger file capable of greater print sizes. The final file of this image came out to 132MB, which is bigger than even my Nikon 810 can produce.

One problem of panoramas is how to combine the images onto a flat surface so that they approximate true viewing perspective.  Presenting a map of the spherical earth on a flat surface is a problem that has vexed map makers for centuries. Panorama software will  usually give you a choice of the type projection you want to employ for combining your images. Below are two such projections. The top on is a cylindrical projection, as if the images were put together on a cylindrical surface. Note the telltale rounding of the foreground buildings.  The bottom image is made up of the same three photos, but it a rectilinear projection. This is closer to the natural scene -- except for the extreme sides --  as the eye sees it.

This panorama looking south in New York towards the new World Trade Center in the distance was taken the next night and represents a rectilinear projection of two combined images.