Hi guys, thanks for the compliments! About the image, I took about 50 or so shots as I swam the length, of which 36 or 38 were used to create the mosaic. Always better to have extra photos than not enough... They were stitched together manually in Photoshop. I've tried the automated programs in the past, and while they do an OK job, a lot of work needed to be done color correcting each image to match the surrounding ones, and the automated programs just can't match the controls you have in Photoshop. Plus, I had done numerous panoramic landscapes over the years, so I already had the process worked out. It's time consuming, but worth the effort. And the final image was HUGE - almost 20,000 pixels wide, which I'm not sure the automated programs could handle.
An interesting note about the sub and the image, a few years after taking the photo, Olympus Dive Center in NC was having a fundraiser for the local aquarium, and invited Heinz Richter, one of the last remaining crewmembers of the 352, to speak. I was able to meet him and gave him a large canvas print of the sub. He showed me the area of the sub he worked in (he was the diesel mechanic) and was even able to point out which hatch he escaped from! I think he was 93 years old at the time, and it was a pleasure to meet him and his wife.
Anyway, thanks again for the compliments. If you have any other questions, just ask!
-Chris
