# Genesis of a Church panorama - How I made our Church look really cool...



## Semper Fidelis (Apr 27, 2008)

Check out » Home Central Baptist Church, Okinawa, Japan: Spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Okinawa at the picture of the Church. It's a pretty large building built about 30 years ago when the Church was more centrally located. We actually house a Japanese Church and the Okinawa Baptist Convention. I wanted to show you how I made this logo.

First I took about 7 pics and stitched them together using a program called Panorama Factory. This gives you a feel for how Okinawa looks around where we live (very industrial):







If you want to see a larger version: http://www.smugmug.com/photos/286084912_cKZ9h-X3.jpg

My White Toyota Mark II is in in the parking lot to the left of the white sign.

I used Adobe Photoshop to remove some power lines and also some distracting industrial elements but I wanted to make sure there was enough of Okinawa to still be there. I also didn't like the color of the skyline so I found a nice photo of an Okinawan sunset and put that in the background.

I put the sunset in a layer behind the stitched picture and then I used an artistic filter called Paint Daub to give it the really nice effect you see here:






I then resized it and put it on the website.


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## DMcFadden (Apr 27, 2008)

Very cool. I wish I could do that kind of artsy stuff! It ought to be a real plus on the website.


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## Semper Fidelis (Apr 27, 2008)

DMcFadden said:


> Very cool. I wish I could do that kind of artsy stuff! It ought to be a real plus on the website.



The artsy stuff was done by Photoshop. The only thing I did was find a nice sunset to put in the background. It took a little bit of knowledge of Photoshop and layers and stuff like that but it wasn't really that hard.


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## Semper Fidelis (Apr 27, 2008)

joshua said:


> Rich, have you had much familiarity with The Gimp? It's a really good program, In my humble opinion.



I've played around with it but it's superfluous for my purposes. I've got the Adobe Web Premium CS3 with Photoshop, Fireworks, and Illustrator. I use Fireworks most often for web graphics. I like its interface and the job it does converting images suitable for the web.


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## Gryphonette (Apr 27, 2008)

Whoo! That is _wicked_ cool, Rich!


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## toddpedlar (Apr 27, 2008)

joshua said:


> Rich, have you had much familiarity with The Gimp? It's a really good program, In my humble opinion.



I love the Gimp ... but I'm a linux snob


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## kvanlaan (Apr 27, 2008)

Very nice!

On a side note, it doesn't appear as crowded as Tokyo (the only place I've been in Japan). I have the image of hi-rises everywhere, but Okinawa looks positively empty!


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## Semper Fidelis (Apr 27, 2008)

kvanlaan said:


> Very nice!
> 
> On a side note, it doesn't appear as crowded as Tokyo (the only place I've been in Japan). I have the image of hi-rises everywhere, but Okinawa looks positively empty!



More dense near Naha but there are large swaths of Okinawa North that are very sparsely populated. They have beaches that are some of the most beautiful places in the world.


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