The late Heinrich Berann, from Austria, was generally regarded as the most accomplished panoramist of all time. During the decade before his retirement in 1994, Berann painted four panoramas for the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) that demonstrated his genius for landscape visualization. This paper examines the widely admired, but little understood, vocation of panorama making, with emphasis on Berann’s NPS pieces, concepts, and techniques. Explanation is offered about how the panorama for Denali National Park, Alaska, was planned, compiled, sketched, and painted—starting from a blank sheet of paper. Berann’s techniques for landscape manipulation are then analyzed, including his unorthodox habit of rotating mountains and widening valleys, and his unique interpretations of vertical exaggeration. His graphical special effects used for portraying realistic environments are reviewed. The paper finishes with illustrations that compare Berann’s panoramas to digitallygenerated landscapes.

Manipulating digital elevation model (DEM) surfaces, like pliable modelling clay, enhances the appearance and legibility of 3-D topography on maps. The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) uses the familiar image-editing tools in Adobe Photoshop to manipulate raster DEM data. Exporting modified DEM data with the help of freeware and shareware utilities allows subsequent rendering of final 3-D scenes in Corel Bryce. Techniques to be discussed include topographic substitution – a method for reverse engineering present-day landscapes into the past or projecting them into the future; selective vertical exaggeration; resolution bumping – a technique developed specifically for improving the legibility of high-mountain landscapes; painting and filtering effects; and, borrowing from the traditional masters of landform depiction, creating 3-D scenes that emulate the panoramas of Heinrich Berann and the spherical over-the-horizon views of Richard Edes Harrison by warping the projection plane of DEMS. The unique challenges of 3-D mountain mapping and the continuing pursuit of design excellence – a cornerstone of the NPS cartographic program – are overarching themes.

No abstract

This paper examines natural-color maps by focusing on the painted map art of Hal Shelton, the person most closely associated with developing the genre during the mid twentieth century. Advocating greater use of natural-color maps by contemporary cartographers, we discuss the advantages of natural-color maps compared to physical maps made with hypsometric tints; why natural-color maps, although admired, have remained comparatively rare; and the inadequacies of using satellite images as substitutes for natural-color maps. Seeking digital solutions, the paper then introduces techniques for designing and producing natural-color maps that are economical and within the skill range of most cartographers. The techniques, which use Adobe Photoshop software and satellite land cover data, yield maps similar in appearance to those made by Shelton, but with improved digital accuracy. Full-color illustrations show examples of Shelton’s maps and those produced by digital techniques.

To make more inviting and understandable maps for general audiences, the U.S. National Park Service has been experimenting with cartographically realistic map design. Using rasterized geodata and unconventional image processing techniques, cartographic realism draws inspiration from traditional cartographic art, modern graphic design, observations of nature, and aerial photograph maps. The aim is to combine the best characteristics of imagery and maps into a more intuitive hybrid product. Discussed techniques include aquafication, texture substitution, illuminated relief, and outside land muting.