Lightscapes

[Serge]

A few more various panos of light on the landscape.

[robinp]

especially like number 2.

Cheers, Robin

[Auminer]

Nice pano's Serge

Little bit of halo showing on #1. You shooting these in vertical position with a tripod? I think #3 is my favorite.

Dave

[Serge]

Thanks guys, I'm having a lot of fun with Panorama Factory, just bought the latest version, 4.2, a significant improvement, still honing my skills.
All these were shot horizontal, hand held, haven't figured out yet how to stich long stacked verticals, be glad to hear from anyone who has.
JP; Swampy? you guys have been at it longer than me.

[BARBARA LUKE]

wonderful images....Barbara

[KeithM]

Wonderful images of a beautiful landscape Serge !

Having not shot any pano's myself, I can only imagine the foresight needed to get the final composition right. And those three all look right to me

Keith.

[Sleeping Bear]

Nice work, Serge. I really like #3 (as you probably guessed ).

[Swampy]

I like em all Serge. Great job! #3 is my favorite though. The color and different contrasting features of it really keep you there.

I just upgraded to 4.2 as well. MUCH less ghosting with complicated scenes (lots of tree branches or scaffolding for instance). I was using 3.2 I think it was. Much better interface as well.

The problem with landscape panos is which lens or focal length. I tend to want to use 24mm - 35mm on the full frame and 20mm-50mm on others. I would like to use longer lengths which will help level things out and create less distortion overall. However, the further you get/longer the focal length, the more haze you're going to induce due to the distance.

It's always been a play it by ear shot with my pano's. I might switch lenses a couple of times to see what it looks like. Once I pick my lens/focal length, that fixes it all up. One of the things you have to look out for is to try and keep your camera level with the horizon. Take my pano at Death Valley. I was shooting down, so the image has some curvature to it that isn't natural. This can work for you, as I think it did for me because I still have people talking about that 2 year old image. You need to try and keep the focal plane as level as possible. the wider the focal length, the more you need to pay attention to this. On top of wider focal lenths, you have to pay even more attention to shooting level if you're shooting in portrait mode as well!

When I see a "pano" shot, I like to position myself facing what the middle of the pano shot will be and swing my hips around looking at the image. You can see the bending when you're doing this, if any and can correct by aiming slightly higher or lower and making a note of the approcimate center point for when you throw the camera on a tripod (if you're going to). I usually don't use a tripod. I took 3 pano's of my company's new construction sight while on a roof top (yes, of course I was standing on the edge). 2 of the 3 came out or pano factory with out any jagged edges to crop out or fill in along the four edges. When that happens, you know you did it right.

Hope this helps. This was shot at about 30mm, 4 shots.

[Serge]

Thanks Barbara, Keith, Ron (kinda thought you might ) and Swampy.


"When I see a "pano" shot, I like to position myself facing what the middle of the pano shot will be and swing my hips around looking at the image"
That's pretty much the method I have adopted Bryan, size up the middle frame, swing left and then work across. As you say, keeping the focal axis level avoids weird curvature, but not always possible. Thanks for your tips, still would like to do vertical ones, have done some on 6x17 format and would love to replicate digitally.


FYI #2 used a ND Grad and #3 has a polariser.

[Serge]

I finally worked out how to stich a vertical Pano after going to the forum page for Panorama Factory, here is The Chasm (greatly reduced of course), 4 portrait format exposures.

[NZDoug]

Looks awesum, Serge.
Maybe knock the top down to get the sky more juicy.
I must give this pano business a go.
Do they got for mac? or somethin similar???
cheers

[Serge]

Thanks Doug, as I said totally addictive,

regretfully not on Macs yet

http://www.panoramafactory.com




BTW
I dropped into the Wanaka Warbirds Museum and got a shot for ya, among others, of a swastika recovered from the tailfin of a downed Italian recon plane, crashed somewhere on Sicily, might go well with your current avatar
Don't know if you've been there, but in April they are having the "Warbirds over Wanaka" Airshow, almost worth considering a return for the event, arround Easter. Some great vintage warplanes, will post a few shots from the hanger later.

http://www.warbirdsoverwanaka.com/ check out their site

[Swampy]

Originally Posted by Serge

I finally worked out how to stich a vertical Pano after going to the forum page for Panorama Factory, here is The Chasm (greatly reduced of course), 4 portrait format exposures.

Ohhh. That Vertical! I've only done the one here: http://theswampbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15665

And I used my wimberley head to pan up and down, but it was totally loose, so I could turn left or right which I did to do some minor corrections due to the whole thing not being leveled to begin with.

I just rotate all the pictures counterclockwise and throw the "top" image in as the first, then add the rest in sequence to the right and process as a normal panoramic. When it's done, I'll rotate the finished product back. Not too bad.

Did a pretty good job on the one above though for your first.

[Serge]

Thanks, that's how I ended up doing it, after reading the FAQ file. Wasn't at all obvious to me at first. I remember that waterfall, very impressive.

[proberts]

Originally Posted by Serge

A few more various panos of light on the landscape.

Beautiful shots Serge!

Paul