BaldyRegistered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,853moderator
edited February 12, 2009
Another place I used this method of shooting was in Milano, where we had to go to replace my wife's lost passport. She had said it was a mostly industrial city, but when we were walking around we came across this cathedral, which just swept me away with its beautiful stone and lovely sculptures:
No traffic is allowed in the area, so unlike most European cathedrals, this one is free of soot from diesel.
The sculptures are so beautiful, but you can't see the ones up high, only the lowest ones. I had a place on our walls 144 wide x 130 high, so I shot this in 109 frames.
It isn't about the setting or the sky, I just wanted to revel in the artwork which you couldn't see any other way. Here are the original pixels:
Dare I say you are mastering the technique and the art of stitched image photography (SIP to coin an acronym), but will you ever be able to take a "normal" vacation to a beautiful place again? rofl
Dare I say you are mastering the technique and the art of stitched image photography (SIP to coin an acronym), but will you ever be able to take a "normal" vacation to a beautiful place again? rofl
Seems more like a SIPOS (SIP Obsession Syndrome).
Cuong
"She Was a Little Taste of Heaven – And a One-Way Ticket to Hell!" - Max Phillips
I shot from bottom to top and the light was changing as I went so that it got a little flat at the top. But I thought it was lovely about mid-way.
It's beautiful!
I hope you don't mind some geeky questions. :-)
How far away were you from the cathedral? What was your lens length, shutter speed? Did you use mirror lockup? How long did it take to shoot?
JC Dill - Equine Photographer, San Francisco & San Jose http://portfolio.jcdill.com "Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Ansel Adams "Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ~ Terry Pratchett
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BaldyRegistered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,853moderator
How far away were you from the cathedral? What was your lens length, shutter speed? Did you use mirror lockup? How long did it take to shoot?
I used my 300mm f/2.8 at f/8, 5D MKII at ISO 100.
There is an open plaza that's about a city block in front of the cathedral with a statue on it. I climbed up the platform of the statue to get up a little higher and put my tripod there. I was close enough that it took 109 frames to make the shot.
I was at the same camera group meeting last night as you and after hearing about how poor autofocus can be on the 5D, I was kicking myself for not manually focusing with live view.
I was at the same camera group meeting last night as you and after hearing about how poor autofocus can be on the 5D, I was kicking myself for not manually focusing with live view.
It looks like you got lucky with the focus. :-) About how far away were you from the cathedral?
Subject distance 500 ft
Depth of field Near limit 437.3 ft Far limit 583.7 ft Total 146.4 ft In front of subject 62.7 ft (43%) Behind subject 83.7 ft (57%) Hyperfocal distance 3480.8 ft Circle of confusion 0.03 mm
Subject distance 250 ft
Depth of field Near limit 233.3 ft Far limit 269.3 ft Total 36 ft In front of subject 16.7 ft (46%) Behind subject 19.3 ft (54%) Hyperfocal distance 3480.8 ft Circle of confusion 0.03 mm
Even if you want a much smaller circle of confusion for more sharpness, at this distance it appears you still have some latitude in focus setting to get a sharp image at f/2.8. For example, change to the Agfa model with a CoC of .005:
Subject distance 500 ft
Depth of field Near limit 488.3 ft Far limit 512.2 ft Total 23.9 ft In front of subject 11.7 ft (49%) Behind subject 12.2 ft (51%) Hyperfocal distance 20880.1 ft Circle of confusion 0.005 mm
Subject distance 250 ft
Depth of field Near limit 247.1 ft Far limit 253 ft Total 5.96 ft In front of subject 2.95 ft (49%) Behind subject 3.02 ft (51%) Hyperfocal distance 20880.1 ft Circle of confusion 0.005 mm
Thanks for hosting the camera group meeting last night! It was a fantastic location - much better than our prior locations. Plus we had a fantastic speaker, a two-fer!
JC Dill - Equine Photographer, San Francisco & San Jose http://portfolio.jcdill.com "Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Ansel Adams "Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ~ Terry Pratchett
Dare I say you are mastering the technique and the art of stitched image photography (SIP to coin an acronym), but will you ever be able to take a "normal" vacation to a beautiful place again? rofl
I wonder whether his wife will allow him to go on a vacation with her again. I know mine wouldn't if I attempted to take 109 shots of a single thing.
When you say " f/2.8 at f/8" do you mean at 1/8 second?
How long did it take to shoot all 109 shots? Did you use mirror lockup?
Oh, sorry, I forgot to answer about mirror lockup. The aperture remained consistent at f/8. The shutter speed varied a little as I inched it from bottom, where the light was low, to top, where it was much higher. I'd have to look at the files, but I remember around the middle I was at 1/180th.
I did use mirror lockup and let the camera settle a couple of seconds before firing. I used a very heavy, sturdy tripod with a geared head.
My attitude with the tripod was, it was saving me trips to the gym.
BaldyRegistered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,853moderator
edited February 12, 2009
Coupla people asked about system and AutoPano Pro versus PTGui.
I own both AutoPano Pro and PTGui and have done numerous stitches in each. The short answer is I'm swept away by AutoPano Pro.
PTGui has the advantage that it will deal with 5D MKII RAWs, which AutoPano Pro doesn't seem to. So I end up converting my files to tiff before stitching, which is a pain, but it gives me a chance to individually adjust them before stitching. Most panos I've shot have changing light so I end up having to scootch things up or down to get them to match.
AutoPano is amazingly fast and accurate and produces awesome stitches. I did the Milano 109 shot stich on my MacBook Pro like buttah. And if the wind causes me to get a little vibration on a frame, it still manages to stitch accurately with the slightest overlap if I nuke a frame. It doesn't seem to need anywhere near 50% overlap.
With PTGui I've spent too many hours trying to get areas that are hard to stitch, like sky, to stich by manually going into the editor.
Andy can tell you I'm not easily won over because I can be grumpy about the way CS4 crashes and does sub-par stitches, etc. But I am an AutoPano Pro fanboy.
There is an open plaza that's about a city block in front of the cathedral with a statue on it. I climbed up the platform of the statue to get up a little higher and put my tripod there. I was close enough that it took 109 frames to make the shot.
I was at the same camera group meeting last night as you and after hearing about how poor autofocus can be on the 5D, I was kicking myself for not manually focusing with live view.
D'oh.
Did Autopano Pro handle the sky stitches well or did you have to do some cloning / manual stitching? I see very little detail in the sky that it could use to align those frames.
I very quickly ran through this entire thread last night. OMFG... Amazing work and ideas in here. I was literally jaw dropped. I didn't see though that a final image was chosen and decided upon to actually print for the wall. Is this project completed or are you still working on a final print for the room?
Did Autopano Pro handle the sky stitches well or did you have to do some cloning / manual stitching? I see very little detail in the sky that it could use to align those frames.
When it was pure, featureless sky, I didn't ask AutoPano Pro to do it, I just cloned it in.
But I got as much sky as possible by shooting just the tip of a tower so the frame was 99% sky, and AutoPano Pro stitched it perfectly without asking my help.
Is this project completed or are you still working on a final print for the room?
Well it turns out we have a lot of rooms and walls, so we're making a lot of prints. At least 10 giant ones, so we're having a lot of fun with the project.
The Eiffel shot came in on Friday, 3 pieces 64" wide by 50" high, making for a 64x150 print. It was mounted on 1/4" black sintra (a hard plastic) with a 1/32" polycarbonate laminate, because it's going in a place where it's gonna get scuffed.
I was nervous to see the final result, but the results are stunning. I'm gonna print a few more in high-traffic areas that way.
Well it turns out we have a lot of rooms and walls, so we're making a lot of prints. At least 10 giant ones, so we're having a lot of fun with the project.
The Eiffel shot came in on Friday, 3 pieces 64" wide by 50" high, making for a 64x150 print. It was mounted on 1/4" black sintra (a hard plastic) with a 1/32" polycarbonate laminate, because it's going in a place where it's gonna get scuffed.
I was nervous to see the final result, but the results are stunning. I'm gonna print a few more in high-traffic areas that way.
Amazing. The Eiffel shot has amazing detail. Great work by everyone!
I would LOVE to see these prints. Big prints are the way to go for me, go big or go home!
The Eiffel Tower print is here, I just gotta figure out how to hang it.
It's mounted on 1/4" black sintra with a 1/32" polycarbonate laminate, which looks very cool. I guess I'll have to drill through it to hang it.
For work use we get lots of things mounted like this for tradeshow usage. We use the 3M Dual Lock that looks an awful lot like plastic velcro. However our stuff is much smaller than this pano is probably. But if you don't want to drill it might be something to consider
The Eiffel Tower print is here, I just gotta figure out how to hang it.
It's mounted on 1/4" black sintra with a 1/32" polycarbonate laminate, which looks very cool. I guess I'll have to drill through it to hang it.
If it is structurally sound you might consider a bottom "sill" suspension along with "clips" to secure the top and edges. I seem to recall some museums using that method for more permanent exhibits.
The noise looks to be worse in the reallllly warm colour temp areas that are lit with sodium light. This is pretty common as there is very little blue and green hitting the blue and green pixels on the sensor so you're only really getting a third of the information you would be with a cooler light. if you can isolate the channels you will see the blue is by far the noisiest.
some of the guys I shoot with swear by cooling filters when shooting in these kind of conditions. they soak up some of the light in the red channel so you need longer shutter times but you will get less noise. An 80A is the strongest, will soak up 2 stops of light but will shift your colour temp from 3200 to 5500
Hokay, I finally got around to comparing with and without the cooling filter (80A) and here 'tis:
Can you tell which has the cooling filter and which doesn't? They were taken just seconds apart. One has a 2-second exposure at f/8 and the other 4 seconds at f/8. The only difference in post processing is they had different white balance and tint settings when opening from RAW.
Comments
No traffic is allowed in the area, so unlike most European cathedrals, this one is free of soot from diesel.
The sculptures are so beautiful, but you can't see the ones up high, only the lowest ones. I had a place on our walls 144 wide x 130 high, so I shot this in 109 frames.
It isn't about the setting or the sky, I just wanted to revel in the artwork which you couldn't see any other way. Here are the original pixels:
The print will be almost 200 dpi.
:baldy
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Very nice! Love the detail - this sort of thing will really be impressive at that size! What software did you use to stitch it together?
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Dare I say you are mastering the technique and the art of stitched image photography (SIP to coin an acronym), but will you ever be able to take a "normal" vacation to a beautiful place again?
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
Cuong
It's beautiful!
I hope you don't mind some geeky questions. :-)
How far away were you from the cathedral? What was your lens length, shutter speed? Did you use mirror lockup? How long did it take to shoot?
"Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Ansel Adams
"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ~ Terry Pratchett
There is an open plaza that's about a city block in front of the cathedral with a statue on it. I climbed up the platform of the statue to get up a little higher and put my tripod there. I was close enough that it took 109 frames to make the shot.
I was at the same camera group meeting last night as you and after hearing about how poor autofocus can be on the 5D, I was kicking myself for not manually focusing with live view.
D'oh.
When you say " f/2.8 at f/8" do you mean at 1/8 second?
How long did it take to shoot all 109 shots? Did you use mirror lockup?
It looks like you got lucky with the focus. :-) About how far away were you from the cathedral?
The online DoF calculator at www.dofmaster.com says:
Subject distance 500 ft
Depth of field Near limit 437.3 ft Far limit 583.7 ft Total 146.4 ft In front of subject 62.7 ft (43%) Behind subject 83.7 ft (57%) Hyperfocal distance 3480.8 ft Circle of confusion 0.03 mm
Subject distance 250 ft
Depth of field Near limit 233.3 ft Far limit 269.3 ft Total 36 ft In front of subject 16.7 ft (46%) Behind subject 19.3 ft (54%) Hyperfocal distance 3480.8 ft Circle of confusion 0.03 mm
Even if you want a much smaller circle of confusion for more sharpness, at this distance it appears you still have some latitude in focus setting to get a sharp image at f/2.8. For example, change to the Agfa model with a CoC of .005:
Subject distance 500 ft
Depth of field Near limit 488.3 ft Far limit 512.2 ft Total 23.9 ft In front of subject 11.7 ft (49%) Behind subject 12.2 ft (51%) Hyperfocal distance 20880.1 ft Circle of confusion 0.005 mm
Subject distance 250 ft
Depth of field Near limit 247.1 ft Far limit 253 ft Total 5.96 ft In front of subject 2.95 ft (49%) Behind subject 3.02 ft (51%) Hyperfocal distance 20880.1 ft Circle of confusion 0.005 mm
Thanks for hosting the camera group meeting last night! It was a fantastic location - much better than our prior locations. Plus we had a fantastic speaker, a two-fer!
"Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Ansel Adams
"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ~ Terry Pratchett
Cuong
I did use mirror lockup and let the camera settle a couple of seconds before firing. I used a very heavy, sturdy tripod with a geared head.
My attitude with the tripod was, it was saving me trips to the gym.
I own both AutoPano Pro and PTGui and have done numerous stitches in each. The short answer is I'm swept away by AutoPano Pro.
PTGui has the advantage that it will deal with 5D MKII RAWs, which AutoPano Pro doesn't seem to. So I end up converting my files to tiff before stitching, which is a pain, but it gives me a chance to individually adjust them before stitching. Most panos I've shot have changing light so I end up having to scootch things up or down to get them to match.
AutoPano is amazingly fast and accurate and produces awesome stitches. I did the Milano 109 shot stich on my MacBook Pro like buttah. And if the wind causes me to get a little vibration on a frame, it still manages to stitch accurately with the slightest overlap if I nuke a frame. It doesn't seem to need anywhere near 50% overlap.
With PTGui I've spent too many hours trying to get areas that are hard to stitch, like sky, to stich by manually going into the editor.
Andy can tell you I'm not easily won over because I can be grumpy about the way CS4 crashes and does sub-par stitches, etc. But I am an AutoPano Pro fanboy.
Your a sick person! That said can you elaborate on the tripod, head, rail, no rail, pano specialty stuff you used?
i don't believe it would be possible to get this with a simple ball head.
Thanks!
Sam
Any normal person would have walked up to Sacre Cur in Paris and taken the shot with one frame and go have dinner.
But nnnoooooooooooo, I get out the 300 and shoot a zillion frames to get this:
You sure get the stares and head scratchers while you're doing it.
I get some kind of sick pixel-peeping pleasure out of being able to zoom in to every little detail that I couldn't see when I visited there.
AutoPano Pro did a nice stitch with this, no? I was way the heck down the hill looking up.
Pictures | Website | Blog | Twitter | Contact
Did Autopano Pro handle the sky stitches well or did you have to do some cloning / manual stitching? I see very little detail in the sky that it could use to align those frames.
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
But I got as much sky as possible by shooting just the tip of a tower so the frame was 99% sky, and AutoPano Pro stitched it perfectly without asking my help.
The Eiffel shot came in on Friday, 3 pieces 64" wide by 50" high, making for a 64x150 print. It was mounted on 1/4" black sintra (a hard plastic) with a 1/32" polycarbonate laminate, because it's going in a place where it's gonna get scuffed.
I was nervous to see the final result, but the results are stunning. I'm gonna print a few more in high-traffic areas that way.
Amazing. The Eiffel shot has amazing detail. Great work by everyone!
I would LOVE to see these prints. Big prints are the way to go for me, go big or go home!
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
Can you make a pano of the results?
It's mounted on 1/4" black sintra with a 1/32" polycarbonate laminate, which looks very cool. I guess I'll have to drill through it to hang it.
For work use we get lots of things mounted like this for tradeshow usage. We use the 3M Dual Lock that looks an awful lot like plastic velcro. However our stuff is much smaller than this pano is probably. But if you don't want to drill it might be something to consider
Pictures | Website | Blog | Twitter | Contact
If it is structurally sound you might consider a bottom "sill" suspension along with "clips" to secure the top and edges. I seem to recall some museums using that method for more permanent exhibits.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
Can you tell which has the cooling filter and which doesn't? They were taken just seconds apart. One has a 2-second exposure at f/8 and the other 4 seconds at f/8. The only difference in post processing is they had different white balance and tint settings when opening from RAW.