HDR Panorama- Badwater

shniks · March 31, 2009

Hey guys- here is an HDR panorama of Badwater. The overcast conditions worked out well and I got a decent panorama. 11 images merged in PTGui. Photomatix used for the HDR processing. Please scroll to the right to see the entire image.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Chrissiebeez_NL · March 31, 2009

WOOOW!!

nice choice to post it this large, blows you away! LOVE the texture of the salt (?) and the weird colours in the sky. surreal.

CWSkopec · March 31, 2009

Looks awesome Nikhil!! Very nice work!

Tango · March 31, 2009

very sweet.. i would try to balance the light and dark areas in the FG to horizon, but thats just me...

how close to the ground was your lens?
the stiching seems to have gone perfect.

shniks · March 31, 2009

Chrissiebeez_NL wrote:

WOOOW!!

nice choice to post it this large, blows you away! LOVE the texture of the salt (?) and the weird colours in the sky. surreal.

Hi Chris- yeah it is the salt. That area (and the valley itself) really is beautiful. The best times to go there are twilight (morning and evening). Perfecto! Someday I want to shoot star trails there- if I can get myself to drive to that point and then walk in the darkness.

shniks · March 31, 2009

AaronNelson wrote:

very sweet.. i would try to balance the light and dark areas in the FG to horizon, but thats just me...

how close to the ground was your lens?
the stiching seems to have gone perfect.

Thanks for the feedback Aaron. When you say balance, do you mean the contrast or colors? I would love to know what you are thinking.

The camera was really low (< 1 ft off the ground). I too was pleasantly surprised to find the stitching so perfect- guess my calculation of the nodal point worked...

Cheers,

shniks · March 31, 2009

CWSkopec wrote:

Looks awesome Nikhil!! Very nice work!

Thanks for the feedback Sir- I am keeping a lookout for some more of your photos BTW... So keep 'em coming!

Cheers,

CWSkopec · March 31, 2009

shniks wrote:

Thanks for the feedback Sir- I am keeping a lookout for some more of your photos BTW... So keep 'em coming!

Cheers,

I'll get some new ones up this week!

I took about 2,000 shots this weekend in Joshua Tree, now I just need to pick through the snap shots to find the winners!

Tango · March 31, 2009

looking at this pano i see in the FG from left to right exposure diffences that i would try to fix...but other people may find this as part of the element of panos...
i would say balancing the FG exposure would be worth the work. mask the horizon up since its just right.

just my .01

dogwood · March 31, 2009

AaronNelson wrote:

looking at this pano i see in the FG from left to right exposure diffences that i would try to fix...but other people may find this as part of the element of panos...
i would say balancing the FG exposure would be worth the work. mask the horizon up since its just right.

But very nice! Little more work and you could have an awesome pano!

bryanj87 · March 31, 2009

Excellent work, and incredible detail.

My only suggestion would be to balance out the dark area in the foreground over to the right.

Andy · March 31, 2009

This is really good. I was there 3 weeks ago, we had clear sky and I can tell you, the clouds you got make this picture reall, really dramatic.

jstpeter · March 31, 2009

I am very impressed as is

SteveF · March 31, 2009

dogwood wrote:

But very nice! Little more work and you could have an awesome pano!

Exactly my thoughts. Just a little more fg balancing and this is ready to print large.

coscorrosa · March 31, 2009

Love it!

shniks · March 31, 2009

Thanks all for the comments. I need to work on getting the foreground exposure balanced across all the frames. But it's been an interesting learning experience (re HDR and Panos). I sure am glad I used the nodal slide, thanks to which the stitching was perfect and I had to crop very little. :ivar

Cheers,

anwmn1 · March 31, 2009

PSP!!

Pretty Sweet Pano! I like the foreground - for me the negative aspect of the photo is the saturation in the mountains. Very un-natural looking and that is a pet peeve of mine.

Drin · April 1, 2009

Stunning colors!

LiquidAir · April 1, 2009

Great pano!

However, Photomatrix seems to have done some kinda odd things to the shot. Notice how the foreground is too bright when there are dark mountains in the background? That is a byproduct of the automated tone mapping in Photomarix (or any tonemapping program; they all have this problem). One way or another, to even out your foreground lighting, you'll need to process the foreground and background independently. Personally where I'd start is by dropping the best foreground exposure over your HDR and masking it at the horizon.

shniks · April 1, 2009

LiquidAir wrote:

Great pano!

However, Photomatrix seems to have done some kinda odd things to the shot. Notice how the foreground is too bright when there are dark mountains in the background? That is a byproduct of the automated tone mapping in Photomarix (or any tonemapping program; they all have this problem). One way or another, to even out your foreground lighting, you'll need to process the foreground and background independently. Personally where I'd start is by dropping the best foreground exposure over your HDR and masking it at the horizon.

Yeah- I noticed that too. I will have to work on it over the weekend! Seems to be a tedious process. HDR and Pano is not easy...

Cheers,

redleash · April 1, 2009

I think it is terrific as is, but would like to see your revision if you post it.

What was your workflow? Did you do each HDR section first and then stitch it? I was just reading an article about that approach the other day. I haven't tried it myself--wanted to ask someone who's done it.

Thanks,
Lauren

shniks · April 1, 2009

redleash wrote:

I think it is terrific as is, but would like to see your revision if you post it.

What was your workflow? Did you do each HDR section first and then stitch it? I was just reading an article about that approach the other day. I haven't tried it myself--wanted to ask someone who's done it.

Thanks,
Lauren

Hey Lauren,

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah you pretty much got it right- I had taken 33 images (3 exposures for each frame). I first converted the RAW files to Tiffs (applying the same settings across the board). Then I processed the HDRs for each frame using Photomatix. Once done, I stitched the 11 HDR Tiffs using PTGui. The resultant Tiff file was then adjusted for levels/curves, sharpness etc before saving as jpeg.

Hope this helps...

Cheers,

leaforte · April 1, 2009

Glad I opened this thread. It was great to watch it load, top to bottom, like a sequenced event, that just better as it loaded.

kdog · April 1, 2009

Thanks. Now I have to go back to Badwater and get a pano.

This is that good.

shniks · April 1, 2009

kdog wrote:

Thanks. Now I have to go back to Badwater and get a pano. This is that good.

Hah- well then we have come FULL CIRCLE. I actually went to badwater having seen your images of the racetrack. I thought to myself that since my little car couldn't negotiate the road to the racetrack, I would try and get something nice at badwater. So thanks to your images (which I loved), I got somethin' somethin' for myself!!!

Cheers,

kdog · April 1, 2009

shniks wrote:

Hah- well then we have come FULL CIRCLE. I actually went to badwater having seen your images of the racetrack. I thought to myself that since my little car couldn't negotiate the road to the racetrack, I would try and get something nice at badwater. So thanks to your images (which I loved), I got somethin' somethin' for myself!!!

Cheers,

Funny! Maybe we'll have to hook up one of these days and you can hitch a ride in with me and/or Aaron to the track.

redleash · April 1, 2009

This helps a lot--thanks for the info on the process. I'll have to give it a whirl. I wonder how the Alamo would like as a 33 image HDR pano?

Daver2112 · April 1, 2009

Wow! Fantastic panorama!!!

Picture North Carolina · April 1, 2009

Very nice, indeed!

anwmn1 · April 2, 2009

kdog wrote:

Funny! Maybe we'll have to hook up one of these days and you can hitch a ride in with me and/or Aaron to the track.

Did someone say Death Valley Racetrack??

We better go soon while the temps are still good.

annnna8888 · April 2, 2009

This is one impressive photo! The detail and the light are outstanding. It's humbling to see how much work is involved. Great job!

Ana

HDR Panorama- Badwater

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