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What to do when the scene is too Wide?

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CityLights

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What do you do when you find a scene too wide?

Shoot a pano? or Go for the details?

I did a little of both. Sunrise at Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah.

Oh, and the 300D still rocks! The sunrise light was changing fast so I had one lens on the 300D and another on the 350D. Other than the EXIF telling me what camera took the shots, I can't tell the difference. Maybe I don't need that 40D after all!

Full Gallery:
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/cedar_breaks

Large Size:
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/image/84992436/original

5 shot pano at 22mm



and a detail, 1/250s f/8.0 at 400.0mm



--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
 
What I have done and it really works great is to shoot holding the camera in the vertical poition, overlap each picture by about 20-25%. The best way is to use a tripod and be careful not to tilt the camera from front to back or keep it at an even keel while you rotate from left to right, (makes it easier to stitch the photos together). You are suppose to set your camera to manual after to take an average light meter reading using the camera's sensor (push i/2 wway down to get a reading. Make sure you focus and then turn off auto focus. The best program I have found so far is the Canon stitch program on your CD that came with the camera. If you are good you can hand hold and lock your arms at your side and twist at the waist. I have taken a sunset using 7 photos looking down into a valley and only had to touch up the sky colors a little bit as it was dark at one side and total sun at the other side.

I have also taken mountain shots to get all the peaks in at Rocky Mtn National Park. You can do this with buildings etc. Practice makes perfect. I did a mountain range and ended up with a picture 144 inches long- needless to say, I didn't print it!!!

Hold the camera in a vertical position or you get a very short up and down picture.
--
Steinr98
 
Both worked well, nice shots. The 400mm shot is really something different from the usual landscape shots. Esp. the Castle, Wise men and face the light.

Maybe you're ready for large format photography 120x120mm sensors and such ;)
CityLights said:
What do you do when you find a scene too wide?

Shoot a pano? or Go for the details?

I did a little of both. Sunrise at Cedar Breaks National Monument,
Utah.

Oh, and the 300D still rocks! The sunrise light was changing fast so
I had one lens on the 300D and another on the 350D. Other than the
EXIF telling me what camera took the shots, I can't tell the
difference. Maybe I don't need that 40D after all!

Full Gallery:
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/cedar_breaks

Large Size:
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/image/84992436/original

5 shot pano at 22mm



and a detail, 1/250s f/8.0 at 400.0mm



--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
Click to expand...
--
Imqqmi

http://www.pbase.com/imqqmi
 
imqqmi said:
Both worked well, nice shots. The 400mm shot is really something
different from the usual landscape shots. Esp. the Castle, Wise men
and face the light.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I liked the detail shots too. This location was perfect for picking off details from the canyon as the sunrise light changed things every couple of minutes.
imqqmi said:
Maybe you're ready for large format photography 120x120mm sensors and
such ;)
Click to expand...
I have seen some of the large format film cameras. I don't think I am ready to cary one of those around. Medium format might be interesting. I must admit that I like the compact nature of the rebel line.

--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
 
All good tips. Thank you.

Have you tried autostitch? It is a free pano software that I like:

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html
steinr98 said:
What I have done and it really works great is to shoot holding the
camera in the vertical poition, overlap each picture by about 20-25%.
The best way is to use a tripod and be careful not to tilt the camera
from front to back or keep it at an even keel while you rotate from
left to right, (makes it easier to stitch the photos together). You
are suppose to set your camera to manual after to take an average
light meter reading using the camera's sensor (push i/2 wway down to
get a reading. Make sure you focus and then turn off auto focus.
The best program I have found so far is the Canon stitch program on
your CD that came with the camera. If you are good you can hand hold
and lock your arms at your side and twist at the waist. I have taken
a sunset using 7 photos looking down into a valley and only had to
touch up the sky colors a little bit as it was dark at one side and
total sun at the other side.
I have also taken mountain shots to get all the peaks in at Rocky Mtn
National Park. You can do this with buildings etc. Practice makes
perfect. I did a mountain range and ended up with a picture 144
inches long- needless to say, I didn't print it!!!
Hold the camera in a vertical position or you get a very short up and
down picture.
--
Steinr98
Click to expand...
--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
 
Very good shots as usual. Thanks for sharing.
CityLights said:
What do you do when you find a scene too wide?

Shoot a pano? or Go for the details?

I did a little of both. Sunrise at Cedar Breaks National Monument,
Utah.
Click to expand...
I did ask myself the same question a lot. Indeed the pano can give you a high resolution image, but I find difficult to really show it. On a regular PC display it looks too small due to its large width compared to the hight. Tried to show them on a wide screen HDTV still looks bad, a narrow band in the center of the screen. Of course you can pan on the image zoomed to the whole height of the screen but it looses the sense of "wideness" of the scene.

Printing seems to be the only solution, but again you end up with a strange format, difficult to put in an album.

I do remember your project with large prints on your staircase wall, but That is limited to one or at most two panos.

So I think that my question to you is: how do you show your panos?
CityLights said:
Oh, and the 300D still rocks! The sunrise light was changing fast so
I had one lens on the 300D and another on the 350D. Other than the
EXIF telling me what camera took the shots, I can't tell the
difference. Maybe I don't need that 40D after all!

Full Gallery:
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/cedar_breaks

Large Size:
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/image/84992436/original

5 shot pano at 22mm



and a detail, 1/250s f/8.0 at 400.0mm



--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
Click to expand...
--
Ed Richer
 
Ed Richer said:
So I think that my question to you is: how do you show your panos?
Click to expand...
I only have two panos printed and framed.

This one, many shots assembled in a "normal" format. Not wide and short:
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/image/67394524
Looks great in a really big print.

This one, I purchased special extra long photo paper and printed it about 3 feet long and 8 inches tall. I framed it in a poster frame:

http://www.pbase.com/citylights/image/58571987/large

The rest get displayed on in my pano gallery:

http://www.pbase.com/citylights/panoramics

I do my best not to shoot wide and short panoramics for that very reason. I would rather have them at least approach normal proportions for ease of print and display.

--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
 
CityLights said:
CityLights said:
So I think that my question to you is: how do you show your panos?
Click to expand...
I only have two panos printed and framed.

This one, many shots assembled in a "normal" format. Not wide and
short:
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/image/67394524
Looks great in a really big print.

This one, I purchased special extra long photo paper and printed it
about 3 feet long and 8 inches tall. I framed it in a poster frame:

http://www.pbase.com/citylights/image/58571987/large

The rest get displayed on in my pano gallery:

http://www.pbase.com/citylights/panoramics

I do my best not to shoot wide and short panoramics for that very
reason. I would rather have them at least approach normal
proportions for ease of print and display.
Click to expand...
Indeed I found the same thing. I like this pano better than the second one for display purposes. It is practically done using only half of the pictures.





I think that you mentioned that you use AutoStitch. I did use it lately and I am amazed how good it is. Especially for the price. I think I will go back and redo some of my older panos using it.

This is another one done with AutoStitch and it is stitched very good. Grand Lake, Co:


CityLights said:
--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
Click to expand...
--
Ed Richer
 
I think it's time for an other mounting project -- do you have any bare walls left? I think the true awe of a pano is realized when it's blown up -- in such a case you have both a large crisp print, with the detail, and at the same time it is ultra wide and really shows off the skills required to "gather" one of these.
 
Glen Sansoucie said:
There are an awful lot of shadows in those pics?
Click to expand...
Yes, tons of shadows. They are taken just before and after sunrise. The light is very moody at that time. Later in the day the shadows, and resulting depth and shape are less.

I could have saved more of the shadow detail, but I was trying to concentrate on light isolation of details.
Glen Sansoucie said:
Did you shoot during the day?
Click to expand...
I have in the past. This time, I was only there until about an hour after sunrise.
Glen Sansoucie said:
I have to admit that I think my original Rebel (300D) was sharper
than my XT (350). Speedwise, however, the XT left the Rebel in the
dust. . .
Click to expand...
Every once in a while, I am glad I kept my 300D as a backup. It may not be the fastest thing around, but the image quality is excellent.

--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
 
glitched said:
I would make a panorama, get a wider lens, or move to full frame.
Click to expand...
I don't think full-frame is a total answer. I can think of many instances when I was shooting film wishing a had a pano large format camera. Even with full frame you are going to have instances where you will have to shoot several frames together.

--
Bill

Shoot liberally!
 
Good issue you bring up CityLights - I kept thinking wider and wider was the answer, but now I find myself going the other way. I have discovered that the pictures I like best are the ones where I have shot my subject at the longest focal length possible. It appears to be the best tradeoff between detail and size - well to me anyway. Great pictures by the way.
 
weirmg said:
I think it's time for an other mounting project -- do you have any
bare walls left? I think the true awe of a pano is realized when it's
blown up -- in such a case you have both a large crisp print, with
the detail, and at the same time it is ultra wide and really shows
off the skills required to "gather" one of these.
Click to expand...
Thanks, yes I have a couple of bare walls left. When I fill those up, I will just have to start working on filling the walls on my neighbors house. ;)

I agree, big prints are the best use of pano's.

--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
 
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