The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

6X12 in Jerusalem

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
I've been trying to kickstart a project for a while now which involves shooting cityscapes and architecture in Jerusalem. I work in the UK (wedding photographer) so I'm rarely at home for more than a few days and as such it's going very slooooowly! Originally I had intended to shoot this project on LF, I intend to shoot it all in the 6X12 format, but after trying it in the field too many technical problems got in the way. I've switched to stitching with my 5D, a 6 shot stitch will give me a 39 megapixel file in the 6X12 format which is perfect for the 36X18" prints that I hope to make from these shots and is really fast to do in the field.

These two are from yesterday and today. I have a whole bunch of locations but shooting in the Old City of Jerusalem the light moves incredibly fast but the real problem is the never ending tourists and the wind tunnel effect due to the narrow alleyways which makes any image with foliage very hard to shoot stopped down.

__


I'll have more to show as I get the chance, I'm going out again tomorrow to try and shoot this image (below), this was a test image I took a while ago, I tried to do it again today but screwed up on the angles.

 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Hi Ben:

I like the 6x12 format a lot, and I think you've done a great job with the vertical compositions here, kudos! (that last one is going to be a stunner and worth getting just right!)

:thumbs:
 
M

mjr

Guest
Beautiful images, both of them. The format really suits the subject. like them a lot!
Mat
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Finally got it right, or close enough! I've tried to shoot this a few times since that test shot taken @ f2.8 six months ago...


The saga goes on, I'm shooting all this week I hope, break for a week to do some real work then inbetween designing storybook albums I should have a further 2 weeks to shoot.
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Thanks Jack, didn't get out today for various reasons (OK I slept in!:D) but here's one from a year and a half ago, 2:3 crop, Western Wall, first rain of the year 11pm.

 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Two more for your attention, the long alleyway photo is technically impossible focus wise using a 70mm lens on FF given that the paving stones in front of me are at the lenses minimum focus distance and the picture is pin sharp front to back! I did it by shooting it in tiny chunks refocusing as I went along and then stitched the whole result for a horribly sharp 50 megapixel file. Very proud of that photo, I didn't think it would be possible to get focus back to front without using Helicon focus which would have been impossible given how much foliage was moving. It was a wind tunnel as you can guess! I could have used a wider lens shot more open than the f16 I was using but it would have killed the perspective.

The 2nd has quite a bit of moving foliage but it's in the distance, for example all the foliage on the left hand side in the foreground is very sharp. Luckily I wasn't trying HDR, the sun was low enough to give more interesting shadows but even with that at iso 400 I was shooting at a 1/6 due to the polariser and f22. Stitching while holding the perspective necessary IMO for these types of heavily architectural cityscapes means telephotos and suddenly shutter speeds are horribly low and you're stopped down to f16-22 as a minimum.

I did shoot a third one but ran into a brick wall trying to fit too many stops of DR into a scene with too much moving foliage and long shutter speeds. I did bracket but the ghosting is horrific. I think some of the pictures I want to do will have to wait till winter when I can get flatter light.



 
Last edited:

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
The man sitting under the tree in the 2nd photo, right in the middle at the end of the path. Wow but I love stitching, this wasn't even such a big file, 25 megapixels, I forgot to shoot an extra frame, this is only a 4 frame stitch from a 5D! :D

 
Last edited:

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Thanks Jack, I have another composition ready to go shot pretty much by turning 180 degrees from that one. Oh and a whole bunch more there in the Old City but this week I return to shooting weddings in the UK after a 3 week break.
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
From the picture above and turned pretty much 180 degrees. Not sure I'm happy with this one. Opinions welcome. Keep in mind there is a huge amount of detail, it's intended to be printed big, 30X15" to 36X18". I think I may go back and shoot in in completely flat light though it means waiting for the winter. The shadows across the path seem to ruin the point of the path leading the eye into the frame which is what was intended.

 
Last edited:

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Now this one I'm a lot happier with! There is a trick to photographing people in a stiched image, you have to make sure that you can fit the people in a frame AND have plenty room around it for the stitching program to use. Not easy to do but I'm going to be using this method a lot more, I think human content can make a lot of these types of image far more dynamic. This picture would be very boring without that guy walking down the steps. My way of thinking is that with a very photographed part of the world, the images need something special to be different. I'm trying to do that with the crop, but the lighting and in some cases human presence is essential to 'make' the photo. Probably why the above photo doesn't work for me, I'm going to do it again with people walking down the path and the lighting flatter.

 

fotografz

Well-known member
Now this one I'm a lot happier with! There is a trick to photographing people in a stiched image, you have to make sure that you can fit the people in a frame AND have plenty room around it for the stitching program to use. Not easy to do but I'm going to be using this method a lot more, I think human content can make a lot of these types of image far more dynamic. This picture would be very boring without that guy walking down the steps. My way of thinking is that with a very photographed part of the world, the images need something special to be different. I'm trying to do that with the crop, but the lighting and in some cases human presence is essential to 'make' the photo. Probably why the above photo doesn't work for me, I'm going to do it again with people walking down the path and the lighting flatter.

Love this Ben! :thumbs:
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Agree totally with Marc --- that last image is an outstanding composition!
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Here is a trial (just walking around) that I want to go back and reshoot properly. This was shot in close to midday sun though the light is still pretty directional. I think a dawn shoot when the light will be coming from the same angle should do it. I'm wavering between going for a clear or cloudy morning.

It's a bit academic at present, I don't have a tripod head! My manfrotto hydraulic head burst in the midday sun and my BH-40 was supposed to be brought back from the states by my father but he managed to lose it, it's in Canada with him at present :rolleyes:, trying to pin an international lecturer down long enough to get any sense out of him is hard, especially when he's about as practical as all intellectuals!

Sigh...


Yemin Moshe, Jerusalem. Contrast might look more even if I'd shot at more than f2.8, only the tree is in focus! :D:D
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Just realised that this composition is EXACTLY the same as the picture above it. Oh well, doubt many will notice. Pretty much all of my compositions in the this series are identical anyway. Take these three.

_]
_]
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
Now this one I'm a lot happier with! There is a trick to photographing people in a stiched image, you have to make sure that you can fit the people in a frame AND have plenty room around it for the stitching program to use. Not easy to do but I'm going to be using this method a lot more, I think human content can make a lot of these types of image far more dynamic. This picture would be very boring without that guy walking down the steps. My way of thinking is that with a very photographed part of the world, the images need something special to be different. I'm trying to do that with the crop, but the lighting and in some cases human presence is essential to 'make' the photo. Probably why the above photo doesn't work for me, I'm going to do it again with people walking down the path and the lighting flatter.

Ben,
This is great!
-bob
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Thanks Bob, you should see it printed big, it's a 30 megapixel file, the detail is astounding though to be honest this picture would work if it was shot on a p&s...
 
Top