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Fun with panos, or my poor Mac Pro

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
My poor Mac was struggling a little bit with this rotational pano! It's a composite (PS CS4 Photomerge) from 18 vertical exposures with the ZD back and 210 lens. Cropped and trimmed it's 52000x5300! That's a big file. A 1.6GB 16-bit TIFF. To make the pano PS CS4 had to have all 18 files open, plus a target document with 18 layers. It was working pretty hard. :)

Unfortunately, I don't like the way the joints show in the sky; it seems to be because the top part of each frame (left side in the verticals used here) is just a tad darker than the right, like 1-1.5%. So sometime my Mac Pro will have to revisit this... I'll probably just manually rebalance each shot before stitching to make sure they line up tonally. All files were converted using identical settings, and the camera was in M mode. Odd, no?



Here's a 500 px crop:
 
J

jmvdigital

Guest
Wow. Fantastic shot.

I know what you mean about the file sizes though. I did a similar pano (not quite as picturesque) with P30+ and my MBP was panting.
 

tashley

Subscriber Member
Great shot!

If it's not all vigging it might just be that the light changes pretty quickly at dawn and dusk annd eighteen shots later it had dropped a stop or so?

Tim
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Jan,

In CS4 automerge there is an "autoblend" switch, and I recommend you check that as it does work! Here is the first pano I assembled in CS4 using that feature, ironically almost the exact opposite skyline from yours!: 8 frames about 20 minutes after sunset with a *huge* gradient in the sky, taken in M mode and converted identically as you did, autoblend on. Each exposure was 15 seconds @ f10. The final is over 30,000 pixels wide -- having the scratch disk on a striped array paid off!:

 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
That's lovely Jack, great shot! I'll have to try Treasure Island sometime; been thinking for years I'll try to set up there for new year's sometime. Maybe this year. Have to be early though - very early since they close it off.

I think what I'll do is take 2 or 3 of the worst offenders and experiment with the various options. I'm surprised it would be vignetting though, usually teles like the 210 are pretty damn even at f/16. And vignetting ought to be symmetric...

The exposures are 2.5sec, and maybe 5 seconds apart, so I don't think the light changed that much between them. But it clearly changed a bit over the minute or so I spent taking them all.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Actually, I was on Alcatraz -- that's the Bay bridge to the far left ;)

I also doubt yours was vignetting at f16. But given the direction of the light, it might have been a flare caused by some scuz or a fingerprint on the front element?
 

Francois_A

New member
Impressive and beautiful panoramas Jan and Jack!
Just curious, are you using a pano head that allows rotation at the nodal point of the lens?
 

bensonga

Well-known member
Jan,
8 frames about 20 minutes after sunset with a *huge* gradient in the sky, taken in M mode and converted identically as you did, autoblend on. Each exposure was 15 seconds @ f10. The final is over 30,000 pixels wide -- having the scratch disk on a striped array paid off!:

Beautiful pano Jack! Really beautiful. What an incredible view and shot(s).

One of my first panos was successful from a technical point of view (CS3), but my view was not so awe inspiring.

Speaking of panos....for the first time, I suggested an exchange of panoramic prints (part of the monthly BW print exchange I do), thinking there might be a few people interested....the interest was MUCH greater than usual, including one fellow using a 1916 Cirkut camera. :bugeyes:

Gary Benson
Eagle River, Alaska
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
Impressive and beautiful panoramas Jan and Jack!
Just curious, are you using a pano head that allows rotation at the nodal point of the lens?
Thanks Francois! I used a Gitzo 1342 with a Kirk BH-1 ballhead. The tripod top has a little bubble level that I centered by adjusting the leg lengths. Then I put the camera on the head. By loosening the pan lock I could pan the camera back and forth to confirm the horizon didn't move up or down over the pan. Finally I positioned the horizon to suit at the center of the pano and leveled it using a spirit level on the flash shoe. Then a quick pan check right, then left, and start shooting. Since I was shooting 2.5sec exposures I didn't bother with MLU, the exposure is too long IMO for it to make any practical difference.

Shoot with cable release, look in viewfinder, unlock pan screw, pan the camera about two grid lines, lock pan screw, shoot, repeat. It's always windy up on Twin Peaks though, so during exposure I placed myself upwind (west) of the camera and made sure I wasn't shooting during a gust.
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
Oh, and it helps to place the tripod so one leg is straight forward facing the center of the pano. If the horizon rises at center the front leg is too high. If it drops, the front leg is too low. If it it's lower at the leftmost position the left rear leg is too low - and the opposite for the right side.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Impressive and beautiful panoramas Jan and Jack!
Just curious, are you using a pano head that allows rotation at the nodal point of the lens?
Thanks Francois!

My pano head is an Arca Cube tripod head with panning top, then an RRS sliding rail with clamp to set the camera at the nodal point. However, when most of the subject is at or near infinity as in my shot, finding the exact nodal point is not hyper critical and close is usually good enough.
 
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