Fun with MF images - ARCHIVED - FOR VIEWING ONLY

[Shashin]

... 144 separate photos stitched together...

I think there must be a meaning to the word "fun" that I am not aware of. Amazing image. Still, if I were going to have a 20-year career in photography, I think I would want to have more than five photos to show for it, no matter how large they are.

 

[gerald.d]

It may seem impressive, but these days it really isn't.

The shots were taken at around 5pm yesterday, and the full 4 gigapixel pano on the web in under 24 hours. I'm still very much in the practice mode shooting these with the Phase One. If I were to shoot something like this again, it could be online within probably 8 hours of the final photo being taken.

I know what I'm doing now. Just need to find some decent subject matter

 

[wentbackward]

In fact my question was not very clear :
Nik Software "Complete Collection - Lightroom Edition" is 299 €
but Complete Collection (Lightroom + Photoshop) is 499 €

It seems that once it's done with Lightroom, I don't see the advantage to use Niksoft with photoshop (may be for sharpening or noise removing ?)

Nik is for very fine editing of images, very fine control of sharpening at both capture and output stages as well as a bunch of tools and effects including film simulators, B&W conversions, many different HDR/Tone mapping tools, with very good local contrast adjustments.

Lightroom is a photo organising application which hooks up to Adobe's RAW processor. It tries to do editing but suffers from very poor sharpening, spot healing and noise control tools which do a tremendous amount of damage to images, as does it's clarity slider. Generally Adobe support new RAW formats quicker than anyone else.

Photoshop is a professional graphics package for manipulating raster images at a very low level. Performing CMYK separations, proofing and far too many things to go into detail

 

[etrump]

With emphasis very much on the "fun" in the thread title, a proof of concept...

Phase One AF, Mamiya 300mm f/2.8, IQ180. Shot at f/2.8 (107mm physical aperture). 144 separate photos stitched together with a bit of a crop afterwards. Result is a 4.4 gigapixel file, with a horizontal FoV roughly equivalent to a 22mm lens on full frame MF.

To get the same depth of field though, that lens would have to be an f/0.2.

Of course, given that this is not much more than 1% of the full size, I think a lot of the impact is missed. Here's a link to a full resolution version (requires Flash), but really I think it would need to be printed fairly large to get the full impression - it would print 28 feet wide at 300ppi:

Virtual Tour generated by Panotour

What software did you use to stitch this image?

 

[gerald.d]

Hi Ed - I use Kolor's Autopano Giga.

Kolor | Image stitching and virtual tour solutions

 

[etrump]

Hi Ed - I use Kolor's Autopano Giga.

Kolor | Image stitching and virtual tour solutions

I took second place in their panobook contest, maybe they'll send me a copy.

 

[Don Libby]

Just completed loading CS6 upgrade and after a couple false starts, Nik Software (HDR Efex, Silver Efex Pro and Viveza 2). Wanted to kick the tires and ended up with this image from the last trip to Jackson Hole.

Lower Schwabacher Landing. Taken with a Phase One DF and P65+ back; Phase One 80mm lens. f/11 1/250 with ISO 50. The file was first opened in C1 Pro before sending it to CS6 where I dabbled in Nik Silver Efex ( EV-1, red filter and Iiford pan F Plus 50 film) The image was worked a little more before finishing.

All in all I don't think it's a bad start for CS6

 

[BANKER1]

Don,

Your stuff just blows me away. Amazing!

Greg

 

[darr]

Hey Don,
I just made the upgrade to CS6 also, but I have not had time to play. I hope I can have as much success as you! Beautiful work!!

Darr

 

[Don Libby]

Thank you all for the very kind words...

Don

Darr, only spent a couple hours on CS6 (most was spent trying to remember how to add Nik) however what little time I spent processing was interesting. There's some good stuff under the hood!

 

[jerome]

Decide where you spend the majority of your image manipulation and buy the version for that application. If you use LR for almost everything with just an occasional trip to PS then it would make sense just to get the LR edition. If you use LR just for raw conversion and image management but spend the majority of your time in PS then obviously that's the version to get.

I'm like Vincent and use several applications with PS being the common platform so under those situations it makes sense to get either a PS version of the suite or in my case the bundle since I also sometimes use Aperture too.

I use Ligthroom 4 for raw conversion now (it's really good now) and to catalog my photos. When I'm happy with the result, I do the detail with Photoshop. As I have discovered Niksoft, now I use Nik when I do the raw conversion in Lightroom.

So, it seems I need a Niksoft version for both Lightroom & Photoshop (double the price )

Thanks everybody for the help !

 

[jerome]

Nik is for very fine editing of images, very fine control of sharpening at both capture and output stages as well as a bunch of tools and effects including film simulators, B&W conversions, many different HDR/Tone mapping tools, with very good local contrast adjustments.

Lightroom is a photo organising application which hooks up to Adobe's RAW processor. It tries to do editing but suffers from very poor sharpening, spot healing and noise control tools which do a tremendous amount of damage to images, as does it's clarity slider. Generally Adobe support new RAW formats quicker than anyone else.

Photoshop is a professional graphics package for manipulating raster images at a very low level. Performing CMYK separations, proofing and far too many things to go into detail

Thanks.

So now, I'll do Lightroom - Niksoft (b&w conversion or color effect) - Photoshop - Nik (sharpening & noise)

 

[Don Libby]

Portrait Work

This as close as I ever like to doing actual portrait work. Phase One DF, Mamiya 300mm, f/8, 1/500 ISO100. This was taken November last year in Jackson Hole during a blowing snow storm. Processed using the new CS6 (still getting used to it) as well as Nik Silver Efex Pro.

 

[tsjanik]

Thank you all for the very kind words...

Don

Darr, only spent a couple hours on CS6 (most was spent trying to remember how to add Nik) however what little time I spent processing was interesting. There's some good stuff under the hood!

Don:

I had been using CS4 and then downloaded the beta version of CS6 a few months ago; I think CS6 is well worth the upgrade, if for no other reason than ACR. Adobe now has an update to ACR that removes purple fringing and it appears to work very well.

Tom

 

[wentbackward]

Thanks.

So now, I'll do Lightroom - Niksoft (b&w conversion or color effect) - Photoshop - Nik (sharpening & noise)

Jerome, if you're considering Nik, this might help. For fine prints, I end up doing this:
Lightroom or Capture One (no sharpening or clarity) -> Nik RAW Sharpener -> Nik (Silver Efex or Colour Efex or Viveza) -> Photoshop (touch ups such as dust spots etc, maybe a final levels).

Now I have a final image and I'll keep this file.

The remainder is disposable:

1. Sharpen a copy of the image and create a full size jpeg for web galleries, uploaded to zenfolio. Delete these files.

2. Perferct Resize (no sharpening) -> Nik Output Sharpener -> Photoshop for proofing, curves, test strips and final print.

For #2, I do keep them for a while (maybe a month) in case of re-work but 9/10 times I'll have to go back to the final image and start again anyway. The files are upwards of 1GB usually so they do not get archived.

Of course that's my own workflow for large format prints. The most important step is no sharpening or clarity in Lightroom before doing all the editing.

 

[Landscapelover]

San Luis Reservoir, CA
Hasselblad H4D-40 with HC 150mm + 1.7 Teleconverter

Have a great weekend!

_______________________________________________
Pramote
Flickr: Panuwud (OFF for a While)'s Photostream

 

[pophoto]

With emphasis very much on the "fun" in the thread title, a proof of concept...

Phase One AF, Mamiya 300mm f/2.8, IQ180. Shot at f/2.8 (107mm physical aperture). 144 separate photos stitched together with a bit of a crop afterwards. Result is a 4.4 gigapixel file, with a horizontal FoV roughly equivalent to a 22mm lens on full frame MF.

To get the same depth of field though, that lens would have to be an f/0.2.

Of course, given that this is not much more than 1% of the full size, I think a lot of the impact is missed. Here's a link to a full resolution version (requires Flash), but really I think it would need to be printed fairly large to get the full impression - it would print 28 feet wide at 300ppi:

Virtual Tour generated by Panotour

What's amazing is how close I can get to the leaves from the tree and still has so much image integrity!

 

[Landscapelover]

Just completed loading CS6 upgrade and after a couple false starts, Nik Software (HDR Efex, Silver Efex Pro and Viveza 2). Wanted to kick the tires and ended up with this image from the last trip to Jackson Hole.

Lower Schwabacher Landing. Taken with a Phase One DF and P65+ back; Phase One 80mm lens. f/11 1/250 with ISO 50. The file was first opened in C1 Pro before sending it to CS6 where I dabbled in Nik Silver Efex ( EV-1, red filter and Iiford pan F Plus 50 film) The image was worked a little more before finishing.

All in all I don't think it's a bad start for CS6

This picture is truly amazing Don. Love it!!
Thank you for sharing your work.
Pramote

 

[jerome]

Tioga Pass

On the learning curve with Coloreffect !

H4D50 HC 28

 

[jerome]

Jerome, if you're considering Nik, this might help. For fine prints, I end up doing this:
Lightroom or Capture One (no sharpening or clarity) -> Nik RAW Sharpener -> Nik (Silver Efex or Colour Efex or Viveza) -> Photoshop (touch ups such as dust spots etc, maybe a final levels).

Now I have a final image and I'll keep this file.

The remainder is disposable:

1. Sharpen a copy of the image and create a full size jpeg for web galleries, uploaded to zenfolio. Delete these files.

2. Perferct Resize (no sharpening) -> Nik Output Sharpener -> Photoshop for proofing, curves, test strips and final print.

For #2, I do keep them for a while (maybe a month) in case of re-work but 9/10 times I'll have to go back to the final image and start again anyway. The files are upwards of 1GB usually so they do not get archived.

Of course that's my own workflow for large format prints. The most important step is no sharpening or clarity in Lightroom before doing all the editing.

Thanks for those precious informations !

NB : I ordered Nik software, but it went wrong : paid but no software delivered ! I hope tomorrow, they'll fix this ... and today : they are nice and efficient people : its all ok now !