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Sentinel Dome Pano, HDR -- big image alert

greypilgrim

New member
Been playing with HDR and had a handheld pano I took from the top of Sentinel Dome during my October Yosemite trip.

Enjoy,

Doug

 

JBurnett

Well-known member
There's something about the HDR that is reminiscent of some lithographed postcards that I have from the 1920's. The postcard scenes were hand-coloured B&W photos. Anyway, this pano is very nice indeed.
 

greypilgrim

New member
Wow, thank you all for the nice comments. I really wished I had schlepped my pano gear up to the top of the Dome instead of doing this handheld, but I was so enjoying the freedom of such a light kit (G1, 2 lenses, filters, extra battery) that I talked myself out of carrying the extra 6 lbs (tripod, ballhead, Nodal Ninja).

This was my firs time to the top of Sentinel Dome, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I'll definitely have to go back :).

I just got my copy of PhotoShop CS4 which has allowed me to actually stitch my G1 panos now. That combined with Photomatix has made for some recent processing fun. However, my poor, 4 year old iMac has been whimpering a lot :bugeyes:.

Doug
 

RichA

New member
Nice work!

I can't stand the sight of those garishly over-saturated and just plain weird looking HDR attempts. Your shot is terrific!
 

Cindy Flood

Super Moderator
Doug, This is a fantastic photo. Will you please give us details about how many shots you took to make this pano?
 

tom in mpls

Active member
The people in the foreground give it something extra. It's the first time I've seen a pano with humans; usually the scene is limited to things that aren't going to move. I'd also like to know more about the technique. I assume you used a tripod, but did you use a pano head?
 

Lisa

New member
Fantastic job, Doug!

The people in the foreground give it something extra. It's the first time I've seen a pano with humans; usually the scene is limited to things that aren't going to move. I'd also like to know more about the technique. I assume you used a tripod, but did you use a pano head?
I've had people in some of my panos. It's no problem as long as they are fully within one frame.

(And the OP mentioned that it was done handheld, with his lightweight set of gear, no tripod. I've done that walk up Sentinel Dome, and it's some effort. Modern pano software is so much better than it was a few years ago!)

Lisa
 

tom in mpls

Active member
(And the OP mentioned that it was done handheld, with his lightweight set of gear, no tripod. I've done that walk up Sentinel Dome, and it's some effort. Modern pano software is so much better than it was a few years ago!)

Lisa
I'm not paying close attention, as usual! :grin:

I am also impressed with the stitching software. I think the tripod mounted pano rigs may be unneccesary if there is nothing in the close foreground and you're shooting at a high enough shutter speed.

This is definitely a cool pano.
 

greypilgrim

New member
Re: Nice work!

I can't stand the sight of those garishly over-saturated and just plain weird looking HDR attempts. Your shot is terrific!
Thanks. This is about as outlandish as I have gone with HDR. Most of what I am trying to get is blending multiple exposures. I usually don't go for "non-realistic" effects. However, this one and two others I have recently done go slightly beyond the "realistic" (whatever that is :rolleyes:)... Having now realized that using filters, and blending exposures, etc etc all different approaches.

I have found an intersting combo in one of my shots... A Singh Ray blue gold filter used on an image and then combined with an HDR. I'll have to dig it up and post it to see what people think.

Doug
 

greypilgrim

New member
Doug, This is a fantastic photo. Will you please give us details about how many shots you took to make this pano?
Cindy,
Thanks for the compliment.

This was a total of 9 shots vertically with lots of overlap (about a third) on each image. Even when using my pano rig, I go for about a third overlap.

Here is what I did:

1) Handheld pano shot vertically. I find vertically gives me more to play with later. I tend to leave a little slop room on the top and bottom anticipating the pano software not giving me the crop I will want.

2) For each original, I created two virtual copies in lightroom. Then I did a +1 EV exposure on one and a -1 EV exposure on another.

3) I sent the three files to Photomatix.

a) I pull the white point down to zero. Photomatix almost always clips the whites.
b)I play with the Smoothnes slider until I like the emphasis on the lighting.
c) Then I bring up the microcontrast until I like the definition. Sometimes I also play with the strength.
d) Sometimes I bring the highlight saturation up a point or two. Sometiems the same for shadow saturation. NOTE that I generally prefer to bring the images out of photomatix fairly flat back into lightroom as it usuall does better for final adjustments.
e) I SAVE the settings for the first image once I like them.
f) I save the image back into Lightroom. Photomatix can do this for you, and it's really handy.

4) In lightroom, I change the contrast curve to medium or high almost always.
5) lather rinse repeat ON EACH pano piece, using the saved settings in Photomatic pro and the same steps in lightroom.
6) Note that I color coded the original pano images yellow, the virtual copies with exposure changes blue, and the reimported versions from Photomatix purple.
7) I then select all the purple images and Edit them in Photoshop CS4 pano merge from lightroom. Then I sit back and watch my 4 year old iMac whimper.... :p
8) Save from there which also automatically goes back into lightroom. Final edits.

in the case of this image, I had much more to the left of the final image, but I found it too distracting. Interesting because Yosemite falls is sitting off to the left. But I found that cropping to the two domes on the left (North Dome and I forget the other) really helped emphasize half dome on the right as well as bring out the people and the trees.

I wish I knew how to automate things better in lightroom, but either way, having the plugin and Photoshop work directly with lightroom really helps.

If this doesn't make sense, fell free to say so :). I'll try again.

Doug
 

greypilgrim

New member
I am also impressed with the stitching software. I think the tripod mounted pano rigs may be unneccesary if there is nothing in the close foreground and you're shooting at a high enough shutter speed.

This is definitely a cool pano.
Thanks.

As you said, foreground objects really need a pano head like you said. That's why this was all pretty much infinity focus.

The other thing that a pano head helps with is getting a properly aligned pano which means losing less to cropping and you can frame tighter. Also, multi row panos are cool when using a rig.

Doug
 
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