Night time Panorama of Rotterdam Skyline from the Euromast

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi All,

This is my first attempt at a couple of new (to me) aspects of photography. Firstly, I've never attempted to construct a panorama by stitching photo's before. Well, actually I did, but just as a small experiment using 2-3 takes at the most. Secondly, I have never done nighttime skyline photography before with a DSLR. My objective was to try and learn some skills in the end.

Here is the background info:
Place: Euromast (116 meters above ground), Rotterdam, Netherlands
Time: 21st of February, at around 8:30 PM
Weather conditions: Clear, with a strong wind blowing
Camera: Canon 400D (XTi)
Lens: EF-S 10-22 F3.5-4.5 USM
ISO 100, F/6.7, Focus at 22 mm, Exposure 15-30 seconds, RAW
Tripod: Manfrotto 055 MF4 with 468 MGRC2 ball head
6 frames taken left to right
Conversion into individual TIFF files by Adobe Lightroom
Stitching by Panorama Factory 4.4 and saving to a TIFF/48bit image
Converting into jpg and resizing in LR again

Since the wind was rather strong, I was glad that I had a reliable tripod with me. Even then, I had to push it firmly towards the ground during the shots. Also, the tower itself shakes as well, which makes it very difficult getting sharp picture at longer exposures. I have taken some shots using my EF 24-105 L IS F4 lens (@ F8.0 and 24 mm) as well, but they turned out to be much less sharper in comparison. Any ideas as to why? Is it the weight of the lens, or the size which makes it catch more wind?

All in all, I am satisfied with the results. The end panorama is some 12271 x 2246 pixels in size. I am posting it in a 1400 pixel wide version, and I'll also throw in a left and right part in 1400 pixels each since the 1400 version does not really do justice to the whole picture.

Please feel free to C&C, how can I improve from here? TIA.

http://www.envisagement.com/opf/shadow_copy/img_20262_0_131444086-O.jpg

http://www.envisagement.com/opf/shadow_copy/img_20262_1_131444074-O.jpg

http://www.envisagement.com/opf/shadow_copy/img_20262_2_131444082-O.jpg

Also, a 2800 pixel wide version can be seen here:

http://56.smugmug.com/photos/131444061-O.jpg

Cheers,

[Ferenc Harmat]

Looks BEAUTIFUL to me.

Pretty long exposure, though... At this size looks very balanced and natural. Could you post a small crop of any area with some detail on it?

Very nice, indeed.

[Cem_Usakligil]

...Could you post a small crop of any area with some detail on it?
Hi Ferenc,

Thanks for the very kind compliments :-). Here is a crop from the central area. Mind you, I had to do some successive resizes in order to open the image in LR, which has a nasty bug. It refuses to open images wider than 10000 pixels. So some minor IQ loss has been introduced:

http://www.envisagement.com/opf/shadow_copy/img_20265_0_131451941-O.jpg

Cheers,

[Ray West]

Hi Cem,

Excellent, love the swan, and the telephone? tower looks upright from that view, too.

Best wishes,

Ray

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Cem,

Wonderful job! This makes Rotterdam get added to my must see list! Did you move the lens though its nodal point or just swing the camera?

One important advantage of the x 1.6 multiplier is the major decrease in vignetting by not using so much of the outside of the lens. Change in iilumination in overlapping segments is then minimal. With a larger 35mm size 5D one might have problems with the same shot.

Asher

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi Cem,

Excellent, love the swan, and the telephone? tower looks upright from that view, too.

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Ray,

I am impressed by your knowledge of Rotterdam. For the rest of us, I will mention the fact that the modern bridge which is lighted purple/violet is also known as the "Swan". Re. the "telephone" I have to admit you've lost me there :-).

Cheers,

Edit: I now get what you've meant by "telephone" (was still trying to wake up properly when I've replied this morning). It is the KPN (previsouly Dutch PTT) building to the right of the swan which leans towards water/left normally :-). I'll see if I can post some details of that building and of the swan another time.

[Cem_Usakligil]

....Did you move the lens though its nodal point or just swing the camera? ...

Hi Asher,

I've just rotated (swinged) the camera on the tripod. Did not do any fancy tricks with finding the nodal point and rotating through it. Haven't got the experience and equipment I'm afraid ;-).

Cheers,

[Cem_Usakligil]

....Here is a crop from the central area. Mind you, I had to do some successive resizes in order to open the image in LR, which has a nasty bug. It refuses to open images wider than 10000 pixels. So some minor IQ loss has been introduced...
I have now replaced this crop with a better one without the loss in IQ.
You may have to refresh the page or reload the particular image before you see any changes.

Cheers,

[Michael Fontana]

that looks better now!

Nice veduta (view), these panos offer a nice approach, how cities are build.
Did you had to touch up the sky, moving clouds, during long exposures?

I'm alwith astonished, when I see how well digicams perform under these conditions. It would have been a hell of a work to do this with film.

[Cem_Usakligil]

that looks better now!

Nice veduta (view), these panos offer a nice approach, how cities are build.
Did you had to touch up the sky, moving clouds, during long exposures?

I'm alwith astonished, when I see how well digicams perform under these conditions. It would have been a hell of a work to do this with film.
Hi Michael,

I didn't do any pre processing or post processing, just a straightforward RAW->TIF conversion in LR. I had the CF activated in the camera which does clean out the noise in exposures longer than 2 seconds.

I am now planning on a second attempt with some IQ improving actions in LR before converting into TIFs as an input to the Panorama Factory. I'll crop a bit of the sky in the final version as well.

Cheers,

[Dave New]

I have taken some shots using my EF 24-105 L IS F4 lens (@ F8.0 and 24 mm) as well, but they turned out to be much less sharper in comparison. Any ideas as to why? Is it the weight of the lens, or the size which makes it catch more wind?


Just a guess, but did you leave the IS on, when using the 24-105 on the tripod? Older Canon IS lenses didn't deal well with having the IS on when on a tripod. It causes the image to 'wander' as the IS mechanism hunts, looking to correct vibration that isn't there. This can cause smearing of the image.

I don't know if the 24-105L IS is one of those lenses, but if you look in the manual that came with the lens, you should see a recommendation as to whether you should leave the IS on or not when it is mounted on a tripod.

[Cem_Usakligil]

Just a guess, but did you leave the IS on, when using the 24-105 on the tripod? Older Canon IS lenses didn't deal well with having the IS on when on a tripod. It causes the image to 'wander' as the IS mechanism hunts, looking to correct vibration that isn't there. This can cause smearing of the image.

I don't know if the 24-105L IS is one of those lenses, but if you look in the manual that came with the lens, you should see a recommendation as to whether you should leave the IS on or not when it is mounted on a tripod.

Hi Dave,

I had indeed left the IS option switched on. Despite the fact that as we were setting things up I had reminded my friends who were co-shooting to switch off their IS/VR options on their lenses. After that, I've forgotten to do the same myself, bummer!

Nevertheless, I have reprocessed the image from scratch. Mainly due to the fact that the Panorama Factory has created some serious IQ degredation at around the stitches of the photos, such as ghosting. Also, the overall exposure and sharpness were effected in a negative way. I have then done the stitching using the PhotoMerge action of PS CS3 (Beta). To my surprise, it has delivered much better results. I have adjusted curves locally (exposure, colour balance, contrast, USM). I have then made selective adjustments such as the wings a bit redder and the center a bit lighter, etc. Finally, I have added a poster style frame. Here is how it looks like now:

http://56.smugmug.com/photos/131623752-O.jpg

Cheers,

[Ferenc Harmat]

http://56.smugmug.com/photos/131623752-O.jpg

Cheers,

You blew me, here, out of my chair.

This version is 200% better than the other one, as you have processed the blacks/contrast better, and the color of light is denser, beautiful.

Excellent work!

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I now get what you've meant by "telephone" (was still trying to wake up properly when I've replied this morning). It is the KPN (previsouly Dutch PTT) building to the right of the swan which leans towards water/left normally :-). I'll see if I can post some details of that building and of the swan another time.

Hi Cem,

Great panorama. I was also a bit puzzled by Ray's "telephone" looking upright, comment. However, he is well informed as he was apparently referring to this building (just a snapshot taken at the wrong time of day):
http://www.xs4all.nl/~bvdwolf/temp/OPF/KPN.jpg

That image was taken from the Erasmus bridge AKA the Swan.

Bart