San Diego Skyline

As seen from Harbor Island. Star of India is on left side and Hyatt on far right. This is only 2 panels of a 4 panel Pano. The 4 Panel includes the Coronado Bridge on the right.

Shot w/Canon 1Ds

Hi Bill,

I love this wide view of the San Diego sky line. There is just enough light on the water to get a sense of the bay. Overall it's impressive. How did you make it?

I'd consider a slight brightening perhaps to show of the lights and add a sliver more of significance to the water.

Thanks for sharing!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Hi Bill,

I love this wide view of the San Diego sky line. There is just enough light on the water to get a sense of the bay. Overall it's impressive. How did you make it?

I'd consider a slight brightening perhaps to show of the lights and add a sliver more of significance to the water.

Thanks for sharing!

Asher

Click to expand...

Reducing this from 300 DPI to has lost some of the lightness. This was created from 2 shots. The full Pano is 4 panels and is 49"w x 7"h - It was shot at f22 ISO 100 130mm 1 Sec exposure.

Here is a different shot at f18 200mm 1.sec

Nice: what lens? Camera?

I really like the second shot so much
it seems a bit more uniform
beautiful color! what a city!
great job

Charlotte-

Hi, Bill,

Great shot.

Bill Miller said:

The full Pano is 4 panels and is 49"w x 7"h

Click to expand...

What does that mean? Was this shot on 12.25" x 7" film?

Bill Miller said:

Reducing this from 300 DPI to has lost some of the lightness. This was created from 2 shots. The full Pano is 4 panels and is 49"w x 7"h - It was shot at f22 ISO 100 130mm 1 Sec exposure.

Here is a different shot at f18 200mm 1.sec

Click to expand...

Hi Bill,

The second picture of the San Diego skyline is more impressive. We now have a presence, a feeling that this city is massive, alive and surrounds us. It's color and stature works to capture and hold out attention and gives pleasure to ponder. So first of all I'm impressed and love the image you have shared!

Now some technical questions on your choices in taking the picture. Since you were likely using an excellent lens and a tripod, perhaps with the mirror locked up, you have everything in order for getting the finest image as there will be no blur from movement or the shutter vibration. Under these conditions, a tiny aperture can degrade all your good work. If you were using a lesser camera, diffraction likely would be a lesser problem.

So why did you choose f22 where you are bound to be risking diffraction limits? It seems to me that you could improved your photograph with an aperture of f 11 or more open.

Asher

Asher,

If I remember correctly, no mirror lockup, and f22 was used to capture maximum detail. Exposure was caculated by spotmetering downtown and using an average. Really simple no consideration to diffraction or vibration.

No Film

Doug_Kerr said:

Hi, Bill,

Great shot.



What does that mean? Was this shot on 12.25" x 7" film?

Click to expand...

Digital 1Gb SanDisk CF card

Bill Miller said:

Asher,

If I remember correctly, no mirror lockup, and f22 was used to capture maximum detail. Exposure was caculated by spotmetering downtown and using an average. Really simple no consideration to diffraction or vibration.

Click to expand...

Hi Bill,

With a pixel pitch of 9 µm your 1Ds is a darn site better than the latest cameras. However, to get the best out of your lenses with this camera, to achieve the finest detail, no more than f11 or f 13 for a print 20" wide!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Hi Bill,

The second picture of the Omni San Diego skyline is more impressive. We now have a presence, a feeling that this city is massive, alive and surrounds us. It's color and stature works to capture and hold out attention and gives pleasure to ponder. So first of all I'm impressed and love the image you have shared!

Now some technical questions on your choices in taking the picture. Since you were likely using an excellent lens and a tripod, perhaps with the mirror locked up, you have everything in order for getting the finest image as there will be no blur from movement or the shutter vibration. Under these conditions, a tiny aperture can degrade all your good work. If you were using a lesser camera, diffraction likely would be a lesser problem.

So why did you choose f22 where you are bound to be risking diffraction limits? It seems to me that you could improved your photograph with an aperture of f 11 or more open.

Asher

Click to expand...

A bit off topic but having to do with San Diego Skylines...
Can anyone recommend a good, moderately priced, camera that would be good for skyline photography?
Many thanks,
Deborah

Debbie,

Hi and welcome to OPF as I see this is your first post. for skyline photography one would either use stitching of adjacent overlapping views or else a camera with a wide angle lens. An example of this would be the GX200 a Ricoh camera which has a lens that goes down to 24 mm and with an adapter all the way to 21 mm. However, a Canon G10 would do the same down to 28 mm and an add on lens take it somewhat wider.

Actually it's not at all necessary to have such a wide lens. Almost all modern digcams have an option for panoramas. This mode gives overlapping frame guides with the old picture and where you should frame the new shot to continue to panoramic scene.

There's software such as

Photoshop (go to file, automate and then) it's on the submenu right there an option to stitch a set of overlapping frames.

Autopano pro, a software program from France in English that works very well and is simple to use but has powerful options.

For these shots, you can just as well, (or even to advantage), a 50 mm lens and just have more pictures to stitch. Use the picture with the camera in "Portrait" position and stitch those frames to give a more detail-rich image.

Of course, you can also rent a Fuji or other panoramic film camera 6x17 cm or a Hassleblad 35 mm pano film camera and do this all with one shot!

In any way you do it, have fun!

Asher

Please say Hi in the "Introduce yourself" forum and tell us where you are from what you do and share some images!