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Quick & dirty pano of Horseshoe Bend, Arizona

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi folks,

It's been a while since I've posted any pictures, I am way too busy taking them right now ;-). Here is a quick and dirty pano of the Horseshoe Bend in Arizona, near Page. Since I am travelling, I have only a laptop screen and a very limited toolset available for editing.

This is a stitch of 13 frames, taken handheld. Canon 40D, EF 17-40mm f4 lens. It was taken at noon time with sun high up in overcast weather, so the skies are very dull and washed out. So I pushed them up a little just to see how it looks like. Maybe later back at home, I can replace the skies in PS ;-). BTW, I am aware of the imperfect masking/transition of the sky and the horizon. Again, this is just a quick and dirty first try.

hsb-p2-01.jpg


Cheers,
 

Gary Ayala

New member
This is a very nice start Cem. Are you in Arizona now? It looks very very hot, much different than Holland.

Again nice image ... a few more minutes in PS and it will be a flawless and wonderful.

Gary
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
This is a very nice start Cem. Are you in Arizona now? It looks very very hot, much different than Holland.

Again nice image ... a few more minutes in PS and it will be a flawless and wonderful.

Gary
Hi Gary,

Yes, we have been in Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California. It was not extremely hot, albeit hotter than in NL. As a matter of fact we have had daily rainstorms. It seems that it is the monsoon season over here ;-)

Thanks for your comments.
 

Clayton Lofgren

New member
Alain Briot has a similar shot on Luminous Landscape today. I find it interesting to compare them, considering the diferent equipment involved. I still haven´t tried any panos, but guess it´s time I did. Impresive stuff.
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Very nice Cem...

I have never done panos..isn't a tripod necessary ( obviously not as u demonstrate )? what about
s/w or you just use ps to stitch them together.?

Anyway Alain uses different equipment and I am impressed with your result handheld!

Regards.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Cem,

This is very impressive for a handheld shot and a wonderfully novel angle. I'd consider looking into other projections, spherical, cylindrical if you have not tried that. Is this stitched in Photoshop or Autopano Pro?

I'd consider cropping 0.5 inches (~12mm) off the bottom of the panorama. What's an especially pleasant treat about your picture is that the composition is clean and you have a clear view of the central island of sheer rock face. Yes it's in the center of the image, but this really works well.

You have managed to edged away from many of the other pictures I have seen by the clarity of the composition defining the central subject. This is like a picture of one pear or one apple. It has an undisputed unity of intent, purpose and meaning.

Now you have to repeat the stitching when you get home and make it technically perfect, but that is just work. As far as I'm concerned, even if you give this to Bart, a retouch artist or anyone else to do the final stitch, your ideas are so powerful that it's still just your work and only yours.

Technique can be easily learned by anyone, ways of seeing cannot! The latter, I'm now convinced is a far tougher hurdle for many photographers to overcome.

Asher


Asher
 
Very enjoyable to just stare at and take in the enormity of the area. This is such a pretty area, one that I need to get back to with a camera. Now I know that I need to buy that Nikon D300 before I go. Did you see Alain while up there?

Marshall
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
One more thing: perspective.

To get the full effect of the grandeur of this scene one needs to look at this image from about 2 feet more.

Asher
 
I'd consider cropping 0.5 inches (~12mm) off the bottom of the panorama.

I happen to like the bottom part, I wouldn't remove more than a very little amount. Not because it is that interesting to look at, but because it enhances the sensation of being on a ledge, at the edge before falling down. It adds to the 3-dimensionality of the scene, IMHO of course.

Too bad people have to spoil nature by driving their speedboat through that area, although it does give a sense of dimensions to the pano (maybe clone out the three at the back, or are these ghosts of the same, and leave the one in the front).

Bart
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
I happen to like the bottom part, I wouldn't remove more than a very little amount. Not because it is that interesting to look at, but because it enhances the sensation of being on a ledge, at the edge before falling down. It adds to the 3-dimensionality of the scene, IMHO of course.

Too bad people have to spoil nature by driving their speedboat through that area, although it does give a sense of dimensions to the pano (maybe clone out the three at the back, or are these ghosts of the same, and leave the one in the front).

Bart
Hi Bart,

I was just two feet from the edge and beyond that was certain death (LOL). That is also why I like to keep the foreground.

Boats are not ghosts, I took all 13 frames within 20 seconds or so. Back home, I'll see if I should clone out some as you suggested.

How is the wheather like there?

Cheers,
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Very enjoyable to just stare at and take in the enormity of the area. This is such a pretty area, one that I need to get back to with a camera. Now I know that I need to buy that Nikon D300 before I go. Did you see Alain while up there?

Marshall
Hi Marshall,

The area of Page is quite interesting, there is so much to see there. Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell, Powell Dam, etc, etc. The city itself has not much to offer though, it has just been established in 1958 to support the construction of the dam. I did not see Alain up there, he must have been avoiding the tourist crowds and the bad light conditions (LOL).

Cheers,
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Very nice Cem...

I have never done panos..isn't a tripod necessary ( obviously not as u demonstrate )? what about
s/w or you just use ps to stitch them together.?

Anyway Alain uses different equipment and I am impressed with your result handheld!

Regards.
Hi Fahim,

A tripod is not always necessary if the subject is far away enough (like usually in landscapes) and there are no parallax errors to be expected. Otherwise, next to the tripod, one also needs a pano head to rotate the lens at the focal entry point.

In this case, I took 13 handheld pictures, all overlapping for about 50% just to be sure. 7 in the top row and 6 in the lower row.

The most important thing to remember is to set the exposure manually and to remove the circ. pol. filter if it sits on your lens. Otherwise, the skies will be uneven and will not blend nicely.

I use many different tools for panos, one of them being AutoPano. But I also use PS CS3 like in this case, which delivers very decent results.

Cheers,
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Alain Briot has a similar shot on Luminous Landscape today. I find it interesting to compare them, considering the diferent equipment involved. I still haven´t tried any panos, but guess it´s time I did. Impresive stuff.
Hi Clayton,

I think that this might become a very interesting discussion. Not that I want to be compared to Alain in particular, far from that! But the point is, do we always need the most expensive equipment in order to make a good picture? I think not.

Thanks for the comments.
 

Robert Campbell

New member
Hi Clayton,

do we always need the most expensive equipment in order to make a good picture? I think not.

Quite, partly because of the resolution of panos compared to a single wide-angle shot.

As well as manual exposure and focus, to achieve consistency, manual white balance is helpful.

Bertie
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
As the distance get greater, the parallax issues become unimportant and modern stitching software can make the image seem flawless. However, with trees and other moving objects such as clouds or windswept grasses or water, the minimal number of frames is desired so there is only limited need for hand finishing some of the details that don't match.

In those circumstances, a good piece of 4x10 film is still the better option!

Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
In those circumstances, a good piece of 4x10 film is still the better option!

Asher

LoL!
Not easy set-up when you're on holidays whith your family. And BTW we at OPF would have to wait weeks before Cem gets back home, have time to developp, scan, PP etc… and finally post his image

We live in modern world!
Yes Grandma cooked beautifull soups for me, but she's not there anymore, nor the garden for the vegies…
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
LoL!
Not easy set-up when you're on holidays whith your family. And BTW we at OPF would have to wait weeks before Cem gets back home, have time to developp, scan, PP etc… and finally post his image

We live in modern world!
Yes Grandma cooked beautifull soups for me, but she's not there anymore, nor the garden for the vegies…
Nicolas mon ami,

You always know to say the right things! And you are exactly right in this case ;-)
BTW, we went to the farmers market in San Francisco today. They still had organic garden veggies and fruit there and all the samples we've tried tasted wonderfully good.

Cheers,
 
Last edited:

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
They still had organic garden veggies and fruit there and all the samples we've tried tasted wonderfully good.

Hi Cem
For sure! even here in France we can get these (even if they happen to be muuuuuuuuch more expensive), but who has time to cook a soup everyday?
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Quite, partly because of the resolution of panos compared to a single wide-angle shot.

As well as manual exposure and focus, to achieve consistency, manual white balance is helpful.

Bertie
Hi Bertie,

Quite so. Also, one should remove the polarizing filter if it is mounted on the lens.

Cheers,
 
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