Photoclubalpha

Some from Spain this time.


Dark vs light by markvanrheenen, on Flickr


Frigiliana panorama by markvanrheenen, on Flickr

Shot with the RX100.

Nice stitching from that RX100 Mark in Madeira. Those blues are very vivid. Post processed? Just curious.
Aah. Spain. Evokes such memories. I wish I had more skills than I did at the time of my visit.

Sury

Actually, the blues are a mixture of using a CPL and darkening that color in LR. Only +5 saturation.

Mark- you do travel to some panorama ready places, all are well composed. I haven't done a manual or even semi-manual stitch in a while. I shot several panoramas at Big Bend National Park, but I used the in-camera sweep function every time. On closer inspection when we got home, I wish that I had taken the time to take individual shots and stitch them together. I had to toss several due to virtually un-correctable stitching errors, or motion blur caused by me sweeping just a bit too fast..


John

Here is one of the tiny little town of Boquillias, Mexico, just on the other side of the Rio Grande River. I took it with the a77 and 70-200 G SSm, but if you look at it full sized, you can see that I was sweeping just a tad too fast. Other than that, the camera did a nice job of stitching the shots together..

Boquillias Pano resize by JohnLeBlancII, on Flickr

I wish that we had the proper documents to cross over into the little town, as it looked very colorful and neat..

John

I couldn't resist trying a Sweep Panorama with my IR converted NEX-5N. I love having a IR converted camera, but the lack of a viewfinder is a real pain in the harsh Texas sun....
Big Bend Pano No 1 by JohnLeBlancII, on Flickr

Juanito200 wrote:Mark- you do travel to some panorama ready places, all are well composed. I haven't done a manual or even semi-manual stitch in a while. I shot several panoramas at Big Bend National Park, but I used the in-camera sweep function every time. On closer inspection when we got home, I wish that I had taken the time to take individual shots and stitch them together. I had to toss several due to virtually un-correctable stitching errors, or motion blur caused by me sweeping just a bit too fast..


John

Hi John,

Because I live in a densely populated, flat country I do need to travel if I want to so any kind of interesting landscaping or panoramas. I find landscapes to be difficult subjects for me to shoot, so I appreciate the positive feedback on the compositions. That's by far the hardest thing for me. I know what I want to show, but have a hard time actually translating it in a composition.

I know what a headache the sweep pano function can be. I've used it on my RX100 a few times and had the same issues as you. Some parts were blurry because of my sweeping technique and it's hard to get a good composition using it. On the RX100, the first few shots don't show up in the final image. It's as if the software uses it to determine sweeping speed. The problem with it is that I never exactly know what will be in the image and what won't, even with the camera giving a framing for it. That's why I stopped using it and started stitching, which is a difficult technique as well.

I really like your panorama. It looks like a great place to visit with all the colored houses. It reminds me of my holidays in southern parts of Europe.

Thanks.

Mark

John,
Those are very nice. Especially the IR version. I have been mulling over converting my A100 (sitting on shelf) to IR
but sitting on fence not wanting to spend about $300 for a niche hobby (for me). Combine that with the ever present
LL (lens lust) and the new bodies and body styles available (a7/r/s a6000, a77ii etc) I am inflicted with analysis paralysis.

Oh, by the way, I had very good hit ratio with Panos on my Nex5. I never had blur. The camera stopped taking further images if I swept too fast.


On the other hand, I have had about 95%+ success with stitching and I use MS ICE. Very rarely I had seen issues with that SW. Not a single bug so far. May that's why it is not released. It may have failed QA test by not failing and thus disqualified as
MS product. The only flip side I find is that you need spare cards. My stitches ranged from 3 to 72 images and MS ICE handled all of them with aplomb.

This one is a 62 image stitch of Santa Cruz, California board walk from a pier almost a mile away.

Sury,

Maybe you didn't pick the right example of in-camera stitching on the Nex5. You see a stitching error on the far right, where the shots don't allign

John, didn't comment on the IR pano, but like it more than the first! I like the composition between the mountains and road. Nice!

Dang it. You are right Mark. That is not a blur issue though.

Sury

Fabulous panos guys and I'm intrigued / excited by John's converted Nex 5. I have a sort of plan to do that with mine. I have a LCD shade attached to my 5 to help with composing in the sunlight. It is a shame that the EVFs have never come down in price for the old 5. I have struggled with the auto panos, and I'm sure a bit of practice would help. The thing that has stopped me is not being able to appreciate them once taken. Looking at them 1440 pixels across is a big let down. I wish I could find better software to 'play' the panos on my TV / monitor / iPad.

Andy, there is a MS software that allows you to pan very smoothly. In order to use that
you need to save the "tiles" in MS ICE and use Silverlight and something else that escapes
my mind now. You think you are panning a video camera. And then there is JATC which allows
your Panos to be panned left and right, up and down.

Sury

Thanks Mark, Andy and Sury.

Mark- Thanks on the IR Pano kudos. It is one of my favorites from the trip. I know the feeling about living in a flat, densely populated area. Here in the 'burbs of America, I could maybe get a Pano of the identically pitched roofs in the area, but, that wouldn't be too neat..
Each pano that I considered a keeper, was usually at least the fourth or fifth attempt in regards to composition or sweep speed. I had to toss several due to stitching errors, including one that took quite a bit of off trail hiking, after a brutal day of hiking to get, only to be ruined by errors..
Andy- I was able to get the NEX-5N cheap enough that even including the price of conversion I still came out cheaper than the price of new at the time. If I had it to do over, I would have just converted my a700.... I would have more lens choice, and a viewfinder would be great.

P.S. A few years ago I posted a Pano on the old "Weather Today, Your Vicinity" thread. It was a 360° Pano from my roof, and I had at least three police cars drive by my house while I was on the roof taking the multiple shots it took for me to find the best for stitching. I decided that was the last rooftop Pano I needed to do!

Sury I really like that first one with the path and road leading the viewer into the shot. Well done.


John

Here is a somewhat greener shot from our last day in Big Bend, as we hiked to the 'Window' in the Chisos range..

The Window Pano resize by JohnLeBlancII, on Flickr

Thank you John. I like this one too and look forward some more IR ones.
By the way, is there a bit of haze in the pano or is it my monitor. I couldn't
tell.

Sury