New Tutorial – Trouble shooting digital panoramics

No matter how well you set up and align your gear to shoot your digital panoramic when your back putting it together there can always be serious problems with key parts of image not aligning correctly.

In this tutorial we look at two digital panoramics that had serious problems with sections not aligning correctly when run through Photomerge.

Instead of writing the panoramics off as duds we work through the problem and show you several different though processes / approaches of how you can tackle these problems and end up with a perfect panoramic just as you pictured when you shot it out in the field.

This tutorials can be found in the “Retouching Techniques” section of the site. It is free for members or available for viewing for $5.99 for non members. Click here to be taken to the tutorial.

Nobbys Beach, Newcastle, NSW

Well this morning I decided to venture out a bit and shoot some new areas aside from the Central Coast, so here is a digital panoramic I took as the sun breached the horizon at Newcastle. This is the road way that links Newcastle Beach to Nobbys Beach with Nobbys Beach Lighthouse in the background.

This shot has amazing detail. I also shot this spot on the Fotoman 6×24 after seeing how this shot came up after editing I kind of feel like I wasted my film. Oh well… guess digital has to win sometimes.

YOU REALLY HAVE TO SEE THIS ONE LARGE SO CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO “VIEW LARGE”

Somersby Falls, Central Coast, NSW

Sorry about the lack of post guys, been pretty flat out of late with work, who would think shooting landscapes full time can be so time consuming. Anyway here is a shot from good old Somersby Falls, tried to put something in the shot to make it stand out from all the other shots taken at this place.

Panoramic stitch | portrait mode | 5D Mk II | 9 shots | Polariser | F16

Setting up and Shooting Digital Panoramics – now in production for Rubbing Pixels

After several attempts to record a video tutorial on shooting digital panoramic’s it has become clear that the topic is quite extensive to do all in one hit. I have decided that the topic will be broken down into numerous single tutorials to ensure that the information is as comprehensive as possible for that segment. This will also allow the individual tutorials to be upgraded in the future if needed when new and interesting methods become available and are developed.

The tutorials will cover panoramic set up, to capture, the do’s and dont’s of digital panoramic’s, the equipment, the comparison of digital panoramic’s to film panoramic systems like the Fuji GX617 and the Fotoman 6×24, how to pre visualize the final result and more. The tutorials will be a combination of in the field video integrated with on screen capture to illustrate techniques when and if required.

The videos when released will be contained under their own category on the Rubbing Pixels site and due to the detailed information contained and how they will be presented the tutorials will be for members only.

The videos are currently being story boarded and recording will be starting later this week. You can follow updates and detailed release dates via our facebook page.

North Avoca Beach, Central Coast, NSW

Spent the day teaching a bloke from the UK. A sunset like this is common for us Aussies but for a Pom they are few and far between.

Shot this one with my battery flashing red. Went to change it with my spare and it was also dead flat. (Don’t you hate that). Anyway the final stitch was boring in colour but had potential so I tricked it up a bit in Photoshop.

Developed a new technique to get your rocks looking like metal which is cool. But more on that another time.

8 image stitch on the 5D MkII shot in landscape mode. Lee 2 stop ND soft and Lee 1 stop ND hard to control the sky.

For those who are interested all my techniques used are available as video tutorials at Rubbing Pixels

What a day… Freshwater Beach

Today – Sunday 27th of July 2008 – I was doing a one on one course with a couple and the day started nice and sunny. About 3.30pm this storm started to roll in. In 9 years of shooting landscapes I have never been able to be in a position to see a sight like this unveil before me and it was an amazing sight. We left the beach just in time and boy did it bucket down in rain and hail. This storm made the 6pm news.

This shot is 8 images shot at 24mm and covers about 270 degree view of Freshwater Beach on the Northern Beaches. Crazy stuff. Also shot it on slide.

First 360 Precision shot – Avoca Beach

Finally my new 360 Precision head arrived by FedEx. This is one serious chunk of metal. After working it out and a quick call to my mate Christian I felt ready to give this thing ago. So here it is my first stitch. I have cropped it in a standard 6 x 17 format. This is a 7 images at 50mm. Stitched in 16 bit with a file size of 587MB @ 300dpi. (17116×4279 pixels) before cropping to 6 x 17. Editing the water is a pain and this shot needs more work as one image threw the water out as it was a full wave curling.

I did upload this as a 6 x 24 but I like the more focused composition of 6 x 17 for this image.

This image is pretty much the field of view with my Linhof 90mm and this shot is a lot sharper than what my tranny would be and is grainless when viewed at actual pixels and I have a file 3 times the size what I would have scanned my tranny too.