Stichin' Mono Moonrise

Keeping in theme with being "brave" to try this with film, I've been wanting to try and stitch 4x5's for panos since last year. I've always liked the format, but could never afford a true panoramic camera, nor a dslr. So I took up the challenge of trying to do this with 4x5 film.

This was captured on the Saturday night before our get together at Silver Lake. I was with Preston, Paul and my wife was along too. I had planned this shot for some time and with the timing of the full moon, this night was the perfect opportunity.

This first post is a serious crop of the pano. Just showing this because it's almost pointless to show the 720px pano version. This is a 3 image stitch from V100F 4x5:

PLEASE SEE THE LARGER VERSION HERE.

The challenge with doing this using film is that it's nearly impossible to get the same exposure for each sheet of film in the scanning process. The exposure in the field was the easy part because they were all shot with the same aperture and SS. But after scanning there is slight variation in brightness, which I think you can still see in the sky.

What appears to be a line just below the moon has nothing to do with or near a stitch line, but that's just the makeup of the clouds. And the original pano is actually wider, but includes the parking lot for South Tufa so I cropped in from the right. Original is in excess of 25,000px wide.

Not completely happy with the colors yet, but wanted to toss this up and get some feedback. I'm curious to know how this came out.

thanks!

Lon

Oh yeah!!! This is one sweet shot! I love the sky color at the time you caught the moon that Saturday. You timed it perfectly with sunset. I really like what you achieved in showing so much of the scene. And talk about detail with combined 4x5 images! I'm sure that was no small task in getting the finished product.

Just one thought on a tweak. I might crop just a bit from right which includes more of the brush area.

It looks like you were a bit further down the road from where I shot it the next night. Here is a wider single frame I took the next night night. The sand started getting pretty deep. So I stopped here since I didn't have 4wd.

http://landandseaphoto.smugmug.com/Fall/Eastern-Sierra-2009/9871356_VVByo#676492321_cQxmt-XL-LB

Now that I see your image I am thinking I have got to try a pano next time. That next night (Sunday) you guys were shooting from below right? How did those turn out? Just curious.

Derek

Thanks Derek, Good call on the crop suggestion. I was considering that, but decided to leave the little dark cloud included.

Yeah, we were a little further down the road from your Sunday night image. Very nice BTW, you should post it! I'll send you a separate email with my rendition. I think my next image will be from the Sunday night full moon. I think we should have a thread just for the moonrise images from Sun Night.

Lon

Lon,

You have honed your self deprecating skills to a fine edge. Both the small and large version are images I would be proud to have shot. The wonderful pastel colors of the sunset away from the stronger light in the west never fails to impress me. Not that a good brilliant western sky doesn't get my blood boiling. I think sometimes we concentrate on the light show and never turn around to see the color behind us. A great sunset will light up the entire sky for 360 degrees. And if you never turn around you'll never see anti crepuscular rays or a moonrise.

Paul

Umm, you're a punk!

Wow! Lon the large version is beautiful. I feel like I could walk right into the scene. Be proud. Thanks for the post.

- DMP

I concur w/ Chris

This is an awesome shot, Lon. I've been waiting to see what you guys got from that location, and you didn't disappoint. This is my favorite from that night so far.

Very nice, Lon. What did you use for the stitching? and, BTW, you are a punk.

- Dan

Thanks folks. A punk? I'm good with that and deserving.

Dan, I just used the Photo Merge feature in CS3. It's all automatic pretty much, although because I had different exposure levels in each of the three scans, I had to do some masking/painting to even things out a little.

It can be done! I also have a 5-image 4x5 stitch that I may post later on.

Lon

Your experiment paid off handsomely, Lon. Good job!

Yes, you are indeed a punk!

I think I'll take up knitting. I need a new hat and handwarmers, anyway.

Very nice work!

-P

This is sweet, Lon.

I concur, you are a punk!

I thought you couldn't teach old dogs (4x5 guys) new tricks! Seriously, that pano looks very nice! You've blended the exposure differences very well to my eyes. While I could see tweaking the colors in other directions, I'd have to see it to tell if it is an improvement. Well done, start to finish!

Looks beautiful Lon, the stitch looks fine to me! You might do yourself a favor though, and at least try doing it with a 5D2, print it... and ask yourself if it's really worth the hassle of that ancient film j/k, well sort of, as long as we have fun, we're doing the right thing

Punk! ha, I'd go bilboard with that pano. Fantastic job Lon. I like the pano a lot more than the cropped version which is great until you see the pano, it just steals the show.