Posted by Todd Caudle on July 26, 2010 at 12:14 PM
Had a pretty epic few days around Crested Butte last week, photos of which I'll post later. Thought I'd kick things off with this pano incorporating the Elk Mountains, from Snowmass Mountain on the left all the way to Star Peak on the right. In-between you can see Maroon, Pyramid and Castle peaks (N. Maroon is hiding behind Maroon), the Copper Creek drainage, Gothic Mountain (the centerpiece of the scene), and although you can't actually see them, you can see where many of the high passes (Copper, E. Maroon, W. Maroon, Frigid Air, Trail Rider) would be if ridges weren't in the way. Visible is the trail up to Copper Pass, for instance, disappearing behind a ridge before you get to see the actual pass.
A synopsis of what it took to build this pano: It's 13 horizontal images. I tried stitching all 13 of them at once in PS CS3, but was encountering some noticeable left/right color balance gradients from one frame to the next. So, I started over by merging shots 8 and 9, saving that, then adding image 10, saving that, adding image 7, and so on and so forth. That worked until I tried to add images 1 and 2, and it kept giving me a pano in the shape of an arc image #3 was the culprit), so the last three had to be added by hand.
Once the initial work was done, I felt I lost too much real estate along the bottom of the middle images, and painstakingly added some of the missing 10-15% of those middle 6 images that had been cropped off along the process manually. I've never spent so much time on one of these freakin' things! I hope you think it was worth it.
Posted by Kurt Bowman on July 26, 2010 at 12:59 PM
Was this worth it???? You're kidding right? That is spectacular Todd! Love it!!!! You could hang this in a hallway 20' long....just awesome
That's one seriously wide pano!! I'd maybe like to see a little more detail in the dark areas and maybe the highlights toned down on the right side, but that's minor. I'd definitely say your hard work paid off. I don't see anything in the way of seams. Cool shot!
Cool shot, printing something like this out could be a issue. I'd did one similar a few years ago from the roof of my house. Pretty much the entire front range. Had Pikes Peak all the way past Longs Peak. It was like 15-20 shots into a really long pano. Great work.
Posted by Erik Aagaard on July 26, 2010 at 3:03 PM
Too bad you wasted so much effort on a subject that sucks!
I'll echo what others have posed - where in the world do you hang this thing? I'd love to see it printed full-res!
Besides the consistent high quality of your images, I gotta say I'm blown away by your knowledge of Colorado's peaks, roads, etc. Is that just from years of photographing the state, or is there some secret guide book you have? (If not, you should write one!)
I can understand the difficulty involved with stitching multiple shots, but then you added an extra step by taking it from an airplane. It was from an airplane, right? Awesome perspective. Would make a great hallway border.
Posted by Jack Garrett on July 26, 2010 at 3:45 PM
The new MIcrosoft store at Park Meadows has a backlit, 3 sided 100 foot wall the could almost accommodate this!! That is quite a pano and well worth the work. When I zoom in on it, the detail is incredibly strong. Nice job Sir Todd!!
If you plan on doing a lot of these, I'd suggest saving yourself some grief and upgrading from CS3. The automatic pano stitching in CS4 was a significant improvement.
Do you have a color balance gradient issue, even after manually setting the WB for each image. When stitching panos, I never leave the WB on Auto or "As Shot".
OH, MOMMY! Holy cow is that thing spectacular! You have given me such pixel envy it ain't even funny! TC, you better bring a print of this to the shindig next year!
Man, the detail in that panorama is phenomenal!
I think it was well worth all of your time and effort. The only way to really appreciate the grandeur here is in print, but that may well bankrupt you.
Posted by Jeff Hackett on July 26, 2010 at 9:16 PM
I could not believe the detail, it is incredible! The lighting and processing looks good to me. I wouldn't even know where to start with something like this, and I don't think it was waste of time.
I use PtGui 7.2 pro and 99.9% I have no issue stitching 13 shots, especially with a pano head. In fact, it gets really fun shooting vertical rows. I still use CS2 and just upgraded the Pano software a few years back.
The image, Nice composition. I lreally like some of the pano, but don't like some of the rest. Maybe its too big. The highlights on the right side of the image seem a bit overexposed, likely due to the severe panning going on here. Looks like about a 180 degree pan, and properly exposing that kind of pan is almost impossible.
I'm also seeing a blue cast in some of the shadow areas. With Nikon, I get that blue cast too, it's usually because I've got the "active d-lighting" turned on. The camera is trying too hard to compensate for shadows. This may be just a case where panning that much requires the exposure to really cover such a wide d-range.
Kane
Posted by Lance Warley on July 27, 2010 at 7:00 AM
I'm printing it on nylon or cotton or whatever and wearing it as a headband. Including when I shower.
Discussion
21 repliesI might alter the image later to include a scroll-over annotation (look for "UPDATED!" in the subject header), but for now you can view it straight: http://www.toddcaudle.com/072210-Elk-Mtns-pano-A01-v2.jpg
A synopsis of what it took to build this pano: It's 13 horizontal images. I tried stitching all 13 of them at once in PS CS3, but was encountering some noticeable left/right color balance gradients from one frame to the next. So, I started over by merging shots 8 and 9, saving that, then adding image 10, saving that, adding image 7, and so on and so forth. That worked until I tried to add images 1 and 2, and it kept giving me a pano in the shape of an arc image #3 was the culprit), so the last three had to be added by hand.
Once the initial work was done, I felt I lost too much real estate along the bottom of the middle images, and painstakingly added some of the missing 10-15% of those middle 6 images that had been cropped off along the process manually. I've never spent so much time on one of these freakin' things! I hope you think it was worth it.
I'll echo what others have posed - where in the world do you hang this thing? I'd love to see it printed full-res!
Besides the consistent high quality of your images, I gotta say I'm blown away by your knowledge of Colorado's peaks, roads, etc. Is that just from years of photographing the state, or is there some secret guide book you have? (If not, you should write one!)
If you plan on doing a lot of these, I'd suggest saving yourself some grief and upgrading from CS3. The automatic pano stitching in CS4 was a significant improvement.
Do you have a color balance gradient issue, even after manually setting the WB for each image. When stitching panos, I never leave the WB on Auto or "As Shot".
I think it was well worth all of your time and effort. The only way to really appreciate the grandeur here is in print, but that may well bankrupt you.
*EDIT*
I agree wholeheartedly with your nephew.
I like Dave's idea on the book.
You seem to be shooting more pano's lately.
Are you using a pano head?
I use PtGui 7.2 pro and 99.9% I have no issue stitching 13 shots, especially with a pano head. In fact, it gets really fun shooting vertical rows. I still use CS2 and just upgraded the Pano software a few years back.
The image, Nice composition. I lreally like some of the pano, but don't like some of the rest. Maybe its too big. The highlights on the right side of the image seem a bit overexposed, likely due to the severe panning going on here. Looks like about a 180 degree pan, and properly exposing that kind of pan is almost impossible.
I'm also seeing a blue cast in some of the shadow areas. With Nikon, I get that blue cast too, it's usually because I've got the "active d-lighting" turned on. The camera is trying too hard to compensate for shadows. This may be just a case where panning that much requires the exposure to really cover such a wide d-range.
Kane