A few weeks ago, I went on a mission to capture images that exemplify Spring in the Colorado mountains. After my Crystal Mill trip I headed to Kebler Pass. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was hoping for typical, lush Spring composition. The West Elks area received a ton of snow last winter and the pass had only been open for a few days so my excitement was heightened knowing spring runoff was going to be intense. I anticipated soggy, and muddy conditions in the shaded area; perfect for new spring growth under a canopy of infinite Aspen forests.
The Kebler Pass area varied in conditions. The western half was dry (it gets hammered by late afternoon sun.) I just couldn’t find composition I liked with all the beautiful lupines showing off. The east half was wet. The dense, marshy forests felt right for the night.
The following image consists of two 24mm tse horizontal images, stitched, to convey a scene the exemplifies a ground level view of Spring in action. I used both the tilt and shift to render zero distortion and massive depth of field. The original image is very large and I had trouble downsizing and attaining sharpness for NPN, thus I submit it on my site which tends to convey the appropriate sharpness showing the DOF that I want to convey.
The second image is three horizontal images stitched to render an in focus vertical perspective from about 1-ft from the mud all the way to the tree tops. The top and middle images are 2 image blends because of all the back lighting. I did my best to capture the moment as I saw it. This one took at least two hrs to finish…
Question, so what’s your opinion with pano shots? I’ve heard that pano’s are considered less appealing to Art Galleries than standard lens perspectives. Regardless, I’ve been having fun experimenting with panos that convey a standard ratio perspective that increases width to an impossible wide focal length, keeping distortion under control.
Let me know.
Posted by Pam Colander on July 2, 2011 at 10:15 PM
Wow! The first shot is killer! If you're ever interested in giving a detailed explanation of how you created that I'd love to hear it. That's really unique.
As far as pano's go, I love them. I got hooked on them when I first saw Charlie Brown's pano's at the Parker Art fair about 5 or 6 years ago. I think they are a great way to show the grandeur of the outdoors.
Great shots Kane. Love the spring greens especially the first. As far as showing work to the public my panos have always outsold my regular format photos (8x10 on up). If your into selling prints I would certainly try and look for possible pans while you're out there. It makes me wonder why pans are not very well accepted on NPN. Maybe the web size restrictions?
Another big thumbs up for the beautiful layers you composed in #1. I wouldn't have even known these were panoramic creations without you mentioning it. Although the technique may be time consuming, I think that the results are well worth the time!
Superb images, Kane. Not only are the compositions well thought out but your handling of the contrast and detail is admirable.
Guy
Posted by Jack Garrett on July 3, 2011 at 11:17 AM
These are both supurb Kane! What I really like about the 2nd one is how much depth there is. The mountains in the background adds HUGE depth here....nice work.
Russ, the first image is fairly straight forward. It's two horizontal images stitched vertically. I didn't have to blend any of those images to control exposure. The images are stitched right about where the trees sink into the green undergrowth. Although I feel like I have a very strong stitching program (ptgui 8.2) I still wanted to compose this scene with tree trunks in both images, that way the program doesn't have to think much. There's nothing wrong with having a program like ptgui really working hard locating control points but if you can make it easy go for it.
The rest are just details. Bottom image f-11 with some tilt resulting in a f-22 DOF. Top Image was shot at f-13. Remember I'm using a tilt shift lens which makes two -three image pano's a piece of cake with zero parallax ( displacement or difference in the position of images.) The shift feature essentially takes the place of a Panoramic head attatched to a tripod.
If you use convention lens on a tripod or in this case a wide like a 24mm, you likely will end up cropping up to 25% of the image due to the parallax shift. Plus a lot of stitiching programs out there cannot handle the distortions of wide images, thus the output appears like a wavy nonusable image.
The best conventional lens images for stitiching are in the 35-50mm focal length. I would also invest in a good, inexpensive Pano head, like Nodal Ninja. Nevermind all the bells and whistles (indents/levelers) pano heads are coming with these days, just pay for the basic head and never look back.
I personally don't care what someone thinks works or doesn't work in a gallery. To me what matters, is did you put yourself and style into the shot and translate what you wanted into it? If yes, then do it is my motto. That is what makes us all individuals in photography...plus...remember, it only takes ONE person in the gallery to like it for it to sell
BTW, both shots are terrific, but the second one blows me away.
Because of the mud track and denser clump of aspen, the image seems heavy on the right. I might crop the mud out, or recomposeon another trip so the log is more diagonal.
The bottom 2/3 of "Revived" is really nice withe the yellow flowers, false H and aspen bases.
Discussion
13 repliesThe Kebler Pass area varied in conditions. The western half was dry (it gets hammered by late afternoon sun.) I just couldn’t find composition I liked with all the beautiful lupines showing off. The east half was wet. The dense, marshy forests felt right for the night.
The following image consists of two 24mm tse horizontal images, stitched, to convey a scene the exemplifies a ground level view of Spring in action. I used both the tilt and shift to render zero distortion and massive depth of field. The original image is very large and I had trouble downsizing and attaining sharpness for NPN, thus I submit it on my site which tends to convey the appropriate sharpness showing the DOF that I want to convey.
http://www.kaephotography.com/photo/revived/?subject=news
The second image is three horizontal images stitched to render an in focus vertical perspective from about 1-ft from the mud all the way to the tree tops. The top and middle images are 2 image blends because of all the back lighting. I did my best to capture the moment as I saw it. This one took at least two hrs to finish…
http://www.kaephotography.com/photo/yy/?subject=news
Question, so what’s your opinion with pano shots? I’ve heard that pano’s are considered less appealing to Art Galleries than standard lens perspectives. Regardless, I’ve been having fun experimenting with panos that convey a standard ratio perspective that increases width to an impossible wide focal length, keeping distortion under control.
Let me know.
As far as pano's go, I love them. I got hooked on them when I first saw Charlie Brown's pano's at the Parker Art fair about 5 or 6 years ago. I think they are a great way to show the grandeur of the outdoors.
Russ
www.AlpineGalleria.com
Guy
The rest are just details. Bottom image f-11 with some tilt resulting in a f-22 DOF. Top Image was shot at f-13. Remember I'm using a tilt shift lens which makes two -three image pano's a piece of cake with zero parallax ( displacement or difference in the position of images.) The shift feature essentially takes the place of a Panoramic head attatched to a tripod.
If you use convention lens on a tripod or in this case a wide like a 24mm, you likely will end up cropping up to 25% of the image due to the parallax shift. Plus a lot of stitiching programs out there cannot handle the distortions of wide images, thus the output appears like a wavy nonusable image.
The best conventional lens images for stitiching are in the 35-50mm focal length. I would also invest in a good, inexpensive Pano head, like Nodal Ninja. Nevermind all the bells and whistles (indents/levelers) pano heads are coming with these days, just pay for the basic head and never look back.
BTW, both shots are terrific, but the second one blows me away.
The bottom 2/3 of "Revived" is really nice withe the yellow flowers, false H and aspen bases.
Regarding panos, I like them vs standard ratios.