PICTARS! Chicago Skyline Panoramas!

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

awesome pics.....makes me want to turn them into posters. I love Chicago...

 

[GTaudiophile]

Did you use PhotoStitch for that?

Well done!

Edit: I have learned that a good bit of being a good photographer is having the energy to wake up really early and stay up really late to get the dawn/dusk shots. Usually I am just too damned lazy!

 

[blurredvision]

Fantastic job! I will make myself learn Hugin and Enblend a bit more now that I see what can be done with it. My recent pans pale in comparison, especially since I was a complete idiot for shooting in auto mode on a sunset pan. NEVER will that happen again, I was just tired on the 4 hour trip back.

http://joshpuckett.smugmug.com/photos/79082707-M.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/blurredvision/sunsetbeforeafter.jpg

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Did you use PhotoStitch for that?

Well done!

Edit: I have learned that a good bit of being a good photographer is having the energy to wake up really early and stay up really late to get the dawn/dusk shots. Usually I am just too damned lazy!

I used Hugin + PTAssembler + Enblend. It's more or less a manual process of selecting control points. And yeah, you're right about the waking up early thing. When I was on my solo roadtrip out west (RMNP, Arches, Canyonlands, etc) I would often get up at 4AM, but I didn't really stay late because around 8PM or so the day was already pitch dark, so not much point in staying around. It's those days that end late AND start early that are killer.

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
awesome pics.....makes me want to turn them into posters. I love Chicago...

If you want I can send you a full size JPEG. Dunno where you could print it though

Originally posted by: blurredvision
Fantastic job! I will make myself learn Hugin and Enblend a bit more now that I see what can be done with it. My recent pans pale in comparison, especially since I was a complete idiot for shooting in auto mode on a sunset pan. NEVER will that happen again, I was just tired on the 4 hour trip back.

http://joshpuckett.smugmug.com/photos/79082707-M.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/blurredvision/sunsetbeforeafter.jpg

Yup yup, you'll get used to it. When I first started out I shot in aperture priority, and let the camera meter every scene differently, which was a huge mistake. The key to panos is to pick an area of the scene that has the average light intensity of the whole scene, meter for that area, and then shoot every part of the pano using those exact settings.

If I remember correctly, the first stitch I ever made was a picture of my hiking boot . It was done by hand, and the total megapixels was 15MP from a 4MP camera

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
awesome pics.....makes me want to turn them into posters. I love Chicago...

If you want I can send you a full size JPEG. Dunno where you could print it though

the blueprint shop I use could do it....but it would probably cost me $50

 

[astartz]

Great Pictures.

 

[icyroy05]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
The fact that i have been in the exact places you were standing adds some nostalgic value to the pics for me. Thanks a lot for posting these!

:thumbsup:

Same I was there two weeks ago in the same place also. I was visiting from Georgia.

 

[Evadman]

can I have a copy of the original uncompressed ~4 gig one?

 

[GTaudiophile]

BTW, I sold my copy of the Sigma 30/F1.4. Perfect prime in terms of specs for a 1.6 crop DSLR, but mine had all sorts of AF problems. Sold it and haven't replaced it.

I keep hoping Canon will release an EF-S 30 F1.4 USM or at least replace their aging 50 F1.4 with an MkII. Right now I use an EFS 10-22, EF 24-105 F4L, and Tamron 28-75 F2.8.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Evadman
can I have a copy of the original uncompressed ~4 gig one?

LOL, errr... shipping address?

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
BTW, I sold my copy of the Sigma 30/F1.4. Perfect prime in terms of specs for a 1.6 crop DSLR, but mine had all sorts of AF problems. Sold it and haven't replaced it.

I keep hoping Canon will release an EF-S 30 F1.4 USM or at least replace their aging 50 F1.4 with an MkII. Right now I use an EFS 10-22, EF 24-105 F4L, and Tamron 28-75 F2.8.

Yup, I had focusing problems with my 30mm too. The guy I bought it from said he sent it into Sigma for calibration, and that it was fine. I got the lens, and after about two weeks it went out of whack again. Called Sigma, this big huge fiasco happened where I didn't get my lens for 4 weeks, so in the end they calibrated the lens free of charge. I get the lens back, and guess what? It still front-focuses a bit

Now I partially blame my Rebel XT, because AF on the XT is not one of its strong suits. I love the lens though. Crazy sharp, even at f/16 and f/1.4, plus it looks dead sexy on my XT. You could try for a 28mm. It's as close to a normal prime lens as you're going to get if you don't go with the 30mm.

 

[GoingUp]

Turned out very nice. I can take panorama shots, I just don't know how to do them well enough for the exposures to turn out properly. I need some classes on better photography.

Check out my panorama desktop here.

http://www.chadwickcmeyer.com/pics/main.jpg

As you can see, the sun backlit the apartments in the center of the photo and ruined the colors. What could I have done better to prevent this?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Gobadgrs
Turned out very nice. I can take panorama shots, I just don't know how to do them well enough for the exposures to turn out properly. I need some classes on better photography.

Check out my panorama desktop here.

http://www.chadwickcmeyer.com/pics/main.jpg

As you can see, the sun backlit the apartments in the center of the photo and ruined the colors. What could I have done better to prevent this?

Backlit pictures are tricky. Google and learn more about dynamic range as it pertains to photography.

Once you get to know dynamic range you'll be able to understand why the photo's washed out.

But generally speaking photography when the sun is harsh is going to lead to problems with flatness and low contrast if you're going for a landscape shot. When doing landscapes, try to limit yourself to shooting either at dawn or dusk, where the shadows give depth and drama to the subject and the light is nice and soft. If you're on a tight schedule and have to shoot in the middle of the day... don't expect a great picture, at least without a LOT of photoshopping afterwards.

When I shoot in the middle of the day... my photos turn out crappy too