Stitched landscape with the Fuji GFX and an example of it's shadow recovery

[Stephen Girimont]

In my, admittedly, insane infatuation with producing the most detailed landscape photographs I can, I present to you this image of Horseshoe Bend taken about 10 minutes after sunset. 4 rows of 12 images each (with some additional images thrown in because it got so dark I couldn't really read the scales on my pano head - in all a totally stupid 62 images!) shot with the GFX and the 63mm f/2.8. ISO 400, 1/2 second each @ f/16.

The canyon images were almost completely black in the raw files as the exposure was based on not blowing the highlights in the sky. Only the highlights in the river were visible.

Processed and assembled in Lightroom on my 2015 Macbook Pro. It was slow, but it worked! Final file: 390.4 megapixels.

[Stephen Girimont]

The black dot in the river to the right is a boat.

[Stephen Girimont]

And here's a detail of the campground to the lower left of the rocks to give an idea of the shadow noise after pulling up the shadows so much.

[Stephen Girimont]

And here's a JPEG from a raw canyon image with no adjustments other than exporting to a small JPEG file. This is how black the canyon images were. This is one of the lower left canyon images. The "highlight" area is the river.

[voidshatter]

Don't mention the usage of dynamic range of Sony CMOS sensors - the CCD users won't understand or admit!

[Telecaster]

I still like my CCD-based cameras and their image qualities, but I'm also a both/and guy. Anyway, the undeniable can only be denied by the delusional. 

-Dave-

[DanielStone]

To the OP,

How long did it take to shoot all of the frames? One of my reasons for continuing to shoot LF film(4x5 in my case) is because the level of detail within a single "click". Drum scanning is another reason, the fine details attainable with LF when properly done are astounding. However, I'm looking at adding a digital option down the line, and the GFX/Actus combo has me interested.

I enjoy film as well, so there are other things I like about different working processes. So the GFX, etc would most likely be my only digital kit (besides a point and shoot which I now use in lieu of a light meter most of the time)

cheers,
Dan

[Stephen Girimont]

To the OP,

How long did it take to shoot all of the frames? One of my reasons for continuing to shoot LF film(4x5 in my case) is because the level of detail within a single "click". Drum scanning is another reason, the fine details attainable with LF when properly done are astounding. However, I'm looking at adding a digital option down the line, and the GFX/Actus combo has me interested.

I enjoy film as well, so there are other things I like about different working processes. So the GFX, etc would most likely be my only digital kit (besides a point and shoot which I now use in lieu of a light meter most of the time)

cheers,
Dan

Excellent question. From my first exposure to the last, total time was just over 6 minutes. I shot the sky first because that was the thing that was going to change over that timespan. I use a Really Right Stuff Pano Gimbal head and manually move the camera across the scene.

Your comment about drum-scanning large format film is exactly the quality I'm going for in these massive images. Here's another example. These are power line towers on the top of the ridge in the upper right area of the image.

I'm waiting for Fuji to release their 4x5 back to try it on my Shen Hao, but I have a feeling the Fuji lenses are going to be better than any of the 4x5 lenses I currently have. The 63mm f/2.8 honestly seems to be giving me better images than my Sigma 50 ART on my Nikon D810, though I haven't had the chance to fully test that out.

[Wayne Fox]

Don't mention the usage of dynamic range of Sony CMOS sensors - the CCD users won't understand or admit!

geez, give it a rest.

[mtakeda]

Can anybody tell me where to click to view the image?

[Thomas J Conway]

Thanks for posting. . .very helpful!

[Stephen Girimont]

Can anybody tell me where to click to view the image?

How are you trying to view the forum? Phone or browser?

[mtakeda]

Thank you. After I logged in, the image is shown.