Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: BernardLanguillier on February 28, 2014, 06:55:05 pm

Title: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: BernardLanguillier on February 28, 2014, 06:55:05 pm
Hello my friends,

Still from the same shoot. This one is a bit more technical with a combination of stitching and depth of field stacking from 44 original D800 frames, strong back light and some wind.

(https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2831/12832376004_9523bb657c_o.jpg)

D800 and Zeiss Otus 55mm f1.4. Pano gear is RRS on top of a Gitzo tripod.

Workflow was:
- C1 Pro 7 raw conversion,
- DoF stacking job in Helicon,
- Pano work in Autopano pro/PTgui (did both versions, they ended up being extremely similar),
- A few local edits in PS CS6,
- Google Silver eFex B&W conversion.

There are a few more done with the same worklow after the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardlanguillier/

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: sdwilsonsct on March 01, 2014, 09:45:55 am
This is a goal of mine: detailed foreground in the context of the background and sky. Thanks for showing how it's done.
How many shots went into the panorama? I assume that the foreground and background are different shots?
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: francois on March 01, 2014, 09:52:36 am
Superb, even without considering the amount of technical work and post-processing! The other ones you posted are also very nice but I find that this one is outstanding but I like Frosty days and Keep walking a lot.
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: luxborealis on March 01, 2014, 11:16:17 am
Gritty. Beautiful. A wonderful photograph. Any more highlight detail in the sky or has it been lost through jpeg compression?
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: Michael West on March 01, 2014, 12:19:34 pm
a lovely photograph but I have to ask when google bought NIK ?

"Google Silver eFex B&W conversion."
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: Ed B on March 01, 2014, 12:26:49 pm
a lovely photograph but I have to ask when google bought NIK ?

"Google Silver eFex B&W conversion."

About a year and a half ago.
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: BernardLanguillier on March 02, 2014, 07:43:54 am
This is a goal of mine: detailed foreground in the context of the background and sky. Thanks for showing how it's done.
How many shots went into the panorama? I assume that the foreground and background are different shots?

As mentioned, I captured several images at different focusing distances at each angle in the pano.

There are 44 images total.

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: BernardLanguillier on March 02, 2014, 07:45:11 am
Gritty. Beautiful. A wonderful photograph. Any more highlight detail in the sky or has it been lost through jpeg compression?

Probably not much.

It was blindingly bright in real life too.

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: BernardLanguillier on March 02, 2014, 07:46:12 am
Superb, even without considering the amount of technical work and post-processing! The other ones you posted are also very nice but I find that this one is outstanding but I like Frosty days and Keep walking a lot.

Thanks Francois.

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: Peter McLennan on March 02, 2014, 12:28:42 pm
Beautiful, amazing.  I've love to see a meter-square print of that image.

State of the art hardware.
State of the art workflow.
State of the art seeing.

Congrats, Bernard!
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: BernardLanguillier on March 02, 2014, 09:16:55 pm
Beautiful, amazing.  I've love to see a meter-square print of that image.

State of the art hardware.
State of the art workflow.
State of the art seeing.

Congrats, Bernard!

Thanks a lot for your kind words Peter.  :D

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: Dahlmann on March 03, 2014, 02:59:50 am
Lovely shoot Mate.

I like the human face in the upper right of the photo. In the clouds.




Cheers Daniel

Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: Dahlmann on March 03, 2014, 03:03:02 am
here..
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: BernardLanguillier on March 03, 2014, 07:01:55 am
Lovely shoot Mate.

I like the human face in the upper right of the photo. In the clouds.

Wow... I missed that, thanks for pointing it out! ;)

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: Chairman Bill on March 03, 2014, 07:04:52 am
I like the human face in the upper right of the photo. In the clouds.

Wow. You must hang around with some really odd looking characters  ;)
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: Sareesh Sudhakaran on March 03, 2014, 10:10:51 am
Wow, that's an amazing image even on an ipad!

D800 and Zeiss Otus 55mm f1.4. Pano gear is RRS on top of a Gitzo tripod.

I have a noob question: How do you visualize/compose the final frame?
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: RSL on March 03, 2014, 12:55:23 pm
It's a fine piece of work, Bernard, but at 44 exposures for a single picture it seems like an awful lot of work. Don't think it would work for street photography.
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: cjogo on March 03, 2014, 01:45:35 pm
Amazing ~!  Awful lot of work , though... Never did multiple images and layered them.  Too old school = just use the aperture and critical focus.  

 Really nice feature of the Rollei SL66 > had a dropping front bed for the lens > would do almost exactly what the required steps you have taken ~~ in one exposure.
Scheimpflug principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheimpflug_principle


With film :: you simple expose for the lows /mids and then process the film to hold your sky value ...Even this bright of situation = you could bring that sky down with the Zone system.



Digitally ::  Expose the first image  :: focus 2/3's in (roughly) at ISO 100 > 500 @ 22 > 24mm ++++  second image at about 125 @ 22 >>>BLEND
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: BernardLanguillier on March 03, 2014, 07:50:51 pm
It's a fine piece of work, Bernard, but at 44 exposures for a single picture it seems like an awful lot of work. Don't think it would work for street photography.

Thanks RSL.

No... it is a no go for street photography!  ;D

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: BernardLanguillier on March 03, 2014, 07:53:33 pm
Wow, that's an amazing image even on an ipad!

I have a noob question: How do you visualize/compose the final frame?

Thanks.

In fact I have never really needed a viewfinder to vizualise the images I intend to capture. I just...
- look at a scene,
- find an area I like,
- decide what needs to be in/out,
- translate that into virtual corners,
- add a bit of margin to take into account the impact of projection during stitching,
- position the triopd + pano head,
- double check the angular limits of the head to match the virtual corners I vizualized,
- start shooting.

All that can be done in a few seconds.  ;)

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: BernardLanguillier on March 03, 2014, 07:57:04 pm
Amazing ~!  Awful lot of work , though... Never did multiple images and layered them.  Too old school = just use the aperture and critical focus.  

 Really nice feature of the Rollei SL66 > had a dropping front bed for the lens > would do almost exactly what the required steps you have taken ~~ in one exposure.
Scheimpflug principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheimpflug_principle


With film :: you simple expose for the lows /mids and then process the film to hold your sky value ...Even this bright of situation = you could bring that sky down with the Zone system.

Digitally ::  Expose the first image  :: focus 2/3's in (roughly) at ISO 100 > 500 @ 22 > 24mm ++++  second image at about 125 @ 22 >>>BLEND

Yes, you can do that.

I use a 4x5 camera too, but:
- the image quality I get from stitching is clearly superior,
- the bulk of the equipment in the field is a lot less,
- autonomy is pretty much infinite while film sheets strongly limit the number of images that can be captured,
- DoF stacking is more generic in that it can render a scene sharply for any type of subject, not just those sitting in a plane,
- I find stitching to be fun!  ;D

But I am not trying to convince anyone that this is the way to go. It is just one tool in a tool kit.

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Japanese winter landscape
Post by: Sareesh Sudhakaran on March 04, 2014, 03:55:38 am
Thanks.

In fact I have never really needed a viewfinder to vizualise the images I intend to capture. I just...
- look at a scene,
- find an area I like,
- decide what needs to be in/out,
- translate that into virtual corners,
- add a bit of margin to take into account the impact of projection during stitching,
- position the triopd + pano head,
- double check the angular limits of the head to match the virtual corners I vizualized,
- start shooting.

All that can be done in a few seconds.  ;)

Cheers,
Bernard


Thanks for the explanation! One last question: I understand 10-30% overlap between images, but on average, how much do you allow for the outer borders of a frame? Or, let me put it another way: Since you have shot many images, what would you say is the allowance that will guarantee you don't miss out on any corner information?

My personal interest is shooting humans, somewhat similar to the Benizer method, but strictly confined to standard formats like 6x7 and 4x5. This is why I asked the composition question. Thanks again!