Creating on a Nikon D700/D3s the look of a Hassleblad XPAN

[sanzari]

This is going to be one of those questions I get laughed at  or a lot of real creative ideas.

I love the 24x65 format of the XPAN and I have been playing with pano shots for a while, perhaps my technique but little success in creating that 30mm or 45mm look of the XPAN (35mm equivalent is 35 and 50mm i believe)

I use Photoshop CS to stitch but of course it never looks quite right.

So in search of an answer I wondered if people could comment on....
1. DO i turn 45 degress, 30 degrees and snap the sceond picture.
2. Do I shuffle 2 feet to the left ?
3. do I just move a small amount and snap again (all on manual of course to preserve the exposure settings and in RAW)
4, Do I simply crop afterwards a 24x65 image and forgo the 50% odd of pixels Of course I am trying to print up to 22 inches!!

I really would love to get back to the film days but the XPAN is rare, its a phaff now with film and scanning and im sure I can create something as good if not better any ideas or am i just being plane stupid.


I know Horizon DL-3 from Silvestri is close some believe this year even and at £1500 might be useful, but in the meantime I am so wanting that look from my images and cannot get them,

perhaps its just me. !

[JohnBrew]

I sympathize with your plight but you need to provide more information. Which CS are you using? What lens setup are you trying to accomplish this task with?
I find CS5 to work exceptionally well. Using a t/s lens on a fixed tripod will probably give you what you are looking for. I hope this helps.

[Kirk Gittings]

I sympathize with your plight but you need to provide more information. Which CS are you using? What lens setup are you trying to accomplish this task with?
I find CS5 to work exceptionally well. Using a t/s lens on a fixed tripod will probably give you what you are looking for. I hope this helps.

Absolutely-works flawlessly.

[sanzari]

Ah there in lies the problem.
No tripod no t/lens

I use 35,50,85 mm f1.4 on either camera I think I may need a technique guide.

I have seen and consider then older PC lenses from Nikon they seem to only shift not tilt or only tilt not shift.

Is this my problem? Obviously a moving object or a dynamic object may be harder as TS is manual focus I believe.

I am encouraged that is works flawlessly. Can I be cheeky enough to ask for a technique or advice.

Should I rent the new TS lens or stick with a cheaper older one??

Thanks a lot in advance. Tony

[JohnBrew]

Tony, by all means rent a t/s lens to see what you are up against. Shoot it every which way and shoot it a lot. You need to make many tests to see what is possible. I recently rented the 24 PC-E but found it too wide for my purposes. Next up - the 45.

[sanzari]

John thanks putting in my rental order with lens pimp in the UK and hope the 45mm is the one.

Thanks for all the help. Indian beckons.

[theguywitha645d]

There are a few things you need to think about.

You could crop, but you will not be getting the quality you probably like with the Xpan. This has nothing to do with print size per se--you can make a 22" print from your images--but more to do with the fact the Xpan was a larger format.

There are really two things to think about with stitching. First, when you shoot, you rotate the camera leaving a 30% - 50% image overlap--whether you hold your camera vertically or horizontally. Ideally, you rotate the camera around the front nodal point/entrance pupil--this eliminates parallax during rotation (moving left or right to make each image does not work because of parallax). However, the stitching programs are very good and depending on the subject, you can do this handheld and get a seamless result. (If you have a tripod with a head that can rotate at its base, then a Manfrotto macro rail can be used a cheap solution for a nodal slide. I put a Manfrotto rail on my arca swiss P0 and it works well.)

Then there is the stitching itself. With Photoshop you can specify the projection. This will then put the image together like a panoramic camera that has a flat image plane like the Xpan or a cylindrical image plane like the Widelux/Noblex/Horizon. The neat thing is you get to choose. Each projection has its benefits and weaknesses. And the subject can determine which projection is better. You will need to crop the stitched images to a rectangle after stitching. Because of the stitching projection, it can be a bit tricky at visualizing the image in the camera viewfinder.

Stitched panoramas can be as easy or complicated as you would like. I have used a nodal slide as well as just taking two quick side-by-side shots while holding the camera. Have fun.

[sanzari]

Omg I am either really confused or stupid.

I love the photoshop feature that sounds new. But the nodal slide rotational parallax us stuff just thrown me.

I thought with the lens on a tripod with the lens front in the same plane as the subject. Shift the lens left 11mm snap, centre snap and then fully right 11mm snap and stitch the three images together as there is a 30% overlap.

So I am not sure what the rotation is and why I get parallax Doing it another way. I like the slide bar but does a tilt shift lens not negate the need for a slide bar?

Thanks again tony

[Ken Bennett]

With an actual shift lens, where the front of the lens moves in relation to the camera, then you are correct -- shoot three frames, one centered, and two shifted, and stitch them together. That will provide something very similar to the "look" of an Xpan. (Still have mine, haven't shot it in years....)

The whole nodal point thing relates to panoramic photography with a non-shift lens -- one turns the camera to point in different directions, then stitches together the resulting images. The problem is that turning the camera introduces some potentially fatal issues with the way various objects line up, which might prevent your stitching program from fitting them together properly. This is much more of an issue when there are strong foreground elements in the image (i.e., a "good" landscape composition.) If one is turning the camera, then the only way to guarantee success is to rotate the camera around the nodal point of the lens -- that point in which the light rays cross inside the lens itself. See this link for a much better explanation than I could ever give.

In my personal opinion, a 45mm shift lens would be the best option for stitching to get the Xpan look.

[BernardLanguillier]

When doing cylindrical stitching, you will need to use a software enabling you to select the projection mode and you will want to go with planar projection.

I recommend either PTgui or Autopano Pro for such applications.

This will make it easy to replicate the XPAN images with 3 or 4 shots captured with the same focal lenght you would be using with the XPAN. A bit of callibration will help determine exactly how many images you will need. My guess would be 4 images rotated 15 degrees with a 50mm lens.

Cheers,
Bernard