Super real sunset ...

[DemonDuck]

I'm continuing an interesting struggle with this one.  It was real
late so it's really dark.  So dark that I had to make a separate light
set of images so I could generate CP's

Then I ran out of room on my card for more images so I couldn't take the nadir to
complete the set at this time so I had to use a nadir sequence from 30 minutes
earlier which were not the same light so I had to fudge the color temperature
and the EV.

The horizon is just about in the middle and I shot 3 rows of 8 and only one
of the top row images had any features from the middle row so there's no CP's
in the top row.  I just used Fill Yaw but that seemed to work.

Optimizing was tricky.  I aligned and optimized only the bottom and middle row
then after I added the upper row and did a Fill Yaw, I didn't optimize again
until I added the nadir patch.  Then after I added CP's for the nadir patch
to align it with the images in the bottom row, I only optimized the nadir patch
using a separate y,p,r and shift params for the nadir patch image.

Then after I got a good alignment I replaced the light set of images with
a much darker set to capture the mood of the time and stitched the pano.

The result is kind of a super real (or unreal) sunset.  Sort of a Maxfield Parrish
with a chaw in his cheek.  Not that I'm in the same league or chew tobacco.

And if you look real close -- there's a cow paddy in the exact nadir.

http://pancyl.com/HotCreekRanch.htm

That dark blob to the left of the bright spot is a fly fishing ranch.  That
snakey thing is a creek.  I could make a lighter version but it looses the mood.

I'll be working on this one for a few more days I think.

[Terry Thrift]

I love sunsets with clouds lit like that.
Really nice.

-Terry Thrift-

On Oct 28, 2009, at 7:58 PM, Ken Warner wrote:

> I'm continuing an interesting struggle with this one.  It was real
> late so it's really dark.  So dark that I had to make a separate light
> set of images so I could generate CP's
>
> Then I ran out of room on my card for more images so I couldn't take  
> the nadir to
> complete the set at this time so I had to use a nadir sequence from  
> 30 minutes
> earlier which were not the same light so I had to fudge the color  
> temperature
> and the EV.
>
> The horizon is just about in the middle and I shot 3 rows of 8 and  
> only one
> of the top row images had any features from the middle row so  
> there's no CP's
> in the top row.  I just used Fill Yaw but that seemed to work.
>
> Optimizing was tricky.  I aligned and optimized only the bottom and  
> middle row
> then after I added the upper row and did a Fill Yaw, I didn't  
> optimize again
> until I added the nadir patch.  Then after I added CP's for the  
> nadir patch
> to align it with the images in the bottom row, I only optimized the  
> nadir patch
> using a separate y,p,r and shift params for the nadir patch image.
>
> Then after I got a good alignment I replaced the light set of images  
> with
> a much darker set to capture the mood of the time and stitched the  
> pano.
>
> The result is kind of a super real (or unreal) sunset.  Sort of a  
> Maxfield Parrish
> with a chaw in his cheek.  Not that I'm in the same league or chew  
> tobacco.
>
> And if you look real close -- there's a cow paddy in the exact nadir.
>
> http://pancyl.com/HotCreekRanch.htm
>
> That dark blob to the left of the bright spot is a fly fishing  
> ranch.  That
> snakey thing is a creek.  I could make a lighter version but it  
> looses the mood.
>
> I'll be working on this one for a few more days I think.
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> --
>
>
>

[jrgen_schrader]

Very nice and truly worth the effort.
But you should get rid of that Java thing ;)

Cheers
Jürgen

--- In [hidden email], Ken Warner <kwarner000@...> wrote:

>
> I'm continuing an interesting struggle with this one.  It was real
> late so it's really dark.  So dark that I had to make a separate light
> set of images so I could generate CP's
>
> Then I ran out of room on my card for more images so I couldn't take the nadir to
> complete the set at this time so I had to use a nadir sequence from 30 minutes
> earlier which were not the same light so I had to fudge the color temperature
> and the EV.
>
> The horizon is just about in the middle and I shot 3 rows of 8 and only one
> of the top row images had any features from the middle row so there's no CP's
> in the top row.  I just used Fill Yaw but that seemed to work.
>
> Optimizing was tricky.  I aligned and optimized only the bottom and middle row
> then after I added the upper row and did a Fill Yaw, I didn't optimize again
> until I added the nadir patch.  Then after I added CP's for the nadir patch
> to align it with the images in the bottom row, I only optimized the nadir patch
> using a separate y,p,r and shift params for the nadir patch image.
>
> Then after I got a good alignment I replaced the light set of images with
> a much darker set to capture the mood of the time and stitched the pano.
>
> The result is kind of a super real (or unreal) sunset.  Sort of a Maxfield Parrish
> with a chaw in his cheek.  Not that I'm in the same league or chew tobacco.
>
> And if you look real close -- there's a cow paddy in the exact nadir.
>
> http://pancyl.com/HotCreekRanch.htm
>
> That dark blob to the left of the bright spot is a fly fishing ranch.  That
> snakey thing is a creek.  I could make a lighter version but it looses the mood.
>
> I'll be working on this one for a few more days I think.
>

[Paul Fretheim]

This is a fantastic piece of artwork.  We have been getting amazing
sunsets down here in Indy lately too.  What are CPs?

So you did not shoot this bracketed?

There was a presentation at the recent IVRPA conference in Albuquerque
by a well known VR photographer who has a company which provides VRs to
various tourism based organizations.  They have developed a system which
completely automates the production process so they can produce a large
number of panoramic images in a short period of time.  But such artwork
as represented by this wonderful sunset shot in the High Sierra would
not be possible through automation.

What camera and lens combination were you using?  Now that I shoot a lot
of bracketed stuff I have a 32 gig card in my camera with an 8 gig card
on standby.  I use a D200.  The larger capture area of the D700 would be
helpful for a shot that has to be done fast like a sunset because you
would need fewer shots by around a 50% difference.

At the conference in Albuquerque Matthias Tagwalder from Zermatt,
Switzerland showed us some of his work he has been creating using long
lenses such as 400 mm.  In order to speed the shooting time to reduce
the shadow movement, etc. and also his exposure the risks of being on a
knife ridge at over 14,000 feet in high winds, he has employed some
interesting techniques.  He has calculated the number of images needed
to acquire adequate overlap at each point along the circumference of the
sphere.  For example, if along the equator of the sphere you need 12
shots, you perhaps only need 7 on the row pointed down or up because the
diameter of the circle is less as you approach the poles.  He has also
created a pano head which mounts two cameras, so when he shoots he gets
two images at once, each in the opposite direction of the other.  With
these techniques he has reduced the number of tripod position moves to
only 29% of the shots he would have to position if he was just shooting
12 around every time with only one camera.  If a photographer used a
full frame cameras instead of the D300s Matthias is using you could
reduce the shooting time perhaps by half again.

I find it exciting to dream about the possibilities such improvements
present.

John Riley, physics professor from South Carolina, did a presentation on
an automated, remote control tripod head he made from a commercially
available telescope tracking mount that essentially does exactly what an
$8000.00 automated tripod head can do and built it for about $400 or less.

Your sunset shot from Hot Creek Ranch is really a beautiful work of art
and a challenge to the rest of us who like to think we shoot art
photography with VR imaging.

Paul Fretheim

[DemonDuck]

Yes, well, it's easy for me to use and it's free so you all
have to suffer :-)

jrgen_schrader wrote:

> Very nice and truly worth the effort.
> But you should get rid of that Java thing ;)
>
> Cheers
> Jürgen
>
> --- In [hidden email], Ken Warner <kwarner000@...> wrote:
>> I'm continuing an interesting struggle with this one.  It was real
>> late so it's really dark.  So dark that I had to make a separate light
>> set of images so I could generate CP's
>>
>> Then I ran out of room on my card for more images so I couldn't take the nadir to
>> complete the set at this time so I had to use a nadir sequence from 30 minutes
>> earlier which were not the same light so I had to fudge the color temperature
>> and the EV.
>>
>> The horizon is just about in the middle and I shot 3 rows of 8 and only one
>> of the top row images had any features from the middle row so there's no CP's
>> in the top row.  I just used Fill Yaw but that seemed to work.
>>
>> Optimizing was tricky.  I aligned and optimized only the bottom and middle row
>> then after I added the upper row and did a Fill Yaw, I didn't optimize again
>> until I added the nadir patch.  Then after I added CP's for the nadir patch
>> to align it with the images in the bottom row, I only optimized the nadir patch
>> using a separate y,p,r and shift params for the nadir patch image.
>>
>> Then after I got a good alignment I replaced the light set of images with
>> a much darker set to capture the mood of the time and stitched the pano.
>>
>> The result is kind of a super real (or unreal) sunset.  Sort of a Maxfield Parrish
>> with a chaw in his cheek.  Not that I'm in the same league or chew tobacco.
>>
>> And if you look real close -- there's a cow paddy in the exact nadir.
>>
>> http://pancyl.com/HotCreekRanch.htm
>>
>> That dark blob to the left of the bright spot is a fly fishing ranch.  That
>> snakey thing is a creek.  I could make a lighter version but it looses the mood.
>>
>> I'll be working on this one for a few more days I think.
>>
>
>
>

[DemonDuck]

Paul, Thanks for your kind words.

CP's == control points.

I shot 3 rows of 8 using a Fuji e900 compact camera.  The camera is
real old and it takes between 5-10 seconds to record each raw image
(I'm not kidding)
so it's really frustrating at times like these to watch the light
just go away between start and finish.

The camera doesn't shoot bracketed raw images so I had to fiddle with
the raw conversion to find a good middle ground for exposure and
color temperature.  And with 25 images pieced together from two
different sequences shot a half hour apart, making a pseudo-hdr set
is daunting.  That is going to be my next fun thing to do.  I want
to see if I can get a more reasonable foreground and keep the rich
sky.

I've also tried two HDR software packages -- I'm liking HDRi less and
less.  They just don't look right.

And I don't think I like automated heads.  I want to feel the experience...

Ken

Paul Fretheim wrote:
> This is a fantastic piece of artwork.  We have been getting amazing
> sunsets down here in Indy lately too.  What are CPs?
>
> So you did not shoot this bracketed?
>

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

I wonder if John's is the same as mine?
http://www.flashificator.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4393#p4393

For sunsets these are not practical, due to how slowly they move.

Where I live (Lima-Peru) the sun drops like a rock at sunset.  From the
moment it "touches" the horizon and the moment it is under the horizon,
we're dealing with 30 or so seconds.  A challenge for any panographer and
equipment.

Very nice result you got there Ken.

Trausti


On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Paul Fretheim <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> John Riley, physics professor from South Carolina, did a presentation on
> an automated, remote control tripod head he made from a commercially
> available telescope tracking mount that essentially does exactly what an
> $8000.00 automated tripod head can do and built it for about $400 or less.
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[DemonDuck]

I think the difficulties associated with capturing transitory
events -- like Sunsets -- make them more captivating.

If it was easy -- they wouldn't be worth doing -- maybe :-)

I am a speciesist -- I don't like robots :-)

Trausti Hraunfjord wrote:

> I wonder if John's is the same as mine?
> http://www.flashificator.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4393#p4393
>
> For sunsets these are not practical, due to how slowly they move.
>
> Where I live (Lima-Peru) the sun drops like a rock at sunset.  From the
> moment it "touches" the horizon and the moment it is under the horizon,
> we're dealing with 30 or so seconds.  A challenge for any panographer and
> equipment.
>
> Very nice result you got there Ken.
>
> Trausti
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Paul Fretheim <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> John Riley, physics professor from South Carolina, did a presentation on
>> an automated, remote control tripod head he made from a commercially
>> available telescope tracking mount that essentially does exactly what an
>> $8000.00 automated tripod head can do and built it for about $400 or less.
>>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

... yet you use a robot (computer) to deliver the message of not liking
robots  :)

On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:00 PM, Ken Warner <[hidden email]> wrote:

>   I am a speciesist -- I don't like robots :-)
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[DemonDuck]

Yes but I don't like it...

Trausti Hraunfjord wrote:

> ... yet you use a robot (computer) to deliver the message of not liking
> robots  :)
>
> On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:00 PM, Ken Warner <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>>   I am a speciesist -- I don't like robots :-)
>>
>>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Just to be pricky: Cameras are also robots  :)   One could paint the view...


Ok, now I will stop :)

On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:25 PM, Ken Warner <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
>
> Yes but I don't like it...
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[erik_leeman]

R-E-S-I-S-T-A-N-C-E-I-S-F-U-T-I-L-E

Beep!

Erik Leeman


--- In [hidden email], Ken Warner wrote:
>
> I think the difficulties associated with capturing transitory
> events -- like Sunsets -- make them more captivating.
>
> If it was easy -- they wouldn't be worth doing -- maybe :-)
>
> I am a speciesist -- I don't like robots :-)