Pano: Queenstown NZ

[stubbsy]

Something I rarely do is panos, but the view from the top of the gondola in Queenstown during my last NZ trip called for it IMHO. This is a 20 shot handheld pano merged using PSCS3. Thought I'd share it. Click for a larger version (350k) to see it in more detail.

[big pix]

nice work Peter....... but is the horizon straight

[xerubus]

Excellent shot Peter! Love the sharpness and the tones. Did you blend the shots to increase the DR?

[zafra52]

Lovely image. It gives an idea of proportions.

[blacknstormy]

Peter - that is just stunning !!!!
Damo is a kiwi, and he keeps telling how beautiful NZ is - I'll have to go over there sooner or later - but you are making it look even more inviting

[Killakoala]

That's a truly fantastic pano Peter. At full size it looks amazing. Wow, what a view!!!

[Geoff M]

Stunning...........I have never had much success with panos as the exposure seems to vary between shots even though I set the camera to manual

[dawesy]

A great image, makes me even more disappointed that my planned NZ trip fell through this year! Ah well, I will get there eventually!

[Reschsmooth]

Beautiful, Peter - you have captured the fantastic view from up there very well.

[radar]

Very nice pano Peter,

it is a fantastic view from up there on a clear day, you have done well

André

[michael_]

Peter, as always just stunning.

[Alpha_7]

Great shot Peter it's a lovely view, and you told me it was easier using PS then panofactory ? I might have to try some in Egypt and see how they go when I get back.

[ozimax]

Breathtaking pano Stubbsy, I can never get these panos to work in PS1, you have done NZ proud here. This shot would be amazing as a wide angle canvas on a blank wall. Well done. OZi.

[ozimax]

Stunning...........I have never had much success with panos as the exposure seems to vary between shots even though I set the camera to manual

I'm in the same boat with you Geoff, however...I was browsing through one of Scott Kelby's books last week and came across the following hints regarding panos:

1. Shoot on a tripod
2. Shoot vertically
3. Use "cloudy" white balance for each shot
4. Take exposure setting in auto, then use these settings in "manual" mode (as you have already mentioned)
5. Focus the first shot then turn off auto focus
6. Overlap by 20-25%

I've used most of these before. Maybe these will help me get a better pano shot? Maybe they won't.

Cheers,

Ozi.

[stubbsy]

Thank you all for the comments. As for how I took it - here's my technique perfected after years of thought and analysis... OK well maybe not that. I'm a lazy bastard so I have a lazy pano technique that requires no gear other than your camera and a little bit of practice.

- Set camera to continuous shot mode
- shoot vertically
- Set the aperture
- Point at the centre object in your final pano (ie the middle of the scene) and get a focus lock
- lock the focus
- rotate your body (not your feet) to extreme left
- fire your first shot then pan right pressing the button down (rat-a-tat-a-tat) twisting your body not your feet
- If your camera slows down due to buffering slow your pan, but don't release the button
- convert shots to TIFF (no PP)
- load into PSCS 3(Automate/photo merge)
- crop and PP as per usual (in this case I had some barrel distortion i tidied up using the warp tool)

So no fancy schmansy pano rails or tripods or anything else. Easy eh!

Mark: No HDR - just standard stubbsy PP on this
Bernie: I wondered about the horizon too - went to straighten it and discovered it was basically level so a kind of visual illusion.

[Geoff]

'standard stubbsy pp' - your 'standard' is far from standard

Beautiful shot!

[Yi-P]

'standard stubbsy pp' - your 'standard' is far from standard

Beautiful shot!

He meant 'lots of blues' as standard stubbsy pp


Great shot Peter, very nicely done!

[xerubus]

Mark: No HDR - just standard stubbsy PP on this

Good stuff! You have done a bloody good job capturing so much detail.

[marcotrov]

Well composed and exposed, vibrant colours well executed and gorgeous scene to boot. Excellent work peter. Thanks for the explanation too. They might'nt be able to win a sporting trick of late but by gosh they have beautiful scenic landscapes
cheers
marco

[Matt. K]

Just gorgious! Beautiful work!

[michael_]

Thank you all for the comments. As for how I took it - here's my technique perfected after years of thought and analysis... OK well maybe not that. I'm a lazy bastard so I have a lazy pano technique that requires no gear other than your camera and a little bit of practice.

- Set camera to continuous shot mode
- shoot vertically
- Set the aperture
- Point at the centre object in your final pano (ie the middle of the scene) and get a focus lock
- lock the focus
- rotate your body (not your feet) to extreme left
- fire your first shot then pan right pressing the button down (rat-a-tat-a-tat) twisting your body not your feet
- If your camera slows down due to buffering slow your pan, but don't release the button
- convert shots to TIFF (no PP)
- load into PSCS 3(Automate/photo merge)
- crop and PP as per usual (in this case I had some barrel distortion i tidied up using the warp tool)

So no fancy schmansy pano rails or tripods or anything else. Easy eh!

Mark: No HDR - just standard stubbsy PP on this
Bernie: I wondered about the horizon too - went to straighten it and discovered it was basically level so a kind of visual illusion.

interestig technique, you obvioously cant do this with scenes which require slowish shutter speeds, then what do you do?