32.5 Foot, 360 Panorama

[James Cook]

I recently posted a view of my "neighborhood" to my web site. It's gained a lot of regional press coverage for me, which is always nice.

It's the first time I've stitched photos, so as a typical chapter from the story of my life, I started with 250 images. Needless to say it was quite a learning experience and I'm now stitching smaller images like crazy.

After a lot of trial and error on ways to get the image onto the web at full scale, I settled on Zoomify. Using GoogleMaps software I was able to make it wrap, but I could only work at about 1/3 of the size with the image slicer.

Although I shot RAW, the final image was built from the 250 JPEGs. My computer simply couldn't handle the full rez.

The area, by the way, is Saugatuck, Michigan and Lake Michigan.

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I recently posted a view of my "neighborhood" to my web site. It's gained a lot of regional press coverage for me, which is always nice.

Hi James, well done.

It's the first time I've stitched photos, so as a typical chapter from the story of my life, I started with 250 images. Needless to say it was quite a learning experience and I'm now stitching smaller images like crazy.

Welcome to the club ;-) It's so nice to boost the resolution of one's images or use an arbitrary field of view at full resolution or better, with only modest investments in gear, it's quite addictive.

Cheers,
Bart

 

[Asher Kelman]

James,

I too enjoyed the panorama. Zoomify is a great tool for this! Looking forward to your small panos too. They could fit in for direct viewing and even 1200 pixels wide f need be!

Asher

 

[Valentin Arfire]

hello

very nice panorama James,

hats off for the work and picturesque landscape
thanks for sharing

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi James,

...It's the first time I've stitched photos, so as a typical chapter from the story of my life, I started with 250 images. Needless to say it was quite a learning experience and I'm now stitching smaller images like crazy.

You are not afraid of jumping right into the deep, aren't you? This is a great pano with a lot of hidden gems. But one has to persevere in order to find them scattered around below the emerald canopy. Perhaps you can create a set of direct (zoomed in) links to points of interest in the pano?

BTW, I have spent some time perusing your work on your website and it is absolutely amazing. I'm duly impressed. Especially the presidents gallery is very interesting to look at, highly recommended.

Cheers,

 

[John Kirby]

Very impressive James. Correct me if I've missed it on your site, but I couldn't find anything regarding the gear you used. Be interested to know of the camera, lens, mount facilities, rotating technique, etc.

I was amused reading of the ship appearing twice in the composite. It reminded me of the old story, perhaps apocryphal, of a prank performed when involved in one of those very wide and narrow group shots that were taken late in the 19th. century. The lens actually rotated (as a fore-runner of the 1948 WideLux) during the exposure. With the low sensitivity of the emulsion (and a slow lens to boot) dictating a slow rotation speed, it's alleged that a conveniently positioned fast prankster could get from one end to the other in time to be recorded twice.

Again, well done.
John.

 

[James Cook]

But one has to persevere in order to find them scattered around below the emerald canopy. Perhaps you can create a set of direct (zoomed in) links to points of interest in the pano?

Locally there's a lot of story behind that canopy. About half of it is preserved, but to the North a developer want to build a resort with a tall hotel. So the photo serves to the resistance and may serve as a historical record of how it was.

I actually do have several zoomed frames, but have yet to decide how I want to work them into the site design and flow.

BTW, I have spent some time perusing your work on your website and it is absolutely amazing. I'm duly impressed. Especially the presidents gallery is very interesting to look at, highly recommended.

Thanks for your kind words. Besides giving away the fact that I've been around for a while, what it all shows is the access we gain because we hold a camera. I'm constantly amazed to think of the history I have witnessed, the people I have met or the doors that have opened for me to take a tour - only because of that little recording device.

How kind that these cameras have taken me along for the ride.

 

[James Cook]

Correct me if I've missed it on your site, but I couldn't find anything regarding the gear you used. Be interested to know of the camera, lens, mount facilities, rotating technique, etc.

As might be expected, my site is not designed to show off to other photographers. At this time I'm pursuing print sales to people who love the area I live in. On that note I don't want them to even think about my gear. Once we launch our workshops this Winter I'll likely provide a bit more on that site.

I shoot with Sony cameras and mostly Minolta lenses since I was once sponsored by Minolta when they were trying to break into the pro market. It was an easy migration to Sony.

Although I've got a 24 mp a850, the panorama was done with a 10 mp a100. I simply didn't want a few hundred images that were too big to process. As it was, I still fell back to just the JPEGs.

The lens was an 80-200 APO at 80mm and f8.

The point of view was from an irregular platform between the steel legs of a tower. There was no way to do as much as a 180 without hitting the i-beams. So I had to wriggle around with my tripod to where I could get a sweep by rotating the head. Then I'd move a few feet and repeat it in another direction.

It amounted to a far less than ideal set of images for the objective and I found that no software would co-operate and give me the results I wanted. In the end I laid one image over another, one by one, and worked out the alignment using transparency and distortion controls in Photoshop CS4. It took a long time and was met with failure more than once. but I am persistent if nothing else.

It was a learning experience and I've benefited a lot in the interim from it.

 

[John Kirby]

Thanks for the details, James.
Like many great pieces of work, much toil involved in getting the result.
Congratulations, and all the best for your future projects.
John.