Another Panoramist from the Netherlands!

[erik leeman]

When doing what I like to do most, capturing everything in sight, I normally exclude myself. For this rare occasion I didn't : ) So Hi! Pleased to meet you all!

360x180 degree photography grabbed me in 2006 and didn't let me go since. I already had been stitching composites for a few years, but this turned out for me to be the best invention ever! But now that I know how to make them, I've come to a point where I really want to learn to use that skill in a meaningful way. To make images people want to see more than just once. This is a form of photography that I think should to be rescued from being limited to purely commercial and practical applications, and I think (reading) this forum can help me in a big way to get me where I want to go with this.

Best Regards,

Erik Leeman

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi Erik,

As I wrote to you before, the pleasure is all ours. I think OPF has a lot to gain from your experience in this area. Maybe this panorama and/or 360 thing is a Dutch tradition, since most of the Dutch here in OPF are involved with the one or the other, LOL. It has to be related to the fact that we do not have much space here in our small country ;-).

Welkom aan bord.

Cheers,

PS: So is that you on the left with a remote control kind of device in your left hand? Was this taken using an automated pan head?

 

[Asher Kelman]

Cem has said it, "Welkom aan bord", Erik!

Now I've learned just a fragment more. The Dutch here make up a significant contingent, and so it should be with the great masters the like we've not seen anywhere else.

I too am intrigued with Panos since they lend us the extra information that we might see it one could move one's head as opposed to the fixed view of one simple classic camera shot.

I hope you share how you work with your panoramas and we can discuss all aspects from purpose, handheld, special tripod stages and different ways of rendering. Bart Van Der Wolf is our resident Dutch savvy photographer in this. We also have other Pano-addicts, so to speak!

So thanks for finding us! I hope you'll enjoy OPF!

Asher

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Indeed it is me on the left, holding a small wireless remote I was lucky to find at Photokina a little while ago. A motorized rotator is very high on my wish list, but alas, I don't have one (yet).

Hallo Erik,

What kind of lens do you use? Since you don't use a motorized rotating device (yet), do you use a fisheye or do you take more images with a wide angle? Do you shoot mainly for Web display, or do you also use limited FOV crops for printing?

You have very good control over the lighting technique, I know how difficult that is with immersive/surround images. Well done.

Bart

 

[nicolas claris]

Hi Erik
My turn to welcome you!
Your shot post here is realy nice, I'd like to share that dinner, what a house! Certainly owned by some art lovers…

Pano stitching isn't my main "thing" but it happens to me do do some, mainly to show interior of yachts, like this one, shot with a MF camera (Sinar):

http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=45272&postcount=13

I am sure you'll also have some nice talks about stitching with Michael Fontana, a Swiss based architectural photographer. Skilled and talented!

 

[erik leeman]

Thank you Bart and Nicolas!

@Bart:

What kind of lens do you use? Since you don't use a motorized rotating device (yet), do you use a fisheye or do you take more images with a wide angle? Do you shoot mainly for Web display, or do you also use limited FOV crops for printing?

For my 360x180's I use a Sigma f/2.8 15mm Fisheye on an EOS 5D. I shoot for both Web and print, aiming for the highest possible quality attainable with these tools. Naturally I have to drastically limit filesizes for the on-line VR versions, but I still try to squeeze in as much detail as I possibly can. Most of the prints are Mercator projections of 360x140/150 degrees, with dimensions of about 90x140 cm @200 dpi, others are Stereographics, but only very few images are really suited for that format.
I also shoot multi-row composites (mostly macro, but also figure and portraits), but I haven't been very active in that field since I got hit by the 360 virus : )

Erik

 

[Michael Fontana]

Good morning, Erik

good to have another stitcher, here!
I had a look at your site, some wonderfull spheres!

While having the Sigmafish as well, therefore making sometimes some VR's, very often, stitching is used for finding otherwise impossible solutions like here or here by using rectilinear lenses for either extended FOV or sampling pixels for billboard output, as here.

 

[erik leeman]

Hi Michael,
Thank you for your words of welcome AND your compliment!

I know there's a LOT more you can do with stitching, spheres are not the only thing I do : )

This for instance:

is a composite 'built' from three stitched sets of 21 shots each, made with an EOS 5D + EF100mm f/2.8 USM Macro (f/16 1/2sec. ISO-100), focus-stacked manually in Photoshop....because I learned about Helicon Focus after I finished it : )

Or this experiment:

from 43 images in portrait orientation, also taken with a 5D + EF100mm f/2.8 USM Macro.

Naturally I've also done landscapes and interiors, but when looking for stitching challenges I prefer experimenting with the combination of macro detail and really large angles of view.

Erik

 

[Valentin Arfire]

nice meeting you again

hi

I'm new to this forum and it looks just great.
The biggest surprise is meeting old pano-friends

cheers
Valentin

 

[Asher Kelman]

So now we can discuss Panoramas in its own section. Any method of extending the human eyes view to give a superwide scene. Could be a 4x10 piece of film scanned, a camera on a tripod able to rotate about the entrance pupil and yield a flat, circular, spherical or VR panorama. As long as the human viewing experience allows one to explore and find interest and wonder in new parts to explore further.

The spherical panorama especially has the ability to bring the entire scene to the viewer and donate to them a first observer capability. In that we can, like the still photographer, choose our own scene of interest.

Well, not quite! We can't change out postion from which we observe, at least not as yet, I don't think. However, we can stand where you did and turn our heads in almost any direction and so choose the view that entices us at this fleeting moment now.

So this is going to be fun!

Asher

 

[Valentin Arfire]

very nice interior, erik.

It is good to be among friends especially when our skills and vision will improve.

regards,