Story of pano

[Michael Fontana]

This panorama was drawn at the top of from Mt. Tödi, 11856 feets in Grison, my native home, 100 years ago and is looking south. I actually have been on top of some peaks, you can see in the panorama. Here's a photo of Mt. Tödi from north:

4 lithographies (from stone) about 240 cm x 50 cm in total size, and done by Albert Bosshard, a painter who didn't suceed, and entered in panorama-drawing.

In 1903 he went up the first time, and after 50 times of climbing to the peak he finished in 1915 the 4th parth; 12sheets (360 degs) have been planned, but as Bosshard took so long, 12 years, for the first 4 parthes, the swiss alpine club, sponsor of the first 4 lithos, didn't financed the rest anymore.

My repro-light wasn't good, the 4 sheets fit together in reality way better than on my shot.

Unfortunatly, the best time for panos was already gone then, so this is the culmination and end at the same time of pano-drawing.

What's the story?
Well - with the equipement of 100 years ago, he went 50 times to 11856 feets .. for 4 images....

Today.......

 

[Michael Fontana]

He're s a details from the 3th sheet, not even beeing 100%, but you can see its delicate color and shapes:

Bosshard had been measering, drawing and taking notes off all the peaks.

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Michael,

Fabulous work and a fabulous story.

And I complain about having to haul my EF 70-200 f/2.8L to the top row of seats of a football stadium!

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Ruben Alfu]

Wow, thanks for sharing such a remarkable work.

 

[Valentin Arfire]

wonderful image and story;

as for the effort... hats off

 

[Michael Fontana]

I'm wondering what projection he was using - to me it looks like a rectilinear, with a bit of a shift downwards to show the lower valleys. Could be done with a shiftlens and a panohead, as written in Bart's TSE-24-thread.

Did anybody thried to set a pano together with different prints, like the 4 sheets, here?
The panorama's HFOV are 90 degs, divided by 4 sheets, it would be equivalent to about a 100 mm lens.

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I'm wondering what projection he was using - to me it looks like a rectilinear, with a bit of a shift downwards to show the lower valleys. Could be done with a shiftlens and a panohead, as written in Bart's TSE-24-thread.

Did anybody thried to set a pano together with different prints, like the 4 sheets, here?
The panorama's HFOV are 90 degs, divided by 4 sheets, it would be equivalent to about a 100 mm lens.

Maybe it's not a geometrically correct projection, but rather an artist's impression.

Stitching sheets, similar to scanning a large image in sections, is usually done by using a huge simulated focal length, e.g. 9000 mm. It will still be a compromise.

PTassembler 5.1 (Windows only) will have a new feature that allows to stitch a flat surface that was shot from different camera positions, it's called Camera Position Optimizer. I've tried it on a storefront scenario, everything in a single plane, by taking images every couple of meters. They stitched together fine. except for stuff in front of that single plane which obviously suffered from parallax.

Cheers,
Bart

 

[Michael Fontana]

Bart

Albert Bosshard did measure all the mountains and named them, therefore he had probably used degrees as aid, after fixing the initial point. He drew after the nature, like a scientist and not in todays' terms of a artist - even if he decided to use a slightly haze light prior to noon, and not the harsh light of a blue sky.

I'm sure that on the 50 times, he want up, light and landscape were quite different, each time. Interesting the fact to have a haze-type light and a sharp view for some 100 km; that's not possible with photos: the moisture of the haze would deliver soft mountains, the farer away, the softer.

I already did flat surface stitching - works fine with PTGui, too.
70 mm of a painting became a poster, with the use of 9 shots with the macro 100.

I wasn't writing clear enough - the idea following the drawers methode would be to take photos similar to a pano, but without overlap - example: 13 shots with the 100 mm, that lens has has barely no anamorphic distortion, print the photos whithout stitching and put the 9 prints at the wall; sie by side:

we would get a 180 deg-pano, in rectilinear projection - without the distortions of the other projections, (like top and bottom of cylindric) nor the distortions of the superwide HFOV.