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View Full Version : Burghley House in winter light.



Mark Wiseman
12-16-2012, 04:25 PM
This is an image of Burghley House, near Stamford, UK. This is my first panoramic image using the RRS Pro omni- pivot panoramic head and the D800. It is a blend of 5 images and was processed in ACR and CS6. It was processed on my 15"MBP, which took incredible strain with an image that was 18810 pixels wide and the file size was 728MB in size. It took a very long time to process, whew. I am happy with the result and the image is a good result considering that I should have been in Iceland or the Scottish Highlands this weekend. Due to a mild epiglottitis it was not possible.
Camera details:
Nikon D800 camera
Nikkor 24-70mm lens f2.8 G ED lens
Aperture f16
Shutter speed 1/4 second
ISO 100
Manual focus
Aperture priority mode

The image was stitched manually in CS6 and then blended and processed accordingly using luminosity masks and largely curves adjustments. It is a massive file and computing power becomes really important when processing these D800 images. The image had an edge and surface masks applied for noise reduction and sharpening. The detail obtained is astounding, at this resolution it cannot be seen, but there are little golden flags on the turrets that can be seen on the full resolution image, I was gobsmacked by this cameras images.
Any comments and crits most welcome.

:bg3::cheers:


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Marina Scarr
12-16-2012, 06:48 PM
Looking quite remarkable for your first pano, Mark. You did a great job working the wall into your frame. The light and sky really worked to your advantage here.

Don Railton
12-16-2012, 08:39 PM
Hello Mark

This is very nice. I agree with Marina, the wall is well done and the light is perfect..

DON

Dave Mills
12-16-2012, 10:27 PM
Hi Mark, I like the way you framed the image and the warm light. The mansion was leaning to the right so I brought it in PS to straighten it. I selected the whole image then Edit/Transform/Skew. I pulled it a bit from the upper left and it was straight. I also took a small bit off the top. Nicely done!

Morkel Erasmus
12-17-2012, 03:33 AM
nice light and colours and pano well constructed, Mark
I too like how you used the wall in the front.
Dave did a good job in straightening the mansion/castle...one of the reasons I don't include a lot of buildings in my photos is the perspective distortion caused by regular wide-angle lenses (you need a tilt-shift lens for proper rendering of architecture), with trees it's not a problem as trees often 'grow skew'.

Is your panoramic head robotic?

Mark Wiseman
12-17-2012, 04:09 AM
Hi Morkel, Dave, Don and Marina,
Thank you very much for your comments, I really appreciate them as they help to improve my photography and post processing.
Dave, thank you very much for the help. You have added an extra skill to my post processing. I went and made the changes and used the skew and warp sections of the transform tool to make the necessary changes to the image to improve it.
Morkel, the RRS Pro omnipivot head is a manual head. They do make auto heads, but I feel, once you have positioned your camera on the head and made the adjustments, it is not at all difficult. The problem comes in the alignment and the blending of the image in CS6, that is the tricky part. I cannot be greedy Morkel, but I would like the Nikkorr 24mm Tilt shift lens for architecture, but my eyes were set on the Nikkorr 24mm f1.4mm lens for nightscapes and portraiture. I need a new Apple mac for processing as the D800 files on the MBP and 8GB RAM is insufficient and with a baby on the way, I have to set my priorities. I guess the Apple mac will be first, then the baby and the lenses will come in due course.
Thanks again and Merry Christmas to all,
Mark.
:5

122236

Morkel Erasmus
12-17-2012, 04:17 AM
thanks for clarifying, Mark.
I know Frits Hoogendijk uses a very advanced GigaPan robotic head, which also eases up the matching of frames in the stitching process.

Looking again at the image I feel it lacks some midtone contrast...do I sound like a broken record on this point? :t3

Mark Wiseman
12-17-2012, 04:57 AM
Hi Morkel,
Nope, you dont. I was just so excited with the result, I forgot to add the midtone contrast. I adjusted the LBM to soft light and the image below is the result. What do you think now.
Thanks for your input and help.
Best wishes, Mark.
PS: I must now go and have a look at those new iMac's.
122239122238

Rachel Hollander
12-17-2012, 09:18 AM
Hi Mark - well done with the stitching and I too like the wall. For me the tones of the top image in your last post is the best. Really nice light and colors too.

TFS,
Rachel

Roman Kurywczak
12-17-2012, 12:21 PM
Hey Mark,
Great advice above and nice job tweaking it. I think the pano presentation works very well on the scene so very nicely done!

Robert Amoruso
12-20-2012, 02:46 PM
Well done on the final version. Nicely composed with the wall.

Mark Wiseman
12-20-2012, 03:40 PM
Hi Rachel, Roman and Robert,
Thanks for your input, it is always gratefully appreciated. I tried to use the wall as a leading line into the subject and it has worked well. A valuable lesson, I feel, as one is sometimes confronted by walls in images which act as a block or a barrier to an image. Once it snows i will head back and take some more images and see if I can improve. I will have to think long and hard about getting the Nikkor 24mm PC lens ahead of the 24mm f1.4 lens.
Best wishes and all the best over the festive season,
Mark.
:cheers:

Andrew Aveley
12-23-2012, 08:12 AM
ll good with this one and all the advice and tweaking is impressive :)

HAve a happy Festive Season !