Day: January 19, 2018

Friday (19-January-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey: Colorful Clouds at Dawn.

The clouds lit up a bit more this morning. A comparison to two methods for creating a panoramic landscape image. The first is my normal workflow where I take a series of portrait images, overlapping about 1/3 from the previous image. I then process the raw images using Capture One Pro, and create the composite panoramic image using AutoPano Giga Pro. Since I am processing the raw images, I have more control over the colors and saturation. [note – click on the image for a wider view]

Dawn Morning Clouds. Winter Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Composite of 10 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 16 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the composite generated with AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)
Dawn Morning Clouds. Winter Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Composite of 10 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 16 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the composite generated with AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)

The second method uses the in-camera panorama feature of the Fuji XT series cameras. You select the camera mode (landscape or portrait), rotation direction, and range (medium or wide). Set the ISO, white balance, aperture, and shutter speed. Then press the shutter button and start to smoothly rotate, trying to keep the horizon level. When done, the camera processes the images in the cameras as a jpg panorama. Since it is a jpg image, it is important that the camera settings for the exposure and white balance are correct. It is also important to use a fast shutter speed since you are moving the camera as the images are being taken. The colors this example are more saturated (Fuji jpg).

Dawn Morning Clouds. Winter Backyard Nature in New Jersey. In-camera (jpg) panorama taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 16 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Dawn Morning Clouds. Winter Backyard Nature in New Jersey. In-camera (jpg) panorama taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 16 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (19-January-2016) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 14: Crossing the Pacific Ocean From Hawaii to Japan.

I never figured that I would used the Nikon 1 V3 camera to take panoramic images. Especially since I brought it along on the voyage with only one lens, a 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom. Its sole purpose was a much smaller and lighter weight system for bird and other wildlife photography so I would not need to lug around a much heavier DSLR camera and even heavier 80-400 mm telephoto zoom lens. The down side was the Nikon 1 V3 system has a smaller and more noisy sensor. During the voyage, I perfected a method to use this camera to take panoramic images. I had been using the in camera panorama mode of the Fuji X-T1, but didn’t like the fact that it only took jpg images and stitched them together in the camera. The method I developed with the Nikon 1 V3 camera uses the continuous burst mode (20 frames/second) coupled with a relatively fast shutter speed (1/250 second). I would focus the camera, then holding the shutter button down smoothly rotate until the camera buffer is full. You can tell when the buffer is full when the camera stops sounding like a machine gun and returns to the normal click, click, click. The raw images are then stitched together via software (AutoPano Giga Pro). This sunrise image was created using this technique. It is a composite of 20 images. Click on the image to view a larger version. The full image is 15687 x 3428 pixels (equiv to 52.3″ x 11.4″ if printed at 300 dpi).

Pacific Ocean Sunrise Panorama viewed from the aft deck of the MV World Odyssey. Composite of 20 images taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 82 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the panorama created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)
Pacific Ocean Sunrise Panorama viewed from the aft deck of the MV World Odyssey. Composite of 20 images taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 82 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the panorama created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)



Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.