wwp@yahoogroups.com:
a newbie's story
brooksleffler 2004-Sep-26 07:04:00
My friend Scott Haefner, who has done wondrous things with aerial panos from a kite
(http://thehaefners.com/kap/360panos/) suggested that we both submit kite aerial
panos, wherein two fisheye images (one up, one down) are stitched at the horizon.
Scott was going to shoot the magnificent Bixby Creek Bridge at Big Sur; I looked around
and decided to shoot an humble footbridge on the trail along the bluffs of Asilomar State
Beach in Pacific Grove, California.
Alas, Scott's car was broken into the day before the scheduled shoot, and he lost much of
his equipment; then shooting day was windless, so he didn't get his Bixby shot. At the
same time, I got several aerial fisheyes of my footbridge that would work well. The next
morning, however, I woke up with the idea of the historic Bridges of Cannery Row in
Monterey, connecting old sardine canneries to their warehouses across the street.
So on the equinoctical (!) day, Sept 22, the weather was sparkling, and I ran down to
Cannery Row to capture the scene (from the ground, not the air) in the lovely morning sun.
I had had problems getting sharp panos with the Nikon 4300/fisheye combo, so tried also
to zoom in to full-frame fisheye mode (which promised to be sharper), and shot many sets
of images that way.
In the afternoon, I found to my dismay that I couldn't get the right focal length dialed into
PTMac for the full-frame fisheye images, and resigned myself to the round fisheyes I was
accustomed to using.
Then I decided that, since Scott wasn't going to be able to shoot Bixby, I would get some
ground images in the waning light of the glorious afternoon. Dashing down to Big Sur, I
got three or four sets of pictures there too, some hopelessly overpowered by the low sun
over the water.
Anyway, sorting it all out, I ended up with three usable (though small) panos, any of which
would have worked (though woefully unsharp by the standards of all you pro
panographers). I decided that Bixby, being the second most-photographed bridge in
California, would be third choice. My kite aerial photographer friends urged me to submit
the aerial of the humble footbridge. But I decided that the the ground pano of Cannery
Row told the best story, so that's what I have submitted.
No way would any of my pictures be viewable full-screen. It just isn't there, and I don't
know how to get it without a lot more expensive camera.
You can see my three finalists at the links below; I would love to hear your comments and
especially your suggestions on how to get a sharp pano from a fisheye on a 4MP camera.
http://www.redshift.com/~kyteman/RockyShores.small.mov
http://www.redshift.com/~kyteman/BixbyPano2.small.mov
http://www.redshift.com/~kyteman/CanneryRow.small.mov
Thanks
Brooks