Great North Woods-Re-Post
by Harry Lichtman
A recent project came my way which required tree and waterfall images that were in a square-ish format that could be enlarged to 30 ft. x 30 ft. prints @ 150 dpi. Unfortunately, my single images did not hold up to that kind of enlargement. This fall I shot with these type of comps in the back of my mind should the right comp and conditions present themselves. This is one of the images that came of that quest. This image was the result of 6 x 6 individual images, each focus stacked, to create the final square panorama. The trees could not be shot facing them squarely, so I focus stacked to keep everything sharp using a 150mm zoom which naturally has a reduced DOF. I did crop the left side for presentation here, as I thought it tightened up the comp. Even lighting a relatively calm conditions helped me pull this off. There was enough minor movement between images that some cleanup was required after the rows were stitched. The final file size came to 2.5 gigs.
Nikon D810, 80-400, polarizing filter f16, 36 images stitched (6x6)
Comments
11 commentsEd
Impressive workflow to get meet the requirements. .
Sandy
--P
That is quite the project, 30'x30'. I can see why a single image (from almost any format, including big film) would not hold up at that size.
Thanks for the feedback. This is an alternative shot I took of the same scene, possibly more to my aesthetic liking. This incorporates less contrast and no sharpening after size reduction, as the original files does appear very sharp. So, interesting to see how this will appear with no web sharpening. This image was a focal blend of 4 images, but no stitching of multiple images. I think this Image is more of what Igor was thinking.
The original post comp. was designed to meet the requirements of the client which was a square format. I used a larger view on the original to include more of the trees, which was not necessarily the best choice as a single image but was more in keeping for the client's needs. This shot was more of what I would have done given no constraints.
Very nice!
Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI.
Great story on the details and congrats! Impressive. I do think the softer second image is more appealing just from an aesthetic point of view and processing, but the original is no less impressive in what you pulled off. Beautiful images regardless. Well done.
Lon