South Vegas Strip Panorama
While walking the Strip I find myself at the top of the Vegas Eiffel Tower. Luckily, the clouds and sky put on a epic show during the sunset. Luckily, I had m...
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While walking the Strip I find myself at the top of the Vegas Eiffel Tower. Luckily, the clouds and sky put on a epic show during the sunset. Luckily, I had my compact Panasonic LX100 with me. And it was small enough to fit through the port holes. Thus, I snapped some panoramas, 4K video, and time lapse. Luckily, the sky maintained it's colors even into twilight. I guess you could say, it was my Lucky day.
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Jun, 2016Views
1116
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Awards
Winner in Best View Taken From a Balcony - Hotel or at Home Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
All Star
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
Genius
Top Ranks
Top 30 rank
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
While wondering the Vegas Strip, I decided to get up to the top of the Vegas Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel. This was one of the best sunsets I've seen in the Vegas Valley in a long time.Time
Whenever I go out to shoot photography, I always plan to shoot in the good light. By good light, I mean sunset, sunrise, twilight, and dusk. This gives me the best possible lighting for any shot. And, it's easier to get a balanced exposure between the highlights and shadows.Lighting
On the Vegas Strip, when the lights come on and the sky darkens, there is a shift between harsh grey desert daylight to vibrant city's lights with a backdrop of colorful sky. During the day the Strip seems boring to look at, but at night, the Vegas Strip comes to life. And the short transition during civil twilight is the most exciting part of it all.Equipment
For this shot I used a Panasonic Lumix LX100 (large sensor point & shoot). The small openings up on the Vegas Eiffel Tower are too small for DSLRs and lenses. And the angle of how you can shoot is very limited with those small openings. Thus, I used my point & shoot, hand held. On this photo I used a multi shot panorama technique to get a wider shot. If I remember, this photo is a panorama of 5 or 6 shots from 2 different portholes facing South. Being hand held, I used about 50% overlap at 10.9mm (M4:3), at f/1.7, ISO 1600, 1/60 sec. Shade WB, with manual focus.Inspiration
The Vegas Eiffel Tower is the 2nd highest structure in Las Vegas. And, I wanted to get a great shot from a high vantage point during the Civil Twilight when the city's lights are on. Looking at the cloud formations and wind conditions prior to sunset, I knew the sunset was going to put on a show as long as those clouds held up. Fortunately, my predictions were correct.Editing
With cityscape photography I hardly do any post processing. I try to get the shot right while capture, correct WB, and exposure are critical for these shots. This sunset was vibrant with a lot of color, so I just did the basic minor adjustments with clarity and contrast. I also balanced the exposures of each shot so that they would blend, and auto-stitched it Microsoft ICE for the complete image.In my camera bag
When in a city environment, the Panasonic Lumix LX100 is my main camera. It does everything great: time lapse, photos, low light, 4K video. It's small, light, and incognito. And with multi shot panoramas, I can get wide shots and super high resolution images like a medium format camera with a digital back.Feedback
To get the best possible shot of the City, set yourself up for great light, and a high vantage point. Pack light, and be free to move about without lugging around heavy camera gear, you'll enjoy the experience more. And, learn the multi shot panorama technique to get super high resolution images as well as ultra wide images without distortion. Also, If you're not using Lightroom 6, there's the Microsoft Image Composite Editor which is a free auto-stitch software to stitch up your multi shot panoramas. Thanks for the award, and thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope it helps.
