Wide BR pano Panorama
Shot from Belle of Baton Rouge Casino parking garage, stitched from 5 HDR panels with D200, 12-24 Tokina
Shot from Belle of Baton Rouge Casino parking garage, stitched from 5 HDR panels with D200, 12-24 Tokina
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Dec, 2016Views
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Awards
2020 Choice Award
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Top 20 rank week 2Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This was shot from the third or fourth level of the Belle of Baton Rouge Casino parking garage located in downtown Baton Rouge, LA. You can see the floating part of the casino on the left below the Mississippi River bridge. The city is on the right.Time
Like most of my more successful images, this was shot at the "magic hour", shortly after sunset. The glow of the blue sky vibrating with the artificial lights of civilization inspires me time and time again. Shot Oct. 7, 2015, around 7 PM.Lighting
I often say I don't shoot pictures of a subject, I shoot pictures of the lighting. This scene, if viewed during daylight conditions, is not nearly as exciting as seeing it under twilight conditions. The right lighting can render an otherwise mundane object as full of profound meaning.Equipment
Nikon D200, Tokina 12-24mm/4.0, Bogen/Manfrotto tripod. I have since switched to better equipment, and if I had to do it again, I would use my Nikon D700, Nikkor 20mm/3.5, mounted on my Nodal Ninja M2 panoramic head mounted on the same Bogen/Manfrotto tripod.Inspiration
I wanted to show the scale of Baton Rouge, but in an interesting way. Seen under daylight conditions, this same scene renders great scale, but with no "romance". The lighting makes this much more inviting.Editing
Five HDR frames were rendered, then stitched together for a panorama. Each frame was shot with five different exposures (two underexposed, one nominal, two overexposed), then the camera was carefully rotated to show overlapping content to the next position, until five views were rendered panoramically. For each view, the five different RAW files were adjusted for exposure in Nikon NX View 2, then converted to TIFFs. Each set of five TIFFs were then rendered as a single HDR using Photoshop's "adaptive" curves. The five HDR-rendered TIFFs were then stitched together in PT Gui, then exported back to Photoshop for final exposure, cropping and color adjustments.In my camera bag
No longer using the old NikonD200 used in this shot, I depend mainly on a Nikon D700, with an old D2x as backup. Lenses include: Bower 14mm/2.8, Nikkor 20mm/3.5, Nikkor 28mm/3.5, Nikkor 55mm Micro 2.8, Nikkor 135mm/2.8, Nikkor 300mm/4.0, Nikkor 1.4X Teleconverter, Phoenix 19-35mm/3.5, Nikkor 28-80mm/3.5, Tamron 70-300mm/4.0. Accessories include Nodal Ninja Ultimate M2 panorama head (which I won in a drawing), Insignia flash unit, various filters (mostly PL) electronic cable releases and radio-controlled shutter/flash controllers. The bulk of this equipment is stored in a Manfrotto backpack, but the D700, zoom lenses and 14mm I keep in a Tenba bag I sling over my shoulder. For casual shooting I use an old Olympus E420 4/3 DSLR with Sigma 10-20mm/4.0, Zuiko 14-42/3.5, Zuiko 40-150/3.5 in a Caden bag with Manfrotto travel mini-pod. I'd be happy being described as "cheap'n'cheerful" about my equipment, because I do well with what I can afford, which isn't much (I'm po'). That said, I have learned that a 10 or 12 MP camera can be used for large format prints with great sharpness and success, no matter what the self-appointed pundits say, as long as you pay attention to what you are doing (shoot on tripod).Feedback
Sometimes when you shoot vast vistas with a wide-angle lens you come up with a lot of "nothing" and you might discard the image. But if you find yourself still looking at your shot, try cropping it down to a panorama. Of course, this can challenge the limits of sharpness and resolution even with the best modern digital cameras, so shooting with a panoramic technique can render better results. In this case, using an old 10 MP Nikon was to my advantage, since it resulted in an effective 50 MP image! Try stitching together five images from a 36 MP D810 and see how quickly you overload your computer! Doesn't mean I won't try it, though ;-)
