Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Verticals - upright panorama



Since I purchased my new panorama camera, Horizon Perfekt in October, I have eventually made a few rolls of panorama fotos. As usual, I shoot exclusively on black-n-white film with this new camera. Well, OK I did a couple rolls of Agfa Vista 400. I don't really like the colors produced from these color negatives as they are flat and lacked of contrast. Maybe it was due to the scanning from the foto lab.

What are the great challenges posed when making vertical panorama photographs?

Make the jump to find out more.

In panorama photography, the wider the coverage the more details are included in the composing frame. To compose and make minimalistic images, one has to be meticulous with great observations and anticipations. At times one needs to wait for the moment to unfold right before one's eyes and therefore patience plays an important part too.

The best captured moments are taken when one is ready to press the shutter release button at the right place at the right time. All these factors plays along side with one's technical skills i.e. light metering, composition, framing, etc.

With Horizon Perfekt, it's pretty much straight forward as it focuses just like a point-n-shoot camera, with a fixated wide angle lens of 28mm, 45° view angle top and bottom. Its lens swings from left to right covering 120° horizontally.

Most photographers make horizontal panorama fotos especially for landscape and a group of people, etc. For me I'm always willing to explore and try out something new. Well, not really new in this context, but it certainly narrows down my view on the subjects I photographed, in a vertical strips format.

OK here's one of the fotos I made on Agfa Vista 400. Image is converted to black-n-white in Photoshop using Channel Mixer.

Singapore Flyer

This shot was made on an overcast morning right on Sheares Bridge. The rising sun was covered by densed clouds on the right side of the Flyer hence the soft lighting. However taking the light reading wasn't easy. As the old adage on which the Zone System is based: 'expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights', I couldn't control much as I shot on color negatives. Nonetheless, I took a few light readings and calculated the differences in exposure. After black-n-white conversion, I was able to save the highlight details on the clouds and burn in some areas.


Here's another foto I made at the foot of the Flyer with 3 weekend cyclists riding by. Well much to my contentment to have them around to make this image more interesting. Look closely and you will notice the juxaposition of the cyclists in triangular form. This is one of the main elements I'm always looking out for in my street photography and the same applies to panorama.


Joy Ride along Singapore Flyer

I still got many panorama negatives to scan and upload them on my website. So do come back here or check out my website for new photography work.

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