Verticals - upright panorama 2

Here's Part 2 of Verticals - upright panorama photography using Horizon Perfekt swing-lens camera.

Finally I've managed to get some panorama negatives scanned last night from the first roll. This is just the beginning of many more negatives to be scanned, post-processed and many more to show.

Click to read on my blog.

I'll start off with this photograph which I made it at The Esplanade Garden, right under the flyover, Esplanade Way.

Under Esplanade Way

It was almost noon and the sunlight was really strong and harsh. I was looking out for minimal subjects that will fit in the vertical format of my camera, which of course subject to my perspective angle and photographic composition.

That was when I walked under the flyover and noticed the strip of light that as if cut the underpass into two halves. After some observations and walk-about, I found the vantage point to made this photograph and another one, which I spotted a man who was meditating in a corner, all alone and immediately I knew it's a good subject for minimalisitc photograph.

You can view the photograph at my website here. To maximise for better viewing, press F11 key (for PC users).

Coming to the film development part. The film I used is Kodak Tri-X 400 rated at 400. Keeping in mind on the old saying "Expose for the shadows, Develop for the highlights". I exposed the film at the same speed but I over-developed the film by about 1.5-stop, placing the highlights on Zone 9. Resulting in a high contrast negatives, but however without any loss of shadows details. Though the darkest part is on Zone 2.

Using EPSON Perfection V700 Photo flat-bed scanner, the scan settings tends to lower down the highlights and maintain the shadows. With appropriate minor tweaks in Photoshop, using Level and Curves to balance the brightness and contrast, followed by Unsharp Mask and High Pass for image sharpening, the overall result is quite good. Lastly the image is warm toned for that three-dimensional look. Well that's my personal preference.

Under Esplanade Way is made with:

Horizon Perfekt | 28mm | shutter speed not recorded | Kodak Tri-X 400 | Developed in Kodak D76 1:1 dilution @ 20°C for 10 minutes | Negative scanned on EPSON Perfection V700 Photo | Minor adjustments for brightness, contrast and warm toned in Photoshop