Napier Port

I've taken the family on a  short notice vacation to Napier, and I am glad to say I've almost filled 2 16GB SD cards! There are a lot of attractions and as usual our time was way too short. I will plan a followup trip for the future.

Below an almost 180 degree panorama taken of the Napier harbor from the lookout point where two 6 inch cannons used to stand during the first world war. The panorama is made up of 8 images.

Click the image to see a larger version.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/250sec at f10, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Hippo

Edit: Hippo (I thought it was Rhino but look closely on the font op the truck) just happens to be the name of this old truck. The image below is a 3 shot panorama of the truck. Who said panoramas are just reserved for landscapes!

At the truck show on the day there were a collection of modern trucks on display, however this old truck blew the competition away in terms of looks, character and pose :-)

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 30mm, Exposure 1/400sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 400, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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What a start!

I just love Wellington. Yes, the weather may get pretty cranky in the winter, but, it more than makes up for that with beautiful mornings like today. It all started at home waiting for the lift club. After opening the front door I stopped dead in my tracks confronted with an amazing display of colors. So, out with the camera and tripod to take some snaps before the lift club arrive. (I will post those later)

Then a bit later in town and on my way to an early breakfast with a friend I took this and other pictures of the sunrise. Boy am I glad I took my camera to work today. The image below is a 5 shot panorama of the waterfront. Light metering was done towards the center of the image, and the camera dialed in to the f-stop and shutter speed as metered. Luckily I could stay on ISO 100 to minimize noise.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/250sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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The Heart of Mana Marina

I just love panoramas. This one is a four shot panorama taken on my recent Mana marina trip. What I find interesting is how the wall I was standing on, came out in a heart shape on the panorama. Click the image to view a higher resolution version.

Also, please visit my friend's blog. He is really talented, and since this is his first blog and first time at sharing his photos, your support is important: AWOE Imaging

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/320sec at f8, ISO 200, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Super Massive Wellington Waterfront Pano

What do you get if you combine 14 photos of 18MP each into one super massive pano?

Well, the answer is simple, a 26k by 4k pixel image. For non computer geeks, that is 26469 by 4528 pixels in one image! Count them one by one and you will get a total of 119,851,632 pixels. Yes, that is a 119 million pixel photo. Uhm, also, that file has a 1.5GB footprint on my computer's drive, yikes!

What can you do with such a big image?

Maybe someone just happening to be on the lookout for an image to print on a city block size billboard, will venture onto this page - hahaha, I wish ;-)

I've shrunk the image down so I can post it on the blog, but believe me, it does not even start to do justice to the detail in the original. I've also included a crop of a tiny portion of the image just to give you some indication of the resolution of the main file. See if you can spot where the crop comes from.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 46mm, Exposure 1/160sec at f8, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Civic Square Wellington

The wind was howling today during lunchtime when I went out with a friend to take some shots in Wellington. There is really a lot to capture and I will make this a more regular lunch time thing for sure.

So, back to this image, it is a 4 shot panorama taken handheld. Stitching was done in CS5. I am still a CS5 noob - coming from using The Gimp. I had to perform some warping to get a straight horizon.

Let me offer some tips for shooting panoramas:

• Choose a low ISO. Since you will be doing a fair bit of post processing, it is best to start off with as little noise as possible.
• This one is very important. Set your camera to automatic and take a light measurement on your main focus point of the panorama. Note the f-stop and shutterspeed.
• Set your camera to manual mode and dial in the f-stop and shutter speed to make sure all your shots match in exposure level.
• Make sure you take all images on the same zoom level.
• You may refocus, but try and keep your focus point at the same distance.
• Use a tripod, else make sure you use image stabilizing when handheld.
• Shoot vertical. A number of vertical (portrait) photos will stitch best into a horizontal (landscape) panorama.
• As you take your shots, make sure you have at least 20% overlap between shots.
• Quick Cheat - if your camera has focus dots in the viewfinder, try to have one of these dots track the horizon as you rotate to take the images.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/320sec at f8, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Paekakariki Road Lookout

The day was very overcast and cloudy, but I was lucky and caught some sunshine as we got to the lookout point (http://www.geolocation.ws/v/P/3056126/kapiti-island-from-paekakariki-hill-rd/en). The wind was blowing a cold southerly down our spines, but I am glad we took the detour to take this shot.

This shot is a 5 frame hand held panorama with only minor saturation and over exposure recovery performed. I used one of my Canon's view finder focus points as reference to make sure the horizon stays on the same level in all 5 shots. Exposure was measured on the rightmost of the 5 shots, set in manual, and then I took the shots from left to right. I was sure to get some overexposure with the sun reflecting in the water, but that was all planned and CS5 help reduce the impact somewhat.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 20mm, Exposure 1/200sec at f10, ISO 100, Focus manual, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV only.

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