Digital Panorama

Recording Landscape: The Panorama Work s h o p D e m o n stration by Paul Laidler

Recording Landscape: The Panorama

Doverodde Book Arts Festival 13th - 16th May 2010 Demonstration notes by Paul Laidler Contact: Paul.Laidler@uwe.ac.uk

Barry Frydlender, Shirat Hayam 2005

Jeff Wall, Restoration, 1993

Key words: binocular, monocular, panning, spatial, sublime, When we think of landscape within western art one generally recalls billboard size paintings on canvas that describe vast romantic scenes of nature. These pictorial views have alluded to nature’s heavenly creator and our witnessing of Gods sublime forces withih a two dimensional picture plane.

1.The fixed multi-window perspective Frydlender’s image is composed of multiple photographic images.

Here the top and bottom of each photo remains constant so that the multiple recordings create a linear perspective (a panoramic format).

Collectively the recordings create a seamless panning effect that is achieved from a fixed pivoting position or by moving the camera parallel to the field of view.

Real nature can only be experienced partially, but in the panorama vast expanses of space are surveyed with the all-seeing eye of God. Grunenberg. Christopher. The whole wide world: Expanded Painting. Glen Brown, Tate Publishing 2009 p.19

Grunenberg describes the idea of expanded views in relation to human perception and our binocular sighted field of view. Here the panorama presents the possibility of creating two dimensional representations toward the appearance and spa tial appearance of a threedimensional world.

The creation of a photographic panorama loan’s itself to both paintings scale and our visual experience of three dimensional space.This demonstration will use photography to show how to take a series of digital recordings prior to merging the individual files within Adobe Photoshop CS3. The demonstration will also cover different panoramic recording and construction methods as a means to consider the appearance of space in the final two dimensional printed image.

David Hocknet,Pearlblosom Highway, 1986

2.The Multi-window perspective Unlike Fr yd end er ’s linear cons t ruc tion me t ho d t he multi-wind ow p er sp e c tive (s e e ab ove image) re s emble s t he ap p earance of a collage.

Cons t ruc te d by a le ss rigid linear me t ho d t he colle c tive re cons t ruction of t he view (using a s erie s of mono cular views) invoke s an eye movement a ss o ciate d wit h bino cular vision. A nd like our eye s t he im age is always in fo cus inducing movement t hrough and over t he image sur face, or a s Ho ck ney d e s crib e s, ‘it is a st ill pic ture t hat moves in your head a s we move to get mult iple p ersp ec t ives’.

D av i d H o c k n e y ’s S e c r e t K n o w l e d g e , C h a n n e l 4, O c t 20 0 8

Instructions notes Considerations for the process: Both compact and digital SLR cameras can be used, as can a range of camera lenses. Although it is probably best not to use a wide angle lens as the process will create a wide angle for you.

A tripod is not essential although the device maybe useful in some circumstances i.e. Long exposures The individual sequence of photos that are used to produce the panorama can be recorded from left to right or right to left. The stitch program works sequentially matching the overlapping edges of each photograph in a sequence.

Both horizontal and vertical orientations of the camera can be used but best not to change the orientation during a single sequence of recordings.

Camera set up: The s e quence of photo s c an b e re cord e d using t he c amera s automate d or manual func tions. However t he manual o ption will give you more cont rol over how your photo s will lo ok: i.e.

Changing t he c amera s shut ter sp e e d will give you more cont rol over image exp o sure - and t herefore consis tent tonal infor mation.

S e t ting t he c amera ap er ture will d e ter mine t he d e pt h of f ield in t he image – how much of t he image remains in fo cus.

A s mentione d previously t he panning pro ce ss c an b e p er for me d using automatic s e t ting s. However t here are s ome pre - d e ter mine d c amera o p erations t hat you should consid er b efore t aking any photographs.

Taking the Photographs: Pivoting panoramic method The panoramic process can be produced from a single pivoting position and also from a sequence of adjacent positions that run parallel to the subject.

Take lens cap off, turn camera on and look through the viewfinder to work out which bit of the landscape you want to record. Consider where you might want to start and finish the panorama.

Through the viewfinder see what falls within the top and bottom edges of the frame - as this will be cropped later. When creating the sequence of images make sure you hold the camera steady and that each recording overlaps a portion of the next one (see bottom diagram).

The overlapping will help the stitch program match the duplicated sections existing within the sequences of recordings.

Looking through the view finder pan the camera about quarter of the frame size, the stitch program should have enough to work with when merging the sequence of images.

File selection: There are numb er of digit al f ile consid erations concerning colour space s and image qualit y. In t his ins t ance I would sug ge s t you t hink ab out image qualit y and t he f ile s relationship to print able s c ale. If your not sure always cho o s e t he highe s t qualit y s e t ting. O pting for a high qualit y f ile will provid e you wit h more s c aling o ptions. S c aling digit al image s d own enable s you to re t ain go o d image qualit y, s c aling image s up c an make image s b e come pixilate d. Therefore t he lar ger t he f ile s image qualit y t he more print able s c ale s will b e available to you.

Q uick s e t up n o t e: C olo ur balance c an b e adjus te d in p o s t pr o ce ssing and it is n o t e ss e nt ial to t h e p an o ramic pr o ce ss. H oweve r co mm on s e ns e will s ave yo u making adjus tm e nt s lat e r, wh e n in daylight us e a daylight colo ur s e t t ing.

M oving from lef t to right me t ho d: Here you c an s e e t he dis t ance move d b e t we en each frame

The software section 1.Launch the Adobe Bridge program, navigate to your folder and select all of the images in the folder

3. The Photomer ge dialogue b ox will o p en, in t he L ayo u t s e c t io n > Ch o o s e Au to. In t he s ource f ile s e c tion che ck t he bl e n d i m age s to get h e r b ox and s ele c t all t he f ile s t hen pre ss OK .

2.G o to To ol s > P h oto s h o p > P h oto m e r ge.

4. The P h oto m e r ge to ol will o p en t he f ile s fully mer ge d in P h oto s h o p a s a single image f ile. Each of t he mer ge d f ile s will b e s e parate wit hin t he layer s palate.

The software section 5. To make the image a uniform rectangle use the Crop tool. In the tools palate and crop off the outer image edges produced by the photomerge process.

7. Comple te d image - photographe d - photomer ge d - f lat tene d and cro p p e d.

6. In Photo sho p go t he laye r s m e n u and s ele c t f lat te n i m age.

Printing and alternative cons t ruc tion me t ho ds To day t he average pixel size of mo s t af fordable digit al c amera s is around ten me ga pixels. The s t andard print able re s olution of a ten me ga pixel image will pro duce a photographic print slightly lar ger t han A 3 s c ale. By joining a s erie s of ten me ga pixel size image s to ge t her (in a panoramic fa shion) t he p otential to pro duce lar ge - s c ale or life size print s e quivalent to a lar ge for mat c amera b e come s p o ssible.

S e e following example s: Isidro Bla sco ht t p: // w w w.isidro bla s co.com / Isidro Bla s co combine s archite c ture, photography and ins t allation to explore t heme s of vision and p erce ption in relation to physic al exp erience. Bla s co nor mally b e gins by s ele c ting one angle in a ro om or outd o or s and t hen cons t ruc t s a new space from t he p er sp e c tive of t hat vant age p oint .

Eric Testroete uses multiple photographic recordings of his head to construct a printed three dimensional avatar version of himself: see http://testroete.com/index.php?location=head

Als o s e e similar ‘multi- us er ’ photo cons t ruc tion me t ho ds in Photo synt h s of t ware: ht t p: //photo synt h.ne t / ht t p: // w w w.youtub e.com / watch?v=y 9zF97JL 30A&feature =relate d

Bo ok for mat The linear for m of t he panoramic image als o loans it s s elf to t he s e quential for mat of t he b o ok. Here are s ome example s.

Ed ward Rus cha, O n t he Suns e t St rip, 1966

Ken Leslie, Space and Time

Helen Douglas & Zoe Irvine, Illiers Combray, 2004 David Faithfull, East looking West / West looking East

Ahlrich Van Ohlen, Doverodde Panorama 2010

S o m e Vo c a b ula r y Bino cular Involving b ot h eye s: bino cular vision.

M ono cular Having only one eye: a mono cular ins t rument or d evice t hat us e s only one f ield of view Panning Shor tening of panorama: to photograph while rot ating a c amera on it s ver tic al or horizont al a xis S patial Per t aining to space, exis ting or o ccurring in space; having ex tension in space.

Sublime: Impre ssing t he mind wit h a s ens e of grand eur or p ower; inspiring awe, veneration, e tc To ol s Vo c a b ula r y Pixelate d: A printe d image which ha s b e en digitize d; visible a s a pat tern of pixels Cro p to ol: Cro p ping is t he pro ce ss of removing p or tions of an image to create fo cus or s t reng t hen t he comp o sition. You c an cro p an image using t he Cro p to ol and t he Cro p command.

Ad o b e Bridge: Ad o b e ® Bridge is a cro ss - plat for m ap plic ation includ e d wit h Ad o b e Creative Suite ® 3 comp onent s t hat helps you lo c ate, or ganize, and brows e t he a ss e t s you ne e d to create print , we b, vid e o, and audio content . You c an s t ar t Bridge from any Creative Suite comp onent , and us e it to acce ss b ot h Ad o b e and non ‑ Ad o b e a ss e t s.

Photomer ge: The Photomer ge™ command combine s s everal photographs into one continuous image. For example, you c an t ake f ive overlap ping pho tographs of a cit y sk yline, and t hen a ss emble t hem into a panorama.

The Photomer ge command c an a ss emble photo s t hat are tile d horizon t ally a s well a s ver tic ally.