Dang you auto-exposure!

Went out and took 2 new panoramas today; one of the construction of the new field house and one taken from mid-field on the new soccer/track complex. Come to find out when I get back that I had auto-exposure turned on (not what you want to do) so the brightness/contrast of every picture came out differently... so I have 4 options:
Try to fix them all myself, start over and take the pictures again, throw these panoramas out completely, or just leave them how they are.

Here is the one I took for mid-field at the new track: (you can see what I mean about the auto-exposure messing things up)

Only 20 pictures in this one, (10 low-level, 10 eye-level) I left 10 of the sky that I usually take out, that's why the horizon line seems slim. I didn't bother to fix the "vortex" in the middle yet either... Oh well, I learn something every time. At least I have another long weekend ahead of me where I can get some things done.

Four More Days

Four more days, and then I'll be on spring break. In four more days, I can finally crack down on this photography I so desperately need to finish. I will finally have a week where I don't have classes or practice to go to, or school work to worry about. Heck, I won't have to worry about being stuck in a parking lot covered in 5 feet of snow either.

I've got a few places in Mansfield that I plan on taking pictures for my panoramas first. Those are the closest places to where I live, so that's where I'll start. I've also been informed about an old shipyard in Sandusky that is high on my list.

I've had enough practice on the process, so once I bang out and get these pictures done, I'll be hitting the ground running. So be prepared for A LOT more progress once the weekend comes!

Some progress...

I'll update this post in a few, stay tuned.


After small adjustments:

After the crop and some slight changes...

Trial Run

If you read my last post, you would know the difficulties I've been having with the weather... I finally had a group of 4 or 5 people help me dig out my car one evening, and the next day I drove outside of town looking for anything to photograph. I wasn't able to make it out to any big cities due to the weather, however I did end up stopping right down the road from Crestview high school. I set up shop in the middle of a field and went to work. 25 minutes later, I had a memory card full of pictures. I had what I came for, and I couldn't feel my feet, so I headed back. Later I stitched the pieces together, touched up some places, and I was left with this panorama:Now onto the next step, making the globe. Using a few tricks I ended up with this:After doing this, I realized there were some faults (obviously) after the transformation. Even though this is a trial (by trial, I mean it is not the "urban/grunge" look I plan to base my work around) to make sure my process is correct.

Two main faults:
-Trees. This is a result of me being dumb during the photography process. Note to self: DO NOT cut off trees/buildings etc. (You can see why in my image above) I suppose this means I try to recreate the tops of the trees that were cut off, or re-photograph it again... I wont do that because this is a trial, but maybe next time I'll make two passes: one pass at eye level, and another with the camera pointed at an upward angle to catch the tops of the trees. Unfortunately that means I'll have twice as many pictures to take, and twice as many pictures to stitch together...
-The "vortex" at the center of the planet. Another photography fault of mine. I didn't realize this would happen, but if you think about it; it should. I didn't take a picture of the center, I took a picture AROUND the center. Another note to self: Next time, take a picture of where the tripod sat before/after I take all of the pictures, so I can blend it in over the "vortex."

Sorry for the long-winded post, but that's where I'm at. Still learning but, still at it.

Snow causing problems....

The resent snow is causing problems in more ways than one....
Since today is the first day in a long time that I don't have track practice, I'd figure I would have plenty of time to go out for a drive and take some of the pictures that I needed. Literally 15 minutes ago, I walked out to my car, to find my car buried under a pile of snow taller than me. Aren't the plows supposed to clear the way, and NOT block everyone in the parking lot in?? Seriously, how and I going to get my tiny little For Mustang sports car through/over/around 4 tons of snow??

So it looks like I'll have to see what I can get pictures of that is within walking distance...
But here's another problem: Everything I would take a picture of is covered in feet of piled snow! That wouldn't yield very interesting results, because all of the details will be covered up. Not to mention the intense white glare/reflection of the sun.... I mean a panorama won't be very visually interesting when all you see is white everywhere...

I guess all I can do right now is plan more spots to photograph and perfect the technique of making a "globe panorama"??

Scratch that last idea... kind of?

This weekend was a time of inspiration. I've decided to stray away a little from my idea of editing a static photograph. Instead, I've decided I want to manipulate and edit a panorama. (Click here to read more on what a panorama is, if you're not already familiar with that.) My idea of the urban grunge theme will stay the same, however. To go further with this idea, I want to manipulate the panorama into something that is called a "globe panorama."

Example of a globe panorama here:

Clearwater Beach Planet by dgroup

Basically, the process to make something like this would be:
-Use a tripod and take a series of photos in a 360degree motion of the scene
-Stitch the photos together to make a panorama
-Warp the panorama 360degrees into a circle

From there I'll go into the "globe panorama" and manipulate/edit it to my liking using the urban grunge/destroy theme.

I'm practicing the process now, I'll upload the panorama I did of the Quad later sometime.
Really all I need to do now is take the photos so I can get down to editing. Any ideas on some interesting places that would have some structures that would make a good panorama? The idea is to have each image bllok like its own "separate world."

New Found Inspiration

While browsing for new ideas and techniques, I stumbled upon a digital artist by the name of Vitaly S. Alexius. (http://www.svitart.com/)

Alexius does a lot of photo manipulation using themes and ideas that are very similar to those that I would like to work with (Urban, grunge). He then continues to further develop his pieces by digitally "painting" over them. This produces some interesting results.

I myself own a Wacom pen tablet, and I would love to experiment with this technique more. Although my digital painting skills are far from great, I'd still like to give it a shot. After comparing images with just straight photo manipulation with photo manipulations that were then further developed using this "painting" technique, the "painted" ones were far more interesting.

Here are some of Alexius' works to show you what I mean.

Absence of Vision by =alexiuss on deviantART


Aeons of Eclipse by =alexiuss on deviantART

Pretty cool, eh?