Project 52 by Frank Miller

[Donald]

Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. Amazing skill.

And, by the way, what exactly is going on in the new avatar? Is that a plane you're sitting?

[FrankMi]

Hi Donald. Hopefully others will be willing to try new things if they can see what can be accomplished and can get an idea of how to do it.

New Avatar? Yes, I though I'd try a softer look - in this image I'm sitting in the cockpit of an SR71 Blackbird.....and yes, that is the real SR71 cockpit, not a Photoshopped one! LOL!

[ronlane]

Frank,

That looks good even the oil painting (which isn't my thing). I appreciate the time you put into showing these processes to put this together.

[nimitzbenedicto]

Hi Frank,

Learning a lot from you. Thanks for this very informative post.

Vic

[MilT0s]

Thanks for sharing your process and amazing results Frank!

And... a SR71!! Really?!?!?!?! How?? Got any more photos?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Frank,

You got to sit in a real SR-71?

Any cockpit shots, or just soaking in the experience?

Back to the topic, another very instructive series of how we can do things that may at first seem imposiible.

I'll stop one before I get to the painting though

Well done,

[Nicola]

that's shocking!
thank you Frank for sharing your skills!
i'll never have neither your skills nor your patience to run trough your procedure...

[FrankMi]

LOL! There seems to be more interest in my Avatar than in the P52 images! It must be the nature of the P52 threads, I sometimes see postings that have no feedback at all. Most times there are a few of the faithful that can be counted on for encouragement and for that I'm sure all the P52 posters are thankful.

I posted a new thread on the SR-71 here: SR-71 Blackbird?

I don't have many images and I wasn't able to get one of the inside of the cockpit. If I recall correctly it was looking a bit sparse. I didn't get to sit in a complete SR-71, they did have the cockpit section of the aircraft available however.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

[FrankMi]

that's shocking!
thank you Frank for sharing your skills!
i'll never have neither your skills nor your patience to run trough your procedure...

My pleasure Nicola! I enjoy learning new things so figuring out how to solve these kinds of problems is often a lot of fun for me.

[PhotoRob]

Amazing Frank - truly masterful!

[oldgreygary]

That's a really interesting approach and the results speak for themselves. I'll need to go back a few times to fully understand how it was done. But, the results speak for themselves. As it gives a really strong, architectural image.

I agree about P52 it does seem to get 'lost' in the forums.

Cheers for now

Gary

[FrankMi]

Thank you Rob and Gary for the encouragement!

I really loved the intricate detail but it is difficult to see in the full size image. Here is a smaller portion of the building where the details are easier to explore:



Thanks for viewing!

[ktuli]

Frank,

I do like the work you put into that composite image... the one thing I find distracting is the tree branch encroaching on the top right corner. Sometimes I like things like that to frame a shot, but in this case, it is really dark and just pulls my eye away from the building. Based on what you've shown us with your PP skills on the rest of the photo, I am surprised you didn't clone that out too.

Just my $0.02...

- Bill

[FrankMi]

Frank,

I do like the work you put into that composite image... the one thing I find distracting is the tree branch encroaching on the top right corner. Sometimes I like things like that to frame a shot, but in this case, it is really dark and just pulls my eye away from the building. Based on what you've shown us with your PP skills on the rest of the photo, I am surprised you didn't clone that out too.

Just my $0.02...

- Bill

Thank you for commenting Bill. If you look closely at the initial panorama before fleshing out the sky and foreground you might note that the right side tree branches would not have been in the final image. I moved them closer to avoid a 'sterile' look of the stark building and because they were part of the original scene. I didn't feel that the bare branches on the left contributed anything other than a distraction so I did remove those.

Good point though. I should have lightened them up a bit but I didn't think about that at the time!

[MilT0s]

Frank I have a question for you:

This stretching and sticking techniques you exploit with great success are supposed to lower the quality considerably (the first one), the reason being that the programs needs to interpolate the data for the distortion of the image thus loosing contrast. However the quality of your final image if fantastic. Thanks for sharing in high quality (1600px on the longer edge) by the way. You think it is crucial to use many captures and avoid the parts of the images that stretch the most? What is your secret then?

[FrankMi]

This stretching and sticking techniques you exploit with great success are supposed to lower the quality considerably (the first one), the reason being that the programs needs to interpolate the data for the distortion of the image thus loosing contrast. However the quality of your final image if fantastic. Thanks for sharing in high quality (1600px on the longer edge) by the way. You think it is crucial to use many captures and avoid the parts of the images that stretch the most? What is your secret then?

Hi Mitos! I am certain that the shape changing processing causes degradation of the image quality, particularly with these tiny 1/2.3 inch sensors in the Canon SX40 HS and having to shoot JPEGs.

By the time I was done stretching and skewing the image, it had gone from 4000x3000 pixels per Left and Right image, to 7,000x4,000 pixels for the final panorama prior to downsizing for the web. It does grow as you stretch and skew the image but we are really talking about just two original images, the Right and the Left for most of the processing.

Shooting multiple images and using a panorama to combine them does increase the detail captured but in this case, a lot of those added pixels get cut away in cropping after the stretched pano is created.

On the image capture side, I suspect that the sharp detail speaks volumes for the advances in camera technology in the past few years and perhaps the same is true for the post processing software advances, more so than any magic that I could possible add.

As noted above, some contrast was lost and compensated for in the Photoshop and Topaz Labs processing.

Thank you for you encouraging feedback and questions. Hope I have been able to answer them to your satisfaction!

[FrankMi]

This week I am exploring the creation of a vertical panorama.

This 197 foot tall monument to Christopher Columbus in Barcelona was constructed for the Exposición Universal de Barcelona (1888) and is located at the site where Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the Americas. The monument serves as a reminder that Christopher Columbus reported to Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand V in Barcelona after his first trip to the new continent.

Five images were used to capture this structure, one large image for a size and scale reference and to get the activity at the base of the monument, and four more detailed images to capture the statue of Columbus, the globe shaped observation deck just below the socle he is standing on, the majority of the column, and the base above the stonework. The five images were then merged into the panorama.

This technique can help bring detail to a larger image when a higher resolution camera is not available or when a very large print might be desired. The final image size prior to downsizing for the web was approximately 10,000 x 22,500 pixels.

One thing to note is that once both the original full size image and the merged panorama image are downsized to 1,000 pixels tall, there is no difference in resolution between them so the advantage of this process is not apparent at web image sizes.

<EDIT> Based on Dave's comments in post # 305, I've replaced the original image with one that is 1500 pixels wide. If you want to see more of the detail, please open in Lytebox, use the Expand icon, and scroll up and down to get the full view. Even at this resolution the image is only about one seventh its original composite size.



Cropped from the image above, here is the 24 foot tall statue sculpted by Rafael Atché and is said to depict Columbus pointing towards the New World with his right hand, while holding a scroll in the left. The area seagulls think that Chris is the greatest!



There is an observation deck in the globe at Christopher’s feet. You may be able to see someone looking out towards the harbor from this vantage point.



...and the area just below the observation deck...



Here is some of the detail from the upper base where there are four bronze winged victories or Phemes take flight towards the four corners of the world.

[Geoff F]

Excellent details here.

[FrankMi]

Excellent details here.

Thank you for looking Geoff!

[FrankMi]

Another Panorama? 'Fraid so.

As long as I was dockside looking up at the Christopher Columbus Monument, I thought I'd take the elevator to the observation deck and see what the view looked like from up there.

I took an image looking out each of the 16 windows and for the 8 dockside images I combined them into one image of what I could see looking south-east toward the Westin Hotel and the Balearic Sea beyond.

You should be able to see the Port of Barcelona building from the Week 35 posting in this view.

I hope you enjoy the view as much as I did!



If you open the image in Lytebox and click on the Expand icon, you should be able to scroll left and right to see the entire waterfront in greater detail.