Reshoot - Centre Block and War Memorial

[Manfred M]

Note: Please click on these images to enlarge them - the panos don't look as good in the native resolution.

Armed with the wonderful suggestions from the CiC members, I went out again last night to do a re-shoot of Centre Block and the War Memorial. The problem turned out to be a focus issue (i.e. don't trust your camera's focus mechanism at night), so I used a magnified LiveView method suggested by some of the members. I also switched to the f/2.8 14-24mm lens for the shot as the f/2.8 24-70mm was a touch too long to handle the shots of Centre Block.

The lighting was completely different than when I shot on Dec 23. I know that sounds a bit crazy when doing night shots, but it is none-the-less true. We had snow showers late in the afternoon and after they cleared, the sky started to clear up and rather than a constant overcast, the background was more patchy.

War Memorial:




Centre Block in Christmas colours:




100% scale - Outtake of East Block showing the improved focus:





Again, thanks for all the suggestions / thoughts on what went wrong on my first attempt!

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Digital]

Manfred, very nice photographs.



Bruce

[FrankMi]

Excellent! I hadn't thought of using digital magnification in Live View as suggested by Colin but obviously that's the way to go!

I'm curious Manfred, did you do any comparison shots between the f/2.8 14-24mm and the f/2.8 24-70mm under these circumstances for sharpness? If so, what did you find?

[Manfred M]

Excellent! I hadn't thought of using digital magnification in Live View as suggested by Colin but obviously that's the way to go!

I'm curious Manfred, did you do any comparison shots between the f/2.8 14-24mm and the f/2.8 24-70mm under these circumstances for sharpness? If so, what did you find?

Both are pro lenses so are of the highest quality (as well as being expensive as hell); I can't say I've ever noticed any issues shooting wide open throughout the focal range of either lens. The only negative about the lens (other than cost and weight) is that unless I want to invest in the Lee filter holder and filters made for this lens, I will be shooting it without any filters, not even one to protect the front element (which is huge), so I am very careful with it.

[Stagecoach]

That's a big improvement from the original Manfred as so clearly seen with the crop but image No 2 appears soft, especially the clock.

Grahame

[Manfred M]

That's a big improvement from the original Manfred as so clearly seen with the crop but image No 2 appears soft, especially the clock.

Grahame

Strangely enough, this seems to be a problem created by the Photoshop CC photomerge operation.

The clock on the left is a 100% crop of the pano and the clock on the right is the original image that went into the photomerge process. The original is sharper than the processed image.

I haven't got a clue as to why this has happened.



At least I can verify that this is not a focus or camera shake issue.

[Marie Hass]

Manfred, these are beautiful. I love that the colors are not that muddy brown that can happpen with longer exposures. The snow is an extra added bonus.

Marie

[Donald]

Two superb images. The originals were impressive. These are even more so.

[deetheturk]

Great images Manfred,and i agree with Donald,well done!

[Manfred M]

Manfred, these are beautiful. I love that the colors are not that muddy brown that can happpen with longer exposures. The snow is an extra added bonus.

Marie

Marie - these started off that "muddy brown". That just means the white balance is wrong.




Snow just does not have that colour...