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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
01-25-2016, 01:54 PM
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Hi guys, I thought I'd post one of my recent images. It's a mixed media project, where the background is a macro shot of tree bark that I've discovered on a photo hunt last month. The creatures where created and rendered with 3D software and everything was combined in Photoshop. I come from photography and only started with 3D recently in order to expand my creative possibilities. I want to say the tools aren't as important as the idea/concept behind a project, but I simply adore my 645z...
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-31-2015, 04:57 AM
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To come right out of the gate, let me say that "I don't like wideangle lenses". Why? Mainly it's the distortion that bothers me, but the lack of background compression pushes everything so far away and the photo ends up consisting of more sky and floor than I'd be happy with. So I made a few experiments using the panorama technique. Essentially it's shooting the scene with a tele lens on a tripod, shifting the camera from shot to shot so that each photo overlaps with what's already been shot by about a third. Then I've been using Photoshop Photomerge to put these shots together. And it works perfectly! Okay, my 7-years old Mac Pro was working for half an hour stitching these together, but I end up with a 130 MP image, that isn't distorted, has beautiful background compression and that benefits from the sharpness of the 120mm F/4 macro lens I was using. I'm now editing a fashion shoot using this technique, but before I want to share with you the result of my test session
Ryan Brenizer who is well know for using this technique with large aperture lenses has said "By stitching together these image, you don't increase the angle of the lens, but the size of the sensor". Which honestly makes it even more of an interesting technique to use. Imagine a 130 MP large format camera with your favorite lens' optical properties. How could anyone not get excited about this :).
Have fun everyone trying this out yourself
Pentax 645z w/ Pentax smc 645 FA 120mm F/4 macro @ F/11 1s ISO100 -1EV
(the -1EV is crucial in retaining all the highlight detail in the background!)
Converted and edited in Photoshop CC
---------- Post added 10-31-15 at 01:02 PM ----------
Here is a 100% crop on the trees in the background. Check out the hand print on the tree trunk. So much detail....!
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-31-2015, 01:24 PM
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You might be right, there. Let's see, I used a 120mm, expanded probably about three times vertically and twice horizontally. Not sure if my math is correct here (note: it almost certainly isn't), but I'd estimate that to lead to a 40-60mm. Which is certainly not an extreme wideangle by a long shot.
Ryan, does say that as well. But at least, we all know what technique exactly it is we are talking about :). "Panorama stitching" is misleading too in many ways...
---------- Post added 10-31-15 at 09:31 PM ----------
It's not a feature of the 645z I'm afraid. In any case this would limit the size of my stitch to how far the sensor can move (or with TS lenses, how far it can shift). By tilting the head it's true I get leaning lines, but the Photomerge algorithm does a great job in correcting these. So it's not really a concern.
---------- Post added 10-31-15 at 09:47 PM ----------
Another note on the 645z. At first I was bothered that the in-camera previews appear much brighter than the RAW files when I open them. But now I think, that's actually a good thing. By slightly underexposing, I retain so much color detail in the highlights while at the same time, there is still so much detail in the blacks that I don't really have to worry too much about it.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-09-2014, 05:18 PM
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wow, I think I finally figured it out. And OF COURSE it's entirely my fault :D. Oh the shame. I somehow hit the bracketing button while handling the camera. Well, at least I can sleep easy now knowing that the manual will actually stay manual. Thanks everyone for your hints though.
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