Is Medium Format Stitching Popular?

[Fotoman Professional]

The trend these days, most likely driven by cost, I see a good number of people stitching with DSLR’s and coming up with great results. However I haven't seen many stitching with medium format. Is this popular? I found a company out of NYC that that has a rig for the back of a 4x5 that you can attach your medium format digital back and it will take 4 images. You then stitch them together and you have your digital 4x5. Then, as we all know, there is Gigapan and all others in that group. The question is, are there people shooting Gigapixel images with a medium format back?

It would be interesting to understand who is doing this and where to see their work.

[Daniel Stone]

I know of a few people who shoot and stitch digital MF files. Takes more computer "muscle" than working with DSLR files.

results either way CAN be spectacular though!

-Dan

[Fotoman Professional]

Exactly!!! This is the main reason for asking. If there are people out there shooting medium format and stitching I'd love to see the results. I can see lots out there from DSLRs and they are great. Where is the medium format work?

[adelorenzo]

Zach Arias has started doing stitched portraits recently with his Phase One. He hasn't posted images yet but there is some discussion here:

http://zarias.tumblr.com/post/58578093994/saw-a-couple-of-posts-indicating-youre-into-stitched

[Amedeus]

I stitch a lot with a MF back (Leaf Aptus 10) and it does require some computer muscle power and good shooting practices. Nothing too complicated though.

I shoot landscape panorama's this way but I've also shot people same way. The latter is more difficult and requires manual stitching at times as people inevitably move ;-)

Printing images over 8 feet wide and displaying them can be challenging ... and comes at an expense ...

I do have work on my website below ... does take some navigating to get there ... the large body images are in the 18+ folder. I also have a number of vertical body stitches I didn't publish yet ... these images are door sized ;-)

[Fotoman Professional]

Amedeus, great work! Simply good photogrpahy.

Stitched protrait work seems took risky and labor intensive. However the Arias work and Amedeus work looks beautiful. What sort of post processing time is spent on a stitched portrait?

[Amedeus]

Thanks.

Time spent varies greatly. Retouching a stitched bodyscape can take anywhere from 2-8 hours depending on what I go for in terms of look and how "clean" I want the image. Sometimes I develop the look on a small version, make this an action and then run this overnight on the large original. A lot of memory in the computer is key as well as fast internal scratch hard drives.

I remember once running a NIK filter on a three landscape (30" x 300") and that took a full week. Never again. In this case I also had to do the stitch manually on 23 images as the computer couldn't stitch the small branches in the background ...


Amedeus, great work! Simply good photogrpahy.

Stitched protrait work seems took risky and labor intensive. However the Arias work and Amedeus work looks beautiful. What sort of post processing time is spent on a stitched portrait?

[tangyimail]

Guys around me are doing more and more stitching using mostly Hassy backs. Results are great. But I can't persuade me to make the investment in a whole new system.

Amedeus, great photos!

[Amedeus]

Thanks.

I started out with a CF 39MP-II back for the earlier work until I switched to the Leaf Aptus. Either MF back works, all a matter of which camera system you have and the lenses of course. I also use the Phase One Flexadaptor on a Sinar P 4x5 camera. That works great for three stitched frames and gives access to tilt/shift etc.

Wish I had a solution I could integrate on my website to show panoramics full size ... maybe one day.

The real fun though starts when you print one out ;-)


Guys around me are doing more and more stitching using mostly Hassy backs. Results are great. But I can't persuade me to make the investment in a whole new system.

Amedeus, great photos!

[Brian Ellis]

Thanks.

Time spent varies greatly. Retouching a stitched bodyscape can take anywhere from 2-8 hours depending on what I go for in terms of look and how "clean" I want the image. Sometimes I develop the look on a small version, make this an action and then run this overnight on the large original. A lot of memory in the computer is key as well as fast internal scratch hard drives.

I remember once running a NIK filter on a three landscape (30" x 300") and that took a full week. Never again. In this case I also had to do the stitch manually on 23 images as the computer couldn't stitch the small branches in the background ...

Two to eight hours? But . . . but . . . I thought that "digital" only required the push of a button to make a masterpiece.

[dave_whatever]

Anyone tried stitching two overlapping 6x12 frames using rear shift/rise? Might prove to be a handy technique if your favourite film disappears in sheet but it still available in 120.

[polyglot]

I've done some stitches from scans of 6x7. Wasn't really any different to stitching from a DSLR, which I used to do a lot of.

[Fotoman Professional]

It would be intersting to have someone conduct a comparison or a shootout of a high-end DSLR vs a high-end MF digital back vs a 617 pano film camera. Comparing camera investment cost, time to set-up and shot the scene, post processing time (including scanning and cleaning of the film), and overall image quality.

[Amedeus]

Yep, done that with film and digital back on viewcamera ... easy way to expand your coverage for the right type of subject ...


Anyone tried stitching two overlapping 6x12 frames using rear shift/rise? Might prove to be a handy technique if your favourite film disappears in sheet but it still available in 120.

[Amedeus]

Interesting time consuming excercise but soo much is function of your workflow of what you're trying to accomplish ...

Shooting/stitching with my D3x is different than shooting with my Phase One/Leaf Aptus combination or shooting 8x10 ... and the time to print or finished file if you want is depending on so many factors, most of them subject related.

If you're after 617 performance, then your done quickly ... if you try to produce an image covering 60" x 720" to be viewed from 1ft distance then you have a different challenge regardless of the technique/process you use ;-)

Keep shooting !


It would be intersting to have someone conduct a comparison or a shootout of a high-end DSLR vs a high-end MF digital back vs a 617 pano film camera. Comparing camera investment cost, time to set-up and shot the scene, post processing time (including scanning and cleaning of the film), and overall image quality.

[SergeiR]

Exactly!!! This is the main reason for asking. If there are people out there shooting medium format and stitching I'd love to see the results. I can see lots out there from DSLRs and they are great. Where is the medium format work?

-1-

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7173/6745300827_db9418b65f_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeistudio/6745300827/)
Calm waters (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeistudio/6745300827/) by Sergei Rodionov (http://www.flickr.com/people/sergeistudio/), on Flickr

-2-
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8037/7934287844_2b81fc3c8c_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeistudio/7934287844/)
Colorado 2012 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeistudio/7934287844/) by Sergei Rodionov (http://www.flickr.com/people/sergeistudio/), on Flickr

Its working. Ok for landscapes, specially if you going for modern landscapes with everything in sharp focus.

(about 6-10 frames each, 22mp per frame)

I suggest heading to getdpi forum and digging around. There are plenty of landscape shooters with tech cameras who stitch.

[Fotoman Professional]

Getdpi is typically my second stop after LF forum. Thank you for the advice and these pictures are very nice.

[polyglot]

this is about 7x25cm of Acros, cylindrical projection digitally stitched by hugin from 7 frames after scanning:
http://brodie-tyrrell.org/pad/img/2011/09/18i/large.jpg
Terelj National Park, Mongolia.

[GG12]

portrait is from a 6 panel stitch with 55 mm on a Leaf back. Landscape is 3 panel stitch. Hard to see upper details at this size, tho.