Re: Large Format Landscapes
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sharktooth
Very beautiful work, Gabe.
I see on the Flickr link that you're doing multi-shot digital stitching of the film image with a DSLR. Could you provide a brief description of how you do that?
Many thanks.
My digitisation method in brief is I use my D810 + 100mm macro on a copy stand, a Kaiser Slimlite Plano as light source, and a custom 4x5 holder I made myself out of laser cut stainless steel and magnetised rubber sheet (using this the film is suspended perfectly flat by its extreme edges, so no need for glass sandwiches). After some experimentation I settled on a DSLR height such that I capture the 4x5 sheet with 9 overlapping digital frames, which I then stitch together to a pano RAW file in Lightroom. In this way I end up with a final digitised image of about 90 megapixels. It's possible to get more resolution using a higher magnification and more frames of course, but then film/sensor plane parallelism and/or field curvature of the lens can start to become an issue. 9 frames is a decent compromise. I use the ColorPerfect plugin for Photoshop to invert colour negative RAWs, although they will typically still need tweaking afterwards using RGB curves to get the colours really bang on.
The dynamic range of the D810 can handle negative films no problem, but I've found that with slides it is better to bracket the digital segments +/- 2 stops (so 27 frames in total), then stitch those to an HDR-pano file which can then be further processed to match the original (I have the slide on a lightbox next to my monitor whilst I'm doing this). The difference is subtle, but I've found doing an HDR stitch allows better reproduction of highlight details in particular from the original slide.
Re: Large Format Landscapes
That's a really great description, Gabe. Have you also done flatbed scanning? If so, how does it compare? How easy/difficult is the stitching in Lightroom? Your shot on Provia with the trees in fog was impressive both visually and technically. That would have been very difficult to obtain via a pure analogue route.
Re: Large Format Landscapes
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gabe
This has a nice feeling of light and space. Well done.
Re: Large Format Landscapes
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sharktooth
That's a really great description, Gabe. Have you also done flatbed scanning? If so, how does it compare? How easy/difficult is the stitching in Lightroom? Your shot on Provia with the trees in fog was impressive both visually and technically. That would have been very difficult to obtain via a pure analogue route.
I've never done any flatbed scanning personally, as I got on board with DSLR scanning as soon as I started using film (about 4 years ago now). From numerous third party accounts and comparisons I've read though, with good technique DSLR scanning easily surpasses the quality achievable with consumer flatbeds, especially for 120 and 35mm. It takes a bit more tinkering and work, perhaps, but I think the results are worth the effort. The stitching process is generally no problem, and is handled automatically by Lightroom (or Photoshop). I've found it is best to not refocus the lens between capturing each segment, as even small variances in focus create very obvious transitions when the frames are stitched together. For best results each segment should also have lens distortion corrections applied before stitching.
The only hassle I've encountered is sometimes the stitching can struggle if it has to join segments together containing almost no detail (large patches of blank sky, for example), as the algorithm then can't reliably determine reference points between frames. Usually just capturing more frames can get around this problem though.
Eventually I would like to get a mirrorless camera capable of high resolution pixel-shift captures (the Sony A7R IV, for example), which would obviate the need for multi-frame stitching. This would make the whole process much faster whilst retaining the same (or higher) quality, assuming one used a good enough lens.
Re: Large Format Landscapes
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Joe O'Hara
This has a nice feeling of light and space. Well done.
Thank you Joe.
Re: Large Format Landscapes
Thanks for all the info, Gabe. I've been thinking about doing digital stitching for large format, but this is the first time I've really seen it in action (that I know of). I look forward to seeing more of your work.
Re: Large Format Landscapes
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sharktooth
Thanks for all the info, Gabe. I've been thinking about doing digital stitching for large format, but this is the first time I've really seen it in action (that I know of). I look forward to seeing more of your work.
If you insist :)
Linhof Technikardan S45, Schneider-Kreuznach Apo-Symmar L 5.6/150, Provia 100F.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...42c6cc0d_h.jpg--- by atomstitcher, on Flickr
Re: Large Format Landscapes
Re: Large Format Landscapes
^Gorgeous display of Fuji colors and a nice composition too.
Re: Large Format Landscapes
