Blending Time - HDR Photography Part 3

HDR Photography

1. Shooting a HDR
2. Getting it off the Camera
3. Blending Time
4. Final Processing
5. Some Inspiration

Time to Mix Exposures

If you have been following this series, at this point you will have taken some bracketed shots, grouped them together somehow, and then opened Photomatix, and set some options to have your images stacked together. Now we will cover the process of Tone Mapping your image down to 8 bits of information per pixel.

Checking Your Shot

The first thing you need to do is click the Tone Mapping button on the left in Photomatix. This will open the Tone Mapping dialog, with a preview pane to let you see the effect of the changes you are making. Once you have the preview pane available, you should check over it.
The things you need to check for are:

• Alignment issues (even if you didn't use the "Align source images" option, still have a quick check)
• Ghosting issues (black or white "holes" in the image where moving objects appeared)

If you do find some issues, you can either leave them be, and fix them later in the GIMP or Photoshop (whatever your image editing app of choice is) or you can try the blending process again, with some different settings to try and reduce the effect.

Details Enhancer

Now all you need to do is Tone Map your photo, and you are pretty much done. However this is probably the hardest part of the process. There are just sooo many options, which change the results so much. When I first started I had a basic favourite few settings, and I would jiggle the sliders a little on 2-3 options, and that as about it.
After some time of this, and a bunch of rather boring HDR images, I went googling for some inspiration, and came across this set of "presets" from Stuart (whoever Stuart is!) - Stuart's Photomatix Presets. Now there are quite a lot of presets here, and it has taken me some time to get to grips with them all, but the process I used when I first downloaded them, was to go through, and select each one, and see the result for myself in the preview window. I would then choose the one I thought looked best, and make minor adjustments (usually lower the Colour Saturation, and maybe make it a bit brighter or darker with the White/Black level sliders) and go with that.

Now that I have been using that method for a while, I know what sort of results I can expect from different Presets, so if I know a certain look will work with the image I'm working with, I can go straight to that preset, make some minor adjustments and I am done. I have also created some more Presets of my own. Most of mine are minor adjustments of the downloaded Presets, but they work for me in saving time and effort exploring all those sliders every time.

Tone Compressor

The Tone Compressor method of Tone Mapping is not one I have used very much to be honest... I find I am unable to get a good contrasty image out of it, every time I try I end up with an image with flat colours. It does tend to avoid that nasty halo-ing you get with the more "extreme" Details Enhancer methods though. I used the Tone Compressor method on this Project 52 photo - Project 52 - #1 - It Begins, but as I look back on it now, I do find the colours a little flat. Definately have a play around with this one though, it is far simpler to understand, and if you keep an eye on the Histogram as you make changes you will get a good idea of what each slider does.

Macro Photography Techniques - Part 7 - The Forgotten

Well I have to revisit this series which I thought was complete. Al Williams (see his photography blog) contacted me to remind me that there is another way to take macro photos which I hadn't mentioned at all, close up filters!

Macro Photography Techniques

1. Close Focus Lens
2. Teleconverters
3. Extension Tubes
4. Reversed Lenses
5. Macro Lens
6. Combining Techniques
7. Close Up Filters

Close Up Filters

Close Up filters are actually lenses which mount to your regular lens via the filter mount. There are a few different types available. They provide extra magnification without altering too much else. The filters are available in various levels of magnification, various sizes, and all kinds of quality levels (and prices too). The most popular type I have seen discussed is the Raynox DCR-150 and DCR-250. These are high quality lenses which have a quick mount/dismount clip rather than the standard threaded mount for the lens. The Raynox lenses are not available in varying sizes though, so you are somewhat limited as to which lenses they can be mounted to. The standard screw mount filter was very popular in the past, so it can be quite easy to find a "set" 2nd hand. A set of close up filters is usually made up of 3 filters, all the same filter size, but in varying amounts of magnification. These filters can be used individually or in combination to get various levels of magnification.

Image Quality

I have never tested a set of close up filters myself. I do have reservations about the loss of image quality which may occur when using these lenses. Having said that, the loss in quality from a high quality filter/lens should be no more than the loss you get from using a UV filter. When looking to buy a filter (or a set) I would recommend paying some extra money, and sticking to the well known brands. I would imagine that when using the "set" of filters, combining all 3 may result in a noticable loss of quality (after all it is 3 more lenses for the light to pass through) but if it provides the magnification required then its more than good enough. These sets of filters are usually numbered based on the amount of magnification they give. A typical set consists of a #1, #2 and #4 filter, where #4 gives the most magnification.

Al's Shots

Al not only told me to get my finger out and stop forgetting stuff, he even kindly offered to take some photos using his set of close up filters, and share them with you on the blog. So here they are. You can see other shots Al has taken on his flickr account. All shots were taken with the Pentax SMC M 50mm f2.0 lens @ f8.0, 1/15 sec and ISO 500 and at minimum focusing distance.

Lens only (no filter)

With Close Up Filter #1

Vivtar Close Up Filter #2

Vivitar Close Up Filter #4

Vivitar Close Up Filters #1 & #2

Vivitar Close Up Filters #1, #2 & #4

As you can see, the magnification differs quite a lot between the filters, and the combinations of filters. So there is yet another way to take some great macro photos. Big thanks to Al for pointing out my error in missing this option, and even bigger thanks for providing the images.

Infrared Digital Photography with an R72 Filter

Botanic Gardens in IR
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This shot is from me playing around with an IR 720nm filter. This type of filter blocks all light below the 720nm wavelength. This means some reds, and infrared are the only light which can pass through. By using 1 of these filters on your camera, you will get some interesting results.

Unfortunately most modern cameras have an IR reduction filter mounted to the front of the sensor, which means that blocking visible light will result in very long exposures being required. This particular shot was taken in broad daylight, at f11.0, ISO 200 and required a 30 second shutter speed! 30 secs in broad daylight is quite a lot. A typical exposure in this situation would be around about 1/400 sec!

The main features of IR photography are black skies, and white leaves on trees and grass. This results in cool contrasty shots where things are just a little different to the norm.

The Desaturated Look

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jezza323/4311546607/
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is a shot I took during the week. I quite like this style of shot, so I thought I would share the preset I used.

The preset is called "PH Fashion Shoot II" and I found it at this site. I recommend downloading this set of presets (even if you don't intend on using them) and just having a look at the settings they contain.

Enjoy!

Street Photography - Progress? - Part 4

Street Photography

1. Previous Attempts
2. Zone Focusing
3. Hyperfocal Distance 
4. Progress?
5. Tips and Tricks From the Web

So far I've talked about street photography focusing techniques. I haven't had much time to go and put those techniques into practice yet, but I did get 10 mins yesterday lunchtime and 5 mins the previous afternoon on my way to the train station, so lets see how I went

Hyperfocal Distance

This shot was taken with the K200D and Pentax SMC M 28mm f2.8 lens. I set the lens to f11.0, and approximately to hyperfocal distance (I used the Depth of Field scale on the lens focusing ring). I then set the exposure (Pentax M lenses must be shot in manual mode if you want to stop them down). I was then able to take a photo of pretty much anything that was more than about 1.8m away from me, and it should be in focus. This is the shot I took of some workers on their way to the train station. If you go to Flickr and view larger, you will see that the further away from the camera the worse the focus gets. Did I possibly focus too closely to get true hyperfocal distance? Something to work on for next time.

View on Flickr

Zone Focusing

This shot was taken with the K200D and the Pentax A 50mm f1.7 lens. The longer focal length of this lens means that the hyperfocal distance is quite far, so you can't get close to the subject, which means you end up cropping the shot to make them the subject of the photo. So when using a longer focal length I recommend using the zone method. I gave this a shot in the pedestrian mall yesterday. I set the lens to f8.0, and the focus to 3m on the focus ring distance scale. This is where I estimated most people would be walking by from where I was positioned. I then proceeded to snap away. This is 1 of the resulting shots. The focus was set a little in front of the couple I was photographing in this shot, so they are slightly out of focus, again something to work on. I will post another image tonight.

View on Flickr

Tips and Attempts - Street Photography Part 1

I have decided to try to get better at shooting some street type stuff. I have done a little of it before, but not very successfully. So this will be the start of another series, this time all about street.

Street Photography Series

1. Previous Attempts
2. Zone Focusing
3. Hyperfocal Distance
4. Progress?
5. Tips and Tricks from the Web

I sent Javier (who writes the Street Vision blog) a message the other day asking for some advice on focusing techniques. He suggested using hyperfocal distance and zone focusing, he also suggested I write an article on the subject, which I will when I have experience in using them. This has been a bit of a catalyst for me to try out street shooting again, and write about my experiences, successful and not. I will be posting a number of links in this series as I learn by reading others work, so be prepared for some clicking.

I will start the series with some of my previous attempts at street shooting. I believe most are pretty boring, but they are street shots none the less. Lets see if I can improve the shots as this series goes on!

If you are a street shooter, let me know your tips to include, if you want to share your own street shots, post those too!

Macro Photography Techniques - Part 4

The 4th installment of the macro photography techniques series will cover reversed lenses, and my experience using a reversed lens. A reversed wide angle lens can give very high magnification.

Macro Photography Techniques

1. Close Focus Lens
2. Teleconverters
3. Extension Tubes
4. Reversed Lenses
5. Macro Lens
6. Combining Techniques
7. Close Up Filters

Reversing Your Lens

The idea behind a reversed lens, is to use a wide lens (I use my Pentax M 28mm) because it is designed to take a large image, and project it onto a small spot (the sensor). If you reverse that lens, it is then taking a small image and projecting it onto a large area. To reverse your lens you will need a reversing adapter. This adapter has a standard lens mount on it, and a thread mount on the other. You need to get a thread mount in the correct size for the lens (or lenses) you wish to reverse. My Pentax M 28mm has a 49mm filter thread, so I needed a 49mm Pentax K reverse mount.

To mount your lens, you simply screw the adapter into the filter thread of your lens, then mount the lens using the adapter's K mount (or whatever mount you are using).

Aperture?

When using a reversed lens, there is no way for the camera to operate the aperture of your lens, so you will want to use a lens which has an aperture ring that allows you to set the desired aperture. Some of the newer digital lenses do not allow this.
The second problem this can cause, is if you want to use a smaller aperture (larger f-stop number) it will be very dark to look through the viewfinder, this can make composing and focusing your shot very difficult. This is one of the drawbacks of using the reversed lens method.

Focusing

This method of macro photography will require a very close working distance. Working distance is distance from the subject to the lens. So be prepared to get down and really get in close to your subjects. The other thing it means is a very very narrow depth of field, sometimes it can be so narrow you will find it hard to get something in focus.

To focus with a reversed lens I still use the handheld, moving back and fowards method I described in Part 1, however, I take many more photos of a single subject than I would using the other methods. This is because the viewfinder is often dark (I try to use the smallest aperture I can get away with) and because the depth of field is so narrow. The hope is that at least 1 of the photos I take of any particular subject will have the focus in the correct position.

Results

Here are a couple of photos taken using this technique. You will notice the high magnification of these subjects, this is the power of the reversed lens.

reversed 28mm lens, ISO 100, f11 or so from memory, 1/180 sec, onboard flash fired.

Reversed 28mm lens, ISO 400, f4 or 5.6 from memory, 1/400 sec

 UPDATE: I have added some shots of my Pentax SMC M 28mm f2.8 lens reverse mounted on my K200D, and a photo of the reversing adapter itself to my Part 5 post

Project 52 - #2 - Kurilpa Bridge

Kurilpa Pedestrian Bridge
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is the 2nd shot for my 2010 Project 52 - "Brisbane Landmarks"

This is the recently completed Kurilpa Bridge, a Pedestrian Bridge from the Brisbane CBD over the Brisbane River to West End/Southbank.

This is a 3 shot HDR, taken with my Pentax K200D and Pentax SMC DA 18-55mm AL II

Base shot was 18mm, ISO 100, f9.0, 5 sec, bracketing was at +/- 2.0 EV

UPDATE - Processing details now posted - sorry for the delay.

Shot and Processed as follows:-

• Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
• Imported into Lightroom 2.5
• Exported to 16-bit TIFF
• HDR Generated using Photomatix
• Tone Mapped using Details Enhancer (settings shown below)
• Save-as 16-bit TIFF
• Import into Lightroom 2.5
• Minor editing applied using adjustment brush to remove some unwanted detail on the right of image (brush positioning and settings shown below)
• Increased Blacks and Brightness
• Exported to JPG for Web

Bird and Stair Testing the Tair-11a

Bird and Stair Testing the Tair-11a

Originally uploaded by jezza323

I have already used this one in my Tair-11a review, but I just have to share again. This shot really works for me.

Taken with the Tair-11a at f2.8 (wide open), ISO 100, 1/640.

Post Processing as follows:-

• Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
• Imported in Lightroom 2.5
• Exported to JPG for Web

No editing at all!

Macro Photography Techniques - Part 2

This is the 2nd technique I've used when taking macro photos (also the one I've used the most).

Macro Photography Techniques

1. Close Focus Lens
2. Teleconverters
3. Extension Tubes
4. Reversed Lenses
5. Macro Lens
6. Combining Techniques
7. Close Up Filters

Teleconverter with a Close Focus Lens

This technique requires a teleconverter. A teleconverter is an accessory which mounts between your camera and your lens. The effect is increase of focal length. In this case you will probably want a 2x Teleconverter, which is designed to double the effective focal length of your lens. However it does not change the minimum focus distance, so you end up with the same lens, focusing at the same distance, but you get twice the magnification of the image. You can also get Macro Focusing Teleconverters (such as this) which have their own focusing ring, and allow extra magnification, and a good level of control over the magnification.

Drawbacks? Of Course...

The downside of this technique is that a 2x teleconverter, while doubling your effective focal length, it also reduces the effective aperture (incoming light) by 2 stops. So if your kit lens happens to be a Pentax SMC DA 18-55mm f3.5-5.6, and you are wanting to get maximum magnification (55mm @ minimum focus distance) adding a 2x teleconverter will mean that the lens (wide open, where it is a bit softer) becomes 110mm at f11.2. So in order to get a fast shutter speed you will need either high ISO (noisy) or a flash. I have had very good success just using the onboard flash though.

A teleconverter will also exaggerate any quality problems in the lens you are using. If you lens is a bit soft, it will be twice as soft using the 2x teleconverter. So you must be cautious about how you use it. This is where using a flash is also helpful, as it allows you to use a smaller aperture, which will mean the lens is going to be closer to its sweet spot for sharpness.

Another obvious drawback is that you need an extra piece of equipment. I was able to acquire an older 2x teleconverter to fit Pentax K mount on ebay for about $15. It has no "A" contacts (for camera autoexposure) or autofocus. Ideally you would want to have the "A" contacts for auto exposure, however, auto focusing is not required for this technique as you will be using manual focus mode set to minimum focus distance anyway.

Focusing

The same method for focusing is used as for the previous technique. You can read up on that here, in Part 1.

Results

Here are a couple of photos taken using this technique, including settings.

SMC F 35-70mm @ 70mm (effective 140mm), f11 (effective f22), 1/180 sec, ISO 200, onboard flash

 SMC F 35-70mm @ 70mm (effective 140mm), f16 (effective f32), 1/20 sec (this should be shorter), ISO 400, onboard flash

SMC F 35-70mm @ 70mm (effective 140mm), f11 (effective f22), 1/180 sec, ISO 200, onboard flash

For those of you who already have teleconverters, why not give this technique a try, and post up the results in the comments.

Macro Photography Techniques - Part 1

This is the start of a series of posts on Macro Photography Techniques which I have successfully used. Each part will be a different technique. Feel free to add any ideas you have as comments, and also to post your macro's if you have used the techniques before, or after you go and try it!

Macro Photography Techniques

1. Close Focus Lens
2. Teleconverters
3. Extension Tubes
4. Reversed Lenses
5. Macro Lens
6. Combining Techniques
7. Close Up Filters

The Close Focus Lens

The first technique in the series will be the most obvious one, a close focus lens. A close focus lens is a lens which focuses quite closely, but is not a true macro lens. For example, the Pentax standard kit lens is the SMC DA 18-55mm f3.5-5.6. This lens focuses down to 25cm, which (at 55mm focal length, fully zoomed in) gives a reproduction ratio of around 1:2.9. A true macro lens will allow focusing down to a 1:1 ratio (older Macro lesnes are actually only 1:2). Even with 1 of these types of lenses some great macro shots can be created. Most DSLR owners will have a close focusing lens as most kit lenses are close focusing so its a technique anyone can try (and most would have).

Getting The Most From It - Focusing

The key with a close focus lens is being able to focus on something, with the sensor plane as close as possible to the subject. You need to make sure you are at that minimum focusing distance when you take the shot to get the maximum possible magnification from your lens. The easiest way to do that, is to set your camera (or lens, depending on model) to manual focus, and set the focus manually to the minimum focus distance. Once you have done that, all you need to do is to get nice and close to your subject, and focus by moving the camera (and probably yourself too) further away from, or closer to the subject as required. This will mean you get the maximum magnification because the lens is pre-set to the closest possible focus point. By moving the camera you move the subject into the correct distance and into focus.

This is the focusing technique I use for all my macro photography, so will apply across this whole post series. To help you achieve correct focus most cameras will have a focus confirmation of some kind, even in manual focus mode. Pentax cameras have a focus confirmation beep (which can be disabled) as well as a green hexagon displayed in the view finder once focus is confirmed. However, when using manual focus only the centre focus point can be used, so you must point the centre of the frame at the subject while focusing.

Depth Of Field - It's Too Narrow!

With macro photography narrow depth of field can become an issue. When you are so close to your subject, and have a longish focal length, it will cause your depth of field to become very narrow. The only way to increase it is to use a smaller aperture (larger f number, eg f22). This will make your shots very dark, or your shutter speeds very long. To overcome this, you could use a flash. An off camera flash is preferred, but the on camera flash can work just fine too, especially with a reflector (I'll explain that in a later post).

What this means for you, is (as always) the photo becomes a balancing act between shutter speed (fast to avoid blur), aperture (small to get the DOF you want) and ISO (low to avoid noise).

The Results

Here are a few shots I have taken using this method. Including the settings used.

SMC M 28mm f2.8 @ min. focus + cropped - ISO 100, 1/100 sec, f4.0 (from memory)

 

Tokina RMC 70-210mm f3.5 @ 210mm min. focus + cropped, ISO 200, 1/640 sec, f3.5

Time to get out and take some macros. Don't forget to post the results in the comments section. Stay tuned for the rest of the posts in this series.

My Photography Gear

This is a full list of all my photography gear, I will try my best to keep it up to date as I buy and sell various things

Camera Body

• Pentax K200D
• Canon Powershot A590 IS (running CHDK software)

Pentax Lenses

• Pentax SMC DA 18-55mm AL II f3.5-5.6
• Pentax SMC A 50mm f1.7
• Pentax SMC M 50mm f1.7 (has fungus)
• Pentax SMC M 28mm f2.8
• Pentax SMC FA 100-300mm f4.7-5.8

Russian Lenses

• Mir 1 37mm f2.8 M42 - SOLD
• Helios 44-2 58mm f2.0 M42 - SOLD
• Jupiter 9 85mm f2.0 M42
• Tair 11-A 135mm f2.8 M42

Others

• Sigma 10-20mm f4.0-5.6 (enroute from ebay!)
• Tamron 17-50mm f2.8
• Hanimar 135mm f2.8 M42 (for sale)
• Soligor 135mm f3.5 M42 (for sale)
• Vivitar 135mm f3.5 M42 (for sale)
• Pentacon 30mm f3.5 M42 (for sale)
• Vivitar 35mm f3.5 M42 (loose rear elements, its my paper weight)

Lens Accessories

• Quantaray 2x AF Teleconverter (with Powerzoon contacts, may work with SDM - yet to be tested!)
• Vivitar Auto Teleconverter 2x-22 (allows wide open focusing but has no contacts and no autofocus) (for sale)
• Vivitar Auto Extension Tubes AT-22 (allows wide open focusing but has no contacts and no autofocus)
• 49mm Hoya 3 position rubber hood
• 58mm black metal hood - bought from ebay (for FA 100-300)
• Lens cleaning brush
• Lens Cleaning tissues
• Lens cleaning cloths (lots of these) - 3 packs are available from DealExtreme
• Giottos Rocket Blower Medium
• 67mm -> 77mm filter step up ring (allows 77mm filter on a 67mm threaded lens)

Lens Filters

• 49mm Cokin CPL
• 49mm UV x3 (came with various lenses)
• 49mm Blue
• 49mm Hoya Star Six
• 49mm Hoya Centre Spot (blurs out the edges, leaving only the centre of the image clear)
• 52mm Kenko MC CPL
• 52mm Hoya R72 Infrared
• 52mm Hoya NDX400 (9 stop ND filter)
• 52mm IR720 as mentioned here
• 52mm ND400 as mentioned here
• 62mm Kenko MC CPL (for sale)
• 62mm Kenko MC UV (for sale)
• 67mm Kenko PRO1 Digital Protector
• 67mm Kenko PRO1 Digital CPL (enroute)
• 77mm IR720 (enroute)
• 77mm Kenko MC CPL (enroute)

Cokin P Filters and Accessories

• Chinese copy 3 slot Cokin P holder
• 52mm adapter
• 49mm adapter
• TianYa ND8 filter
• TianYa ND8 grad filter (soft graduation)
• TianYa Sunset (orange grad) filter

Flashes and Accessories

• Sunpak Auto 200 flash (part of Dad's gear, unsafe for DSLR hot shoe mounting)
• Optical Trigger
• Hand made diffuser using cardboard, alfoil and plain white paper

Other Accessories

• Cable Release Remote - bought from DealExtreme
• IR Push Button Remote - bought from DealExtreme
• 3 axis hotshoe mounted bubble level - bought from DealExtreme
• Pentax D-BG3 battery grip for K200D

Tripod

• Slik 500 Pro DX w Head

Flashlight parabolas - something to try!

I've just stumbled across this post while reading some blogs, and I thought I would share it. I will give this a try soon and will be sure to post the results. I think its time for me to give light painting a bit of a try.

So get out your lights and start swinging em around! :)

Happy New Year & Project 52 Launch

As we approach the end of 2009 let me wish you all a wonderful and prosperous 2010. At the same time I would like to announce that I will be starting a project 52 (1 photo per week) for 2010. I will post all shots, all processing info and all locations here on my blog. So back to the celebrations, Happy New Year!

Project 52

• #1 - Southbank Peace Pagoda 
• #2 - Kurilpa Pedestrian Bridge
• #3 - Anzac Square Eternal Flame
• #4 - Mt Cootha Lookout
• #5 - Cathedral of Saint Stephen
• #6 - Brisbane General Post Office
• #7 - Wellington Point
• #8 - Japanese Garden, Mt Cootha

A Backlit Brenizer Angel

A Backlit Brenizer Angel
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Another Brenizer Panorama from the Toowong Cemetary taken yesterday. This one is again with the Tair-11a on K200D. Its 58 images stitched with Autopano Giga 2 and edited (cropped, curves, colours, exposure brush) in Lightroom 2.5.

Processing :-

• Shot in Manual Mode, ISO 200, f2.8, 1/320 sec shutter - Pentax RAW (PEF), custom white balance.
• Imported into Lightroom 2.5
• All shots in pano exported to subfolder "Pano-5" as 16 bit TIFFs
• Stitched using Autopano Giga 2
• Saved-as 16 bit TIFF
• Imported result back into Lightroom 2.5 library
• Edited in Lightroom as show below (click pics for more detail). I did use a preset for most settings. Also cropped but not shown.

Exposure Brush to show more detail in the Angel

Develop settings

Tips for Shooting Panoramas

Shooting panoramas is something I have done a little bit of now. It allows you to really get some great large images, without having a super expensive camera or lenses. Some tips I've found from experience.

• Avoid Parallax - Landscapes work best, where most of the image is at infinity focus or close to it. This avoids parallax error. (see here for a good article about parallax error)
• Camera Orientation - Shoot with the camera in portrait orientation when doing a landscape orientation panorama, this gives a much better final image, not too wide for the height. With a portrait orientation panorama, shoot with the camera in landscape orientation.
• Manual Exposure - Set the camera on manual mode, so all shots will be at the same ISO / shutter / aperture. You can use another auto mode to get the required exposure for the panorama. Pick the point in the panorama which will be brightest, and use the exposure information to guide your manual settings.
• White Balance - If shooting JPG also set the white balance (dont use Auto white balance) so that the white balance is the same for all the shots (if you shoot RAW then make sure you set the white balance to the same for all shots before you merge the panorama).
• Overlap! - Make sure you overlap shots by plenty. Better to have too many photos to stitch than having gaps. I aim for about 50% overlap. To do this when you compose the next shot in the sequence, have something that was at the very edge of the previous frame, and move it to the centre of the next.
• Shoot Extra - Go extra around the edges. Dont stop where you want the final cropped panorama to finish. When correcting distortion you can often lose parts of the edges of the image. So go an extra row if you are doing a multiple row panorama, and go for an extra shot at either end of what you would like to show in the final image.
• Manual Focus - Make sure the camera is set to manual focus. By all means use autofocus to get the correct focus, but then switch to manual. This will make sure the focus doesnt change between shots.

Thats all I can think of just at the moment, I'll add more if I think of them! :)

Good luck panorama shooting.

IR72 Filter exposure issues

Along with my cheap ND400 I bought a cheap IR72 filter, again just to play with the effect more so than anything else. Again the filter is for my DA 18-55 AL II lens which I would like to replace in the future.

As some people may know, DSLRs have a filter in front of the sensor which blocks most of the IR wavelengths of light at upto 95% effectiveness. This means that when you go and place a filter in front which blocks all visible light below 720nm (like an IR72 filter) your required shutter speeds get VERY long.

Upon receiving my filter I went about taking some shots at ISO1600, 0.5sec, f4.5 handheld (got to love that Pentax Shake Reduction). What I found was that the images just came out like I had a red filter in front, not very IR at all. Today I finally got my tripod out and did some testing, I found to get a proper IR like image I needed to shoot at around ISO400, 30sec, f11 in broad daylight. The effect that you want from an IR filter is tree leaves and grass coming out white, while everything else is more like a black and white image (probably with a very red cast to it from the camera though!)

So here are some key points for shooting IR with a modern DSLR which has the sensor IR block filter still in place.

1. Shoot RAW - you will need to play with the white balance quite a lot to get a decent image. RAW also allows some give in exposure which means you dont have to get it exact (I am finding it hard to find the sweet spot).
2. Shoot in Manual mode - you will need to play with aperture, ISO and shutter speed to get a good exposure. The camera won't really know whats going on.
3. Go for LONG exposures - If the shots are not coming out how you expect (looking for grass and trees to have white leaves) don't be afraid to up the exposure some more, and then some more again! Remember I needed to go to 30 secs at ISO 400 to get the proper effect with my camera. Different cameras will have different filters on the sensors though, so play with your camera to find out what works for you.
4. Check your focus - AF should still work fine, however, it may shift slightly from what is the correct focus distance (due to light wavelengths). So make sure you check that the things you want in focus are actually in focus.