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Re: Pano Camera for Mural Size

Hi Andre,

What a great project! I've worked with large print output from VR panos captured with a 4x5" camera. If you have a lightweight 4x5" camera, use this with color negative film. It is especially important to use color negs if you're shooting at sunset or at night (it's better in daylight as well), because chrome film would give you ugly greens and cyans in building lights and washed-out highlights. In such conditions, always allow extra exposure time for reciprocity factor. Use a lens that covers a slightly taller angle of view than you need, because the stitching process will require cropping from top and bottom. With well-exposed negs, high quality scans and careful processing, you'll get beautiful results.

You'll need to devise a sliding or geared rail for positioning the camera on your VR head on the tripod, since the camera will have to be moved back from its normal position to align the nodal point of the lens over the pivot. Shooting the sequence takes concentration and quick action, because there are so many steps in each shot, so practice beforehand with empty film holders. If possible, prepare your camera equipment to carry in a backpack, because you may need both hands for climbing into position. Some tall buildings have a parapet with a catwalk that is only accessible by rung ladder. Others have a skylight hatch with a rung ladder. Bring a rubber door stop, just in case. Due to current security concerns, make sure you have written clearance in hand, and that the guards on duty are informed. Allow extra time -- you'll need at least a half hour to set up and shoot...an hour is better.

Begin with the camera pointed away from the sun (or sunset). If you plan to join the print at both ends to form a cylinder, it will be necessary to shoot an extra four shots in the sequence, two at the beginning and two at the end, because the light may change between start and finish. Later you can blend the sky from these extra shots into the end shots of the main sequence.

Scan the negs at 4,000 spi. For a 9 ft. print at ~150 ppi this should be just enough pixels (16,200 needed) without overburdening your system, which will require lots of RAM for stitching (1 GB + is a good idea). Once the stitching is done, go over the image tile by tile to find errors and problems. You'll have lots of stitching errors to fix and spotting to do! Plan to spend a couple of days on the image processing. Select certain areas to make test prints, before taking the plunge with the full-size print.

It's great fun...but a lot of work to do it right.

John Gaylord
Ad Image Studio / vrimagers.com


For a 9x50ft mural.

View from top of a building showing about 180 degree cityscape.

Should I stitch together the view from digital -or-

Should I Use something like a Fuji Panoramic Camera - GX617 (or larger
format) and go from there -or-

Should I just look for a pro?

We do architectural photography and some QTVR, but this scale would be new
for us.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Thanks,

Andre 
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