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Home >> Photography >> Guest Articles Turn your 35mm camera into
a medium format or even a 4x5 Digital imaging has many advantages over the conventional darkroom, and one of my favorites is the merging of several 35mm frames to make a large panorama landscape, or shooting several frames of a building or other structure and merge them for architecture photography. If for example you were to shoot a series of 10 exposures of a subject, and if you used 50% of the image area in each frame, you would end up with about 43 sq. centimeters of data; which is about the same as a 6x7 medium format film would give you. Once the film has been scanned you will need a computer and a program such as Photoshop,in order to compose the final image. Or, another option would be to use imaging software that would automatically do the merging for you. I have had no experience with any of the automatic programs at this point in time, but I know Photoshop works very well. In order to take the series of exposures, you will require a mounting system for your camera. I use a Minolta CLE rangefinder camera and made an attachment plate from 1/4 inch plywood to which I fasten the camera. I mount this plate to my "L" bracket, with a 1/4x20 carriage bolt and wing nut. The "L" bracket is made from 1/2 inch medite, but any scrap material will do. The important thing is that the point of rotation of the "L" bracket on the tripod should be directly under the optical center of the lens and the attachment point of the camera plate to the "L" bracket should be in line with the horizontal center of the lens. For more information on this see Brian Lawler's Home Page at: www.thelawlers.com. He has written a very interesting essay on panorama photography.
Both Photos Copyright
© Birt Nord
I mount my bracket on a Manfrotto tripod, which has a center post that rotates, thus there is no need for a ball or pan head. I level the tripod using the leg adjustments, with an inexpensive bubble level on the center post. The "L" bracket and camera assembly is then rotated by releasing the lock on the center post of the tripod, and the camera angle, in relation to horizon (pitch) is adjusted by loosening the wing nut and moving the plate on the "L" bracket. If you are interested in knowing how to use Photoshop to make panorama images, plus a great deal of other photographic information, check out George Lepp's web site at: www.leppphoto.com. And the first image using Birt's device: White Rock Pier |
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