Hi and thanks for stopping by. My blog is an assortment of information relating to my photography and various commercial, advertising and glamour shoots that I do. I will be sharing information relating to my shoots including info about gear, lighting set ups, post processing and some BTS shots. I will also look into other equipment such as computer hardware, back up systems, software and processing techniques that all contribute to achieving the final images you see at Chris Smith Photography. Feel free to make comments and contact me if you have any questions.
Really Right Stuff - Panoramas Made Simple
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
If your like me and have a passion for landscape photography, then your natural development will lead you to wanting to shoot larger wider images. Unless you have really deep pockets and can afford the hi end Hasselblads, Mamyas and Phase One cameras then the next best option is using a panoramic head and stitching images together. The benefit of this is that you can effectively take a range of image side by side, known as single row panoramas, across a larger area of landscape. If like me you use a Canon 5D MKII which produces a 21.2mp image, then by shooting say a 5 frame pano image, this will give you an image approximately 5 times the size once they are stitched together. This is particularly useful if you plan on printing your images at larger sizes.
There are a range of great products out there and it really comes down to your personal preference and your intended use. Before purchasing my Really Right Stuff panoramic head I read a range of reviews by fellow photographers and various blogs I found on the internet. I was also fortunate enough to borrow a panoramic head from Shannon Sakovits (www.shannonphotography.com.au) who is a good mate and fellow photographer.
Once you have decided on your intended use its as simple as order the various elements needed to make your panoramic head. For me that consisted of 3 products. The L Plate for Canon 5D MKII, the BH-55 ball head with Panning Clamp which would allow for really easy panning motion and the Precision Plus Package nodal slide which allows you to eliminate parallax. Not sure what parallax is then read here...
Following is an example of a 5 image stitched panorama taken by yours truly at Craigs Hut in Victora Australia
Canon EOS 1 Wall Winner
Monday, February 21, 2011
This post is actually related to an event from early last year however I felt that it was important for me to include it in my new website.
Every month Canon runs a competition for intermediate and professional photographers called, "EOS 1 Wall". Basically the way it works is, there is a professional photographer assigned to each month of the year who takes their turn in choosing a theme for that month. Photographers can then go out and capture an image to suit the theme and submit their entry for judging at the end of the month.
So after a trip to Mungo National Park early in 2010, I decided to submit one of my images taken at the "Walls of China", in Mungo National Park. The "Walls of China" are a range of eroded sand dunes, which create a moonlight landscape due to the various formations of the dunes. My image titled "Dancing Silhouette", consisted of one of these eroded sand formations, which had a tree that appeared to be the figure of someone dancing on top of it. To top it off I had taken the image under a star lite sky. To my delight and utter surprise, I received notification that I had been chosen as the winning entry of the "EOS 1 Wall" competition for the month of May 2010 for my entry "Dancing Silhouette".
The subject for May was the "Twilight Zone" and my image titled "Dancing Silhouette", taken at Mungo National Park received the judge’s choice as the winning image. There is also a peoples choice award, which was won by another entrant. This was the first competition I had entered and first time I had ever been recognised professionally for my photography. The prize was a large framed print of my image as well as being published in Camera Magazine however I guess the real prize for me was the satisfaction I felt from winning the competition.
