CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

When I am out shooting I sometimes see in my mind's eye a panoramic crop when taking images in standard 3:2 format.  Panorama's are very striking and for me can add a dynamic element to landscapes and cityscapes. It is very easy to visualise a panoramic crop.  When shooting I check to see if the important elements of an image are all concentrated into one third of the image area.  I then shoot the image with the dead area of the image either to the top or bottom of the picture.  I then crop 12:5 in post production to give me the final panorama. Japan was a perfect canvas for the 12:5 crop (or even wider) both when shooting landscapes at Lake Ashi (top picture), Enoshima (second picture) and in Tokyo (two images below). All of the images were shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 with either the 16mm f1.4, 50-140mm f2.8 and 100-400mm f4.5/5.6 lenses. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Yesterday was sunny at the Shanghai International Circuit and I took the opportunity to go out to inspect the photo areas around the track and take a few images along the way. Using the X-T1 and the XF16-55mm f2.8 I used the panoramic function on the camera to capture some wide, sweeping images of the track.

The Panorama function on the Fujifilm X-T1 is very good and is a simple way of producing quick panoramic images. You set the function by moving the 'drive' dial to the panorama setting and then choosing the angle (medium or large) and direction (left or right sweep on landscape or left or right sweep on portrait). My settings tend to be medium angle (though I do use large when the scene warrants a larger angle) on a left to right sweep in a portrait.  The reason for the portrait direction setting (i.e. holding the camera on its side) is so the resulting picture is deeper. If you shoot on landscape then the result is a much longer and thinner image.  Once I am set I hand hold the camera, press the shutter release and then sweep the camera from left to right until the camera finishes taking images. The technique is to keep the camera moving at the same pace throughout the sweep. The camera software then stitches these images together to produce the finished panoramic ima...

The Circuit of The Americas (CoTA) in Texas has a 77 metre high Observation Tower that has  breath-taking views of the track, the Central Texas countryside and the Austin skyline. Yesterday afternoon I took the opportunity to go up the tower with World Champion Anthony Davidson and Japan's Kazuki Nakajima to get some shots from the top. The Porsche GT3 Cup cars were on track for their Free Practice session and with the colourful run off areas providing a counter point to the cars 250 feet below us on the observation platform. Using the Fujifilm X-T1 and the XF10-24mm f4 wide angle lens I captured a few images, including two panorama shots of the circuit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------...

This panoramic shot of Edinburgh from above the battery looking north towards the Firth of Forth was taken last Wednesday during a trip to the Scottish capital city.  The image was taken on an X-T1 with a 23mm f1.4.  The camera was set to Panoramic Mode and 180 degree sweep. 

The build up to the second race of the 2015 World Endurance Championship in Spa-Francorchamps has been interesting with all the variations in weather thanks to the location of the circuit in the Ardennes Forest.   However race day has been dry so far and it has given us the chance to use the panoramic format on the Fujifilm X-T1 to produce some interesting images on the grid.  This two shots compare the weather today compared to Tuesday when I took the image below at La Source, which is the first corner at Spa-Francorchamps. For more information on the World Endurance Championship visit www.fiawec.com

Today is the day after the final FIA WEC race of the season and we are preparing for the Awards Gala in downtown São Paulo this evening.   This is the view from the terrace at our hotel in Morumbi, taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and 18mm f2 lens using the panoramic mode.   This mode is a bit 'hit-and-miss' because the camera doesn't always align the separate images correctly. However this shot is definitely a 'hit'. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit ou...

On the recent visit to the Outer Hebrides I took over 1200 images of the scenery on Harris and Lewis.   Over the past two days I have spent some time looking at some of the images in the archive that I didn't use the first time round and this shot is one of the stand out images.  In colour the shot across the bay is OK but it didn't attract my attention. However when I looked again I saw the potential in the wide variation in tones that made this image suitable for a strong black and white image. I converted the image using Silver Efex Pro2 software and then did some dodging and burning to increase the contrast in parts of the image in Photoshop Elements 11. The result is quite pleasing.  The colour version of the image is below so you can decide if my choice was correct or not.  Image taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 + Fujinon XF10-24mm f4R OIS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Yesterday we spent the afternoon in Stockbridge in Edinburgh and then had a family trip to the cinema at Ocean Terminal in Leith.  Our film finished at 21:45 and we saw the sun setting so we decided to drive up to Arthur's Seat and see the sunset behind Edinburgh Castle. This panoramic shot of the Edinburgh skyline was taken on the Fuji X-Pro1 and Fujinon 60mm f2.4. (C) MacLean Photographic

The beautiful scenery out on the Scottish Islands of the Inner and Outer Hebrides was quiet breathtaking with tall mountains, turquoise seas and white sandy beaches.  The scenery was perfect for wide panoramic images using the panoramic mode on the Fujifilm X-T1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like'

One of the many functions on the three X-Series cameras I own is the panoramic mode.  This is where you sweep the camera across a scene and the images are then stitch together in a panoramic image by the internal software.   This function on the X100 and X-Pro1 is very hit and miss.  I have found that a lot of the time the software fails to line up the images and I have lost confidence in the system.  Therefore I have tended to shoot individual images on these cameras and stitch them together using Photoshop Elements afterwards. This is OK but it takes time in post processing to do. The new X-T1 also has a panoramic mode which is on the drive selector, located on the top panel under the ISO dial (see top image).  I have tried this function on several occasions and I can report that this is a lot more user friendly than the function on the X-Pro1 and X100.  More importantly I haven't had a misaligned shot yet and I have found myself trusting t...

On Saturday I climbed to the top of Traprain Law for the first time to see what the view was like.  I certainly wasn't disappointed and was also rewarded with some beautiful light. This imposing rock juts out of the East Lothian countryside near East Linton to a height of 221m and is a  Site of Specific Scientific Interest   and an ancient monument because of the prehistoric hill fort that was discovered on the summit and the 5th century treasure that was discovered in May 1919. Looking east towards Dunbar and the North Sea - Looking north towards Bass Rock and Tantallon Castle - And looking west towards the Firth of Forth and Edinburgh - For more information on Traprain Law visit the East Lothian Countryside Ranger Service website HERE . Here is a timelapse video taken from the summit looking towards Dunbar on the Nikon D800 Images taken on a Fujifilm X-Pro1 and Fujinon 35mm f1.4 or 55-200mm f3.5/4.8 lenses -------------------...

A stop off on the way up to Rannoch Moor allowed me to capture the pre dawn glow over the mountains and Loch Tulla.   This shot required a 9 minute exposure due to the fact it was almost dark when we arrived.  W hile the clouds were showing signs of the sunrise, the glow is actually created by the lights of Glasgow some 60 miles to the south of where we were standing. Because it was so dark I set the Nikon D800 and 17-35mm lens on the tripod and had to focus the lens on infinity.  I could just make out the loch in the viewfinder to compose the shot.  The result was then cropped into a panoramic image in PSE11.  The colours are as they were in the RAW file, just slightly tweaked in post production. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't cost you anything to click on an advert but we get a small fee for ever...

I like the panoramic format for landscapes and I either crop suitable images to a 12:5 format or I stitch several images together in Photoshop to create a panoramic image.  However I have always created panoramic images on the horizontal and never on the vertical.    After reading an article on vertical panoramics I started to search out compositions that would suit the format.  I saw one such image in Place de la Concorde in Paris last Saturday morning with the three vertical items - the ornate lamp post, the Obelisk and the Eiffel Tower providing the elements for the composition. The second shot is of the column in the centre of Place Vendome. Images taken on a Fujifilm X100 with a Fujinon 23mm f2 lens ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't cost you anything to cl...