Nothing much to add. Biggest challenge with this one was getting some saturation on a super overcast day. HDR helps, but only so far.
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF28mm f/1.8 USM | Shutter: | 1/320 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2011:09:25 10:20:28 | Aperture: | f/9.0 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 28 mm |
Maybe it’s a personal thing, but I really like these shots I took of the hotels in Waikiki. They’re geometric and I like the simplicity, but they don’t scream Hawaii. To make up for it, here’s this:
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Shutter: | 1/160 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2010:09:17 13:31:47 | Aperture: | f/8.0 | |||
| Artist: | Photographer: Ari Brown | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 35 mm |
That is all.
Waikiki is the epitome of Hawaii 5-0-style Hawaii. The beach culture of the mid 20th century might have evolved a bit between then and now, but the beach is the same. They’re even bringing back the series, so nostalgia runs high.
I can appreciate the beach and strolling the sand, but the encroaching high-rise hotels, some of them dating back directly to those glory days, make for some of my favorite pictures.
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Shutter: | 1/100 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2010:09:17 13:20:16 | Aperture: | f/7.1 | |||
| Artist: | Photographer: Ari Brown | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 32 mm |
Starting from the south (zoo, aquarium) end of the strip with Diamondhead at your back, the Aston Waikiki Beach is the first big hotel you see. I love the scalloped balconies.
I got a bunch more. Click for the jump.
When I started talking about panoramas, there was some question about how you might turn a few pictures into one. You didn’t need a tripod, but it was strongly recommended. A bubble level wouldn’t hurt too. Care needed to be exercised. Incantations were recited. If you took a picture of water buffeted by the wind, god help you. Back in the day, I used Panorama Factory. It crashed a lot. I spent hours mapping little dots from one picture to the next.
Starting with Photoshop CS4, Adobe changed all that. There was a panorama tool built right in, and it had a magic setting called “Auto”. With CS5 it got even better. No matter what you throw at it, it blends, warps, and just works magic. The pictures always look good. Always. Here is my latest:
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Shutter: | 1/80 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2010:05:27 12:57:45 | Aperture: | f/5.0 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 100 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 45 mm |
Like before, I’m posting my panoramas at twice the width of most of my pictures so you can see a little of the magic in there!
This is a shot from the end of highway 270 on the north shore of the big island of Hawaii. Stretching out to the east is the Waipio Valley. From this side, near Hawi, you can drive only so far, and then you can hike. The beach below is only 20 or 30 minutes, but you can go a couple days farther if you’re stupid brave enough. It’s a beautiful place with lazy cows, fields of waist-high grass and the odd taro patch. It might not be obvious but this shot is a bit odd. I’m standing on a hill, shooting down and panning the camera diagonally – sort of inland + underneath me. In the past, this just wouldn’t work. You’d have to map every point in the panorama by hand, and at the end of the day you’d have a distorted picture that would probably lead to a lot of rending of hair and kicking of computers. With Photoshop CS5, you just hit go and wait. I’d like to say I miss the old days when things were hard, but I don’t – at all. Not only does this let you just take pictures and do what you want to do, but it means you can shoot hand-held and with lesser equipment and still have something serviceable come out the other side. Adobe, this time, I love you.
Panoramic photography is a lot of fun. There is nothing like the viewpoint you can get by stitching together a bunch of shots into a broad sweeping view. I first posted instructions on how to shoot a panorama back here. We then had a couple posts in a row alternately described as Panoramania and Panorama-orama. Lots of fun. All the instructions for how to actually capture the pictures are still fairly valid but I want to tell you there is a better way. Behold!
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Shutter: | 1/200 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2009:10:13 11:23:45 | Aperture: | f/10.0 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 100 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 24 mm |
See that shot? Not too bad, right? The real magic however, is twofold. First off, I shot that hand-held. Yes, it was in fairly bright sun so the exposure was easy, but it includes a beach scene and rolling waves are just about the hardest thing to put in a panorama. The real beauty behind it all is Adobe Photoshop CS4. Whereas before I told you to use Panorama Factory or Autostitch, which are still fine, I just need to spread the word that the built-in panorama creation tool in CS4 beats them all. In fully auto mode, it stitched together 6 individual shots to create this without any manual intervention. Without much if any moire, and without totally barfing when it came to the water. The original shot is 10,000 and some pixels wide and I think it’s beautiful. If anyone is really interested, I can post a larger version too.
The moral of the story is this: go shoot some panoramas. Certainly a tripod and level will help and for night shots it might be the only way, but don’t limit yourself! Software is constantly improving and even if you don’t have Photoshop CS4 right now, you might get it down the road (or you might get this feature in something free or low cost in 6 months). Things change! The only thing you can’t change is the fact that you might not take pictures today. I’ve certainly regretted the things I’ve not captured. Do yourself a favor. Digital is cheap. Go take pictures.
Sairee Beach on Koh Tao is pretty great. Very picturesque, nice sand, and every tourist around will be there to shoot pictures like this around sunset. But I think this post sets a different kind of record for me.
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & no lens info | Shutter: | 1/125 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2009:01:28 02:58:27 | Aperture: | f/5.6 | |||
| Artist: | N/A | ISO: | 100 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 60 mm |
I’ve been employed for all of two weeks now and already I’m digging in the vault as I’m out of new stuff. Of course this pic is from my trip a while back, but it’s still good stuff, right?
Anyway, these sorts of rock formations were all around the beaches on Koh Tao and I lived them all. This one seemed to have particularly nice asymmetry. I can’t figure out if I’m happy with the framing in this shot or not. On one hand, the subject is halfway up, seeming screwing up the rule of thirds pretty good. On the other hand, horizontally, I think the positioning is very nice. I’m coming around to the idea that the vertical symmetry and the horizontal asymmetry make it work. But I took it, so I’m a little biased.
Subscribe to my RSS Feed