Wildlife Photography across the Water: Thinking out of the box-Photostiching wildlife images

Sunday 15 May 2011

Thinking out of the box-Photostiching wildlife images

When i was in California i had many occasions where i would wait patiently for a wildlife subject to do something or i would just watch and learn, One evening i was on a beach with a sleeping Sea Otter, I waited for some considerable time for it to awake and in that time it crossed my mind that i could make a very large image of it by taking multiple images and stitching them together, Agencies are always after more and more pixels and bigger files so i took 5 images in portrait mode from head to tail allowing extra at each end and i stitched them together in PTgui, A brilliant software that invisibly stitches you images together-seemless, Firstly when doing this you need to set your camera to Manual so that ALL images have the same exposure,Do not use AWB so i set mine to sunny and shoot where each image has an overlap, I shot with the D7000 and after putting the images through PTgui i ended up with a huge 227MB file (8bit Tiff), After cropping etc i still had 150MB file-twice that of a D3X, So the image could be if needed printed HUGE, If your subject is very still then this is a cheap and excellent way of getting big files from a cheaper camera
Click on image to make larger

Dave

1 comment:

Peter Edge15 May 2011 at 10:42
A good read Dave. I only ever thought of stitching for landscapes before this.
for anyone who wants to see a set of 360 stitched shots of the japanese tsunami..http://japan.pano-journalism.com/
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.