Panoramic photography

Many of you are aware that one of my hobbies is photography and that my emphasis is usually on the scenery I encounter in my travels. I usually call these my vacation snapshots, and I have a bunch of them hanging in our condo in various sizes. I recently posted my photo of the Golden Gate Bridge in the Casino Chip of the Day thread, and I also recently posted several photos of state and national parks in the Where Would You Take a Day Trip thread and an old photo of an annular eclipse to the Solar Eclipse thread.

I received a private message from Face (I hope this doesn't offensively violate the rule on keeping private messages private) on the subject of making panorama photos by stitching together several individual shots. I told him that a year and a half ago I had made just such a panorama of the Las Vegas strip as seen from the top of the Rio and posted it to the forum. I had an 8" x 64" print made of that image and have it hanging over the double doors from our living room to our patio.

During our recent trip to Las Vegas for WoVCon][, my wife and I took the ride to the top of the Paris Las Vegas Eiffel Tower one evening, and I took a number of photos from which I planned to construct another panorama. I was quite disappointed at how difficult they made it to take photos from there. Presumably to prevent both jumpers and people throwing stuff off, they have a wire mesh all around, with a 2" x 3" grid of 1/4" wavy steel rod.

They have a small number of openings that are maybe 4" square that I could barely get a lens through, and the crowd made it difficult to get access to those "windows" for very long. It was necessary to lean against the mesh to get the camera to each of a few of the openings, and I think it would be impossible to use a tripod there. I was hand-holding (pressed against the wire frame) for 1/10 second shots, which I don't normally like to try.

I have finally pieced a few of the images together into a panorama, and though I am still disappointed in the results, I thought I would share them here. As with my posted panorama image from the Rio, it is possible to see a larger image (6MB+, in this case), if you are interested. Just click on the image below. If your browser behaves like mine, that should download the image to a new window. If you click on that image, it should pop to full size, allowing you to scroll in two dimension.

Yes, the distortion is obvious, since you can look both north and south on Las Vegas Boulevard and see more than 180 degrees around. I just thought it was a neat idea to try for myself. And yes, I would like to have included the image down to the Bellagio fountains and the street, but I was having difficulty getting even this much. If those folks at Paris Las Vegas would just get all of those tourists out of my way and maybe remove some of that wire cage ....

cool!

I'm impressed by the results, Doc! I appreciate your contribution to the aestheic of the community, and have adopted this image for my personal use wallpaper. I set the wallpaper to "stretch" to make sure everything gets displayed.

Quote: Doc

Yes, the distortion is obvious, since you can look both north and south on Las Vegas Boulevard and see more than 180 degrees around. I just thought it was a neat idea to try for myself. And yes, I would like to have included the image down to the Bellagio fountains and the street, but I was having difficulty getting even this much. If those folks at Paris Las Vegas would just get all of those tourists out of my way and maybe remove some of that wire cage ....

It's rather a pain taking photos from the Eiffel tower. You could try visiting in the low season, if Vegas has such a thing (I'm thinking August, when the heat should melt asphalt <g>).

Or you can wait til one of the gigantic Ferris wheels are finished and try to take photos from there. As I recall, one will be nearby, right behind the Flamingo. This also allows you to put Paris and the Eiffel replica in the shot.

But all things considered, it's a great shot. Have you taken any from the Start tower? Granted it's a bit far from the Sip, and these days it looks upon too many vacant lots and the remains of days gone by...

Quote: Nareed

Have you taken any from the Start tower? Granted it's a bit far from the Sip, and these days it looks upon too many vacant lots and the remains of days gone by...

Always enjoy your typos, Nareed.

My original interest in a photo of the strip was to get one that showed the skyline including the Stratosphere tower. I wanted to display it along with my photos of the skylines of Seattle (Space Needle) and Toronto (Canada Tower). I still have not been successful in getting a comparable photo of the strip, so I settled for the panorama shots.

I have never been up the Stratosphere at night, and I was disappointed at the photos I was able to get in the daytime. Here is one that looks down Las Vegas Blvd and shows the upper portion of the strip. The Strat doesn't give a good view of the strip south of the bend.

Great shot.

Yeah, there's panoramic distortion, but that's the nature of panoramic shots. They ALL have that type of distortion of one kind or another.

I'm more impressed that there are no visible stitch marks. Your software did a very good job.

Nice work I will have another background for my computer to go with the other one you did.

Thanks!

Great photo! I love this feature to capture a group sitting together around a dinner table. Just food for thought.

Quote: Doc

Always enjoy your typos, Nareed.

You can thank Firefox. If I typo a real word, it doesn't show up as wrong in the instant spell-checker.

Quote:

I have never been up the Stratosphere at night, and I was disappointed at the photos I was able to get in the daytime. Here is one that looks down Las Vegas Blvd and shows the upper portion of the strip.

Any idea what year thatw as taken in? It must be prior to 2008, because by then the Frontier was gone.

Quote:

The Strat doesn't give a good view of the strip south of the bend.

Yeah, it wasn't the best place to put a tall observation tower.

Have you noticed a lot of Las Vegas is that way? There's a lot you can't see from the Eiffel tower, for example, and some grat sights are obscured by trees or casinos...

I must be tired. I've read the thread title 10 times now, but every time I re-notice it, my brain keeps saying it's something else 0.o

I agree with DJ, that night time pic of Vegas is amazing. As I said in our convo, I usually used the $10 disposable cameras when doing this stuff. Mine are good, but nowhere near as fluid as yours. I'm going to have to get one of them new-fangled electronic deals and get back to making these. Top notch stuff, Doc!

Quote: Nareed

Any idea what year thatw as taken in? It must be prior to 2008, because by then the Frontier was gone.

The photo from the Stratosphere tower was taken 4/11/07.

Quote: Face

I must be tired. I've read the thread title 10 times now, but every time I re-notice it, my brain keeps saying it's something else

Neither of the words say "Porn".

Doc, I have almost that same picture from the Strat...(Mine was taken about 10 years ago)

Quote: Doc

The photo from the Stratosphere tower was taken 4/11/07.

Thanks.

Pretty good shot, too.

Quote: TIMSPEED

Doc, I have almost that same picture from the Strat...(Mine was taken about 10 years ago)

That gives a good chance to see the new construction. Between the time of your shot and mine in 2007, they had constructed Wynn and had Palazzo and Encore under construction. You can't see it in the shot I posted, but my other shots that day show work just starting on Fontainebleau.

Is anyone else interested in a print of that panorama photo in the first post of this thread?

I plan to get a print made to hang in my condo. When I got the 8" x 64" print of the view from the top of the Rio, I wasted money. I paid for a 24" x 64" print that was 2/3 blank. If I had planned better, I could have gotten three identical images on the paper for the same price.

This time around, I don't want to make the same mistake. I plan to get a 36" x 48" print that includes four copies of the view from atop the Eiffel Tower with each about 8.8" x 48". I don't really need but one print, so I thought I would check to see whether there are others here who would like to have a print and share the cost. (I'm not really trying to make any money here.) I think I can get the 4-image print at a cost that would make each of the individual ones be somewhere around $20 or $25, plus the cost of a mailing tube and postage to anyone who is interested.

I warn you, if you plan to have such a print custom framed as I will, the framing job will cost one heck of a lot more than the print.

Let me know if you are interested, and I will check further into the cost of the printing.