[Leica] Re: A Deadman 360

[Andrew Nemeth <azn@nemeng.com>]

John Brownlow <lists@johnbrownlow.com> wrote:

> http://www.pinkheadedbug.com/misc/mirvish-4-4000.jpg

>> I know how devilishly tricky it is to shoot Panoramas
>> with alot of people moving around.
>
> No kidding... I initially tried doing it without people
> but the shots always felt sterile so I decided instead
> to damn the difficulty and focus on the people, and try
> to develop a technique for shooting them since no-one
> else apart from a couple of people like Andrew Nemeth
> seemed to be doing it.

Indeed.  ;?)

Another issue is that a lot of (US-based) VR-photogs are
rightly paranoid that someone will sue them if their
likeness is used without their permission.  Luckily not
so much of a problem in "no-right-to-privacy, no-1st-ammendment"
Australia.

Unlike John I use a 16mm full-frame fisheye, so I can
take fewer shots with more overlap between each.  Makes
shooting and stitching (in PShop) much easier.  Also,
you don't cut people's heads off irrespective of how
close people get (c.f. the girl eating the icecream in
John's shot).

To see shots of my Leica M4-P/16mm Fisheye Elmarit-R rig,
see:  <http://nemeng.com/equipment/#rig>

To see (mostly) people VR samples, see <http://4020.net/vr>

Currently I'm working on a large (25-scene) commission
for a University here, with each scene a full photosphere
(ie you can look straight up and down); almost every scene
full of people in-close (tutorials, orchestra rehersal etc.);
and each scene accompanied by 2 minutes of binaural stereo
sound (embedded into the final QTVR binary).

Lotsa fun + hard work.  Leaves "straight" stills photography
way behind.  :?)

Here's a war story from the Uni shoot:  I was setting up to
VR a robot-pipe-welder and the engineering professor warned
me that the welding-arc would most likely wipe out my
camera's "chip", especially at the close distance I had
set up (2m from the arc).  I told him I was using a *real*
camera (ie. film, not digitoy), so there would be absolutely
no problem.  He noted that other photographers had to give up
as the raw UV and arc intensity had completely trashed the
on-board electronics of the digital cameras they used.  One
poor photog.s CCD even got fried.

So anyway he kicked in the arc - man, it was loud and
*bright*! - and I took the shots, hoping my arrogance was
not misplaced.

Got the films back a few days later.  As I'd guessed, no
problems!  The Leica 16mm R Fisheye resolved the arc as
a small blue star, with the rest of the image clean and
clear with a slight blue flare.  Chalk up another victory
for film vs. digital!

Regds,


Andrew Nemeth
Blue Mountains NSW, Australia

<http://nemeng.com>

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