This shot is of Canary Wharf, Docklands in London taken across West India Quay early in the morning on the way to work last week.
This has been a problem shot for me for a while. I’ve taken the shot loads of time but never managed to get it to work. The position I take this from across the water is quite close to the buildings and they loom large overhead. But for composition I’d wanted the reflections in the water and movement in the sky above. Using a 10mm lens in portrait mode I could just about achieve this but with massive amounts of convergence – too much to correct via software without shrinking the shot down and losing the sides and sky.
So this is a vertorama, two landscape shots taken at 13mm and heavily vertically corrected (+75 in lightroom), then stitched and cropped to square to get the composition I’d originally wanted. Both shots were 2 minutes at f8, ISO200 and WB locked at 3850. Was it worth all the effort – I hope so, but I have learnt masses from the exercise – which is a good thing.
Now the question is could I have achieved the same effect with a 45mm tilt shift on a cropped sensor – I’m assuming the verticals would have been ok – but I would have still had to stitch the shots together – although lining up would have been far easier I think. Would it not have been for the massive expense of the TS lens, it would have been on my Christmas list, but I’m pleased with what I achieved anyway
Hit ‘L’ to see it large
Technical Details
Nikon D300
Sigma 10-20mm @13mm
F8
120 second shutter
ISO 200
WB 3850
Lightroom for lens correction, CS5 for stitching, Silver Efex 2 for conversion
Lots of coffee
Another big thanks for those who commented and fav’d my last shot – thank you very much
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Posted by Giles McGarry (formerly kantryla) on 2011-12-02 08:46:40
Tagged: , London , UK , Canary Wharf , Long Exposure , Vertorama , Black and White , Mono , ND110 , cityscape , square , Giles McGarry
