Tuesday, August 22, 2006

New York panorama at dusk

Hi, Digg!



Hi Reddit!



Note: You need to click this to enlarge the photo in a new window. However, this image is HUGE (several thousand pixels wide), so if your computer is faint of heart, don't click the image. :)



NYC at Dusk



This was shot from Jersey City, which sits just across from lower Manhattan. To find this vantage point, head to the New Jersey PATH terminal (the one named Exchange Place -- some Diggers pointed out that there are several), then walk north until you come to a pier in front of the Hyatt. This is the view from that pier.



This is actually shrunk down quite a bit; the original is almost 25,000 pixels wide.



**edit** Q&A time! I've had a bunch of questions about the technical details of this shot, so, here goes!



This is a panoramic stitch of 8 photographs. They were taken with a Canon EOS 20D using a Sigma 70-200 2.8 telephoto lens set to 70mm. The lens was tripoded, and each shot was shot using a cable release. I shot it RAW and processed the using Adobe Photoshop CS2. I stiched them using Adobe's stitching utility, however I set everything to manual and did it in layers, as the Photoshop stitcher had a hard time figuring out what to do with the color changes in the sky over time. I processed each layer individually so that the colors would match up, and then overlapped them and then painted layer opacity screens over the edges to make it as seamless as possible. (There are actually spots where the edges don't line up so hot, but I tried to keep those spots in the sky/water so it's harder to tell. :)) I actually have two more versions of this, one at dawn and one at night. :)

44 comments:

DM said...

Ryan,

GREAT Photo!

DickM

Unknown said...

Ryan, I have never been to New York, but that picture certainly captures it all in one take. nice work...

Steve Morton said...

Great picture, I would be interested in the technique you use to capture such images.
Steve

Anonymous said...

Hi!

Nice work!
I also stitch panoramas, and i find a couple of things on your pano i can pick on.. ;)

- white jetstripe in the sky, plane is missing..
- one of the lower skyscapes is not correct allignes, dont knbow what the buildings is names, but it it's located in the middle of the picture, the "horizon" in the bulding is far off.. ;)

regards,
steve

Anonymous said...

great photo - i'm just back from nyc...no point in getting any of my photos developed now!

Unknown said...

thats not new york! thats my home town upper hutt.

Anonymous said...

i think its alright only. it does captures the concrete jungle, would probably have been better in the evening when its darker.

manhattan was great! been there, walked that.

now how's this for a change? the Singapore city skyline.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcheong/322382924/

Anonymous said...

Gosh, New York skyscrapers don't look very impressive these days do they?

Anonymous said...

Great pic, thank you! Was the photo 1 picture or photos put together to make on panoramic?

Thanks!

Dennis
Des Moines, Iowa

Daniel said...

yup a real nice photo. too bad my mac couldn't handle it. poor little mac mini...

Anonymous said...

Beautiful photo!! What kind of camera did you use for that panorama effect?

Erebus said...

2 questions actually:
1) Photostitched?
2) What kind of camera?

Anonymous said...

Check also these truly beautiful and mind blowing panorama pictures made with a Canon A95, I think Greece is the most beautiful European Island ;). Enjoy

link

Anonymous said...

wow. next best thing to actually being there.

and you've made it to the front page of digg.

Anonymous said...

I can see my office window on Hudson St.!

Unknown said...

LOVE IT! I used to live there and commute into Manhattan bevore 9/11. The best part of the day was coming around the corner and be greeted by this view. Any chance to get the pic in its original size (you mentioned 25000 pixel wide)? Please mail me at pavoniaatfastmail.fm

Anonymous said...

I've taken a pana shot from that exact location, but it didn't turn out as well as yours. ;-) nicely done!

Anonymous said...

Ryan can I buy a print? aaron at idealernetwork com

Anonymous said...

Wow that is amazing, I tried doing panorama photos but none as good as that!!!!!!

Josh Chandler
www.josh-chandler.blogspot.com

macl said...

Simply amazing. Would you post the original picture somewhere? The level of detail must be astonishing...

Anonymous said...

Love it! Would be interesting to know more about the buildings and architects.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic! What camera / lense / setup did you use?

Anonymous said...

Does anyone else besides me see Jesus in this photo?

Unknown said...

That is a great picture.

Great work man!

i was wondering if you had any pictures that you think would go along with my site.

http://mbcpoetry.wordpress.com

Michael said...

A real impressive panorama would include both sides of Manhatten :)

heh j/k .. very nice

Anonymous said...

great shot, man! i love the city.. good luck!

Joe said...

It would be great if you published the technical details for the shot. Things like, camera type, lens, how many images stitched together did this take etc.....

Anonymous said...

Beautiful shot. Thanks for sharing :)

Anonymous said...

Shame its such a low quality JPEG.. I was gonna use it as a desktop background for my 1080p screen.

Dixon Dick said...

Well done, quite enough to make a NY'er homesick.

Anonymous said...

That is a great image! Now I feel the urge to visit NY...

Robert W. said...

Great shot, Ryan! I'm also a BIG fan of taking panoramas. Mine are done with my little Nikon 5200 digital camera and the Panorama Maker 3 software that came with it. For even higher resolution I've turned the camera sideways - in portrait mode on the horizontal plane so that each individual shot covers less horizontal space. Some of mine can be found here: http://mwtech.com/rw/photos/best/panoramas

Unknown said...

I do panoramas too. Great shot, great work. From a photo composition viewpoint, the sky need to be balanced by more of the Hudson River.

Unknown said...

Great work and great stitching. Sky are particularly difficult to stitch together.

From a composition standpoint, I would have included more of the Hudson River in the foreground to balance the amount of sky.

Unknown said...

Awesome Photo Dude Just Awesome!

Anonymous said...

atBeautiful shot! I, too would be interested in acquiring a copy of the original (size). Please let me know if this would be possible.

Keep up the good work! Your shots are a testament to photographers everywhere.

Troy Ohlsson said...

Very very nice!

jeffrey simms said...

AMAZING!

www.jeffreysimms.com

Anonymous said...

Wow. Thats a great picture!

Psychs said...

Amazing.. really like the way the light captures the buildings mid way through.. I need to go back there again

http://www.activebritstravel.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Have you seen this printed? I have this printed 10+ ft wide on photo gloss and then laminated to protect it. I did it for myself (not for sale) so no worries. Love your camera? I love my Designjet 5500 :)

Ryan McGinnis said...

Indeed, I have! :) In fact, the online file is several orders of magnitude smaller than the original -- the original file is a 22mb JPEG, and prints 250dpi at 10 feet wide. It looks wonderful, though I have no idea where one purchases or even buys the material to make a frame for such a large print; most prints that big go for the tryptic approach.

I don't sweat the whole "people stealing my stuff" thing too much; I register all my work at the US Copyright Office, so I figure if I ever see anything of mine published that I didn't license, I have a big payday coming via my attorney. :)

Anonymous said...

Great photo Ryan. Have you tried using a photo stitcher like PTGui for image stitching? It could make life easier if you do this often.

Do you ever shoot 360 panoramas? If so the Panoramic Earth may be of interest - it links them to Google maps in a panorama viewer. There are some from New York on the site.

Anonymous said...

ric said: I love my Designjet 5500 :)

Thank you for the tip. I am looking to get into the photo business, and was wondering about poster style printers.

God Bless,
Mark S.