Filmwasters
Which Board? => Photo Essays => Topic started by: Indofunk on May 03, 2019, 01:38:16 AM
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A few years ago, I had the idea to use my Holga WPC (wide pinhole camera), which shoots 6x12 images natively, to create full 360o panoramas. What I do is to take a photo, then advance the film half of a frame (6"), rotate the camera 90o to the right (or the left, but I think I always go clockwise), take another photo, advance half a frame, etc. Four of those gives me 360o coverage, with every frame except the first half and the last half being double exposed. It works really well with pretty uniform scenes, and looks funky/cool/weird with uneven, city scenes. Here's the first one I took, on top of Mount Beacon, with our very own Andrej assisting me by timing my exposures:
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2015-06-25-ektar-001.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2015-06-25-ektar-001.jpg)
And here are a few more that I've done since then. As you can see, some work well, some don't work quite so well, but they can all be stared at for quite a while :D
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2017-12-25-Portra-400-C41-001.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2017-12-25-Portra-400-C41-001.jpg)
Taken on the roof of my apartment building
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2018-02-25-Portra-400-C41-001.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2018-02-25-Portra-400-C41-001.jpg)
A sculpture garden in my neighborhood, taken on a cloudy day, so conveniently any people in the shot are erased by their own movement :D
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2018-07-03-ilford-delta-100-hc110h-12min-001.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2018-07-03-ilford-delta-100-hc110h-12min-001.jpg)
Union Square farmer's market
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2019-04-30-Ilford-XP2-400ish-C41-001.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2019-04-30-Ilford-XP2-400ish-C41-001.jpg)
Grand Central Station (you can see where I used my cellphone as a timer and to steady the camera for the 7-minute exposure ;) )
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2019-04-30-Ilford-XP2-400ish-C41-004.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2019-04-30-Ilford-XP2-400ish-C41-004.jpg)
Bryant Park. So, I metered this at 400 (it's XP2), then my sister called and I was speaking to her while doing this whole 360 thing. Being distracted, and having just shot the GCT photo above, instead of exposing each frame for 2 seconds, I exposed each for 2 minutes. As you can clearly see, film don't care ;D
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2019-04-30-Ektachrome-160T-100ish-C41-001.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2019-04-30-Ektachrome-160T-100ish-C41-001.jpg)
Bryant Park redo of the above on expired Ektachrome because I thought no way would the XP2 shot come out ;D
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2019-04-30-Ektachrome-160T-100ish-C41-004.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/2019-04-30-Ektachrome-160T-100ish-C41-004.jpg)
Times Square. I'm pretty sure tripods are not allowed in Times Square, but there were two cops drinking coffee and eating donuts right next to me and they didn't seem to care. Also proves that tourists are the only type of people that can stay still for minutes in a row.
All photos are clickable to larger, scrollable versions, and I apologize for making your browser load up all of the full sized images in this thread ;D
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Satish, I absolutely love those shots! I've been trying to get some shots similar to yours with my Altissa Periskop, however, you're the master, that's for sure. Great job, thanks for sharing! :)
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Very Cool!
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WOW!!! Satish I love these!
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Excellent. I do like the last one best, but I do also like all of them.
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This is sweeeeeet!
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New technique! Inspired by a comment by LA Nolan, what I did for this shot is to open the shutter, then slowly turn the film advance whilst turning my body. I wasn't looking at the film counter (something I will do next time ;) ), so I had no idea how much film I was using, and honestly I thought that the whole thing would either be blank or a complete blur. Turned out to be neither, and you can actually see ... things! With the technique outlined above, I actually can't see how I could make the picture any better :o
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/fw/2019-06-18-img003.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/fw/2019-06-18-img003.jpg)
So next time:
1. Keep the film counter window open and at eye level so that I know where I am
2. Start a timer, so that I can roughly give each bit of film its proper exposure time (I metered the rest of this roll at 3 seconds for a full exposure, so that would mean that I should time it so that by the time I get from exposure 1 to exposure 2, three seconds should have passed)
3. DO NOT DO THIS IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INTERSECTION!! ;D ;D ;D
Any other suggestions?
edit: Oh and maybe 4. do this in an open field or something, because I don't like the weird perspectives you get from shooting down a street (at least with buildings on all sides)
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I bet if you can improve the timing of your rotation and winding you could get more recognizable images. What 35mm camera did you use that lets you keep the shutter open while you wind the film?
It looks like you were standing in the middle of an intersection!
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Thanks Bryan! Yeah, I would really have to nail down the turning and advancing technique to get any sort of half decent image. The camera is a Holga WPC, so it's 120 film with a continuous film advance, which lends itself perfectly to this kind of stupidity ;D And speaking of stupidity, yes I was standing in the middle of an intersection, not the most intelligent thing to do ;D
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Oh, I get it, the sprocket holes were throwing you off. This was some rerolled Vision 500T from 6cm movie film that has sprocket holes? I know nothing about cine film ;D
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edit: Oh and maybe 4. do this in an open field or something, because I don't like the weird perspectives you get from shooting down a street (at least with buildings on all sides)
I agree with that. I always think streets and alleys will come out looking fantastic in really wide panos/pinholes, but they always disappoint. Vistas probably work better. Crowds or large groups of people are pretty cool too, but they don't work with the long exposure format. Either way, this is a great series. I look forward to seeing where you take it.
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Love these! And it may be my NYC native talking, but that GCS shot is outstanding!
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Here's one from a recent outdoor, socially distanced gig I played on (not while taking the panorama, obviously ;) )
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/20200723_001-XP2-C41-plaxall-panorama.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/20200723_001-XP2-C41-plaxall-panorama.jpg)
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Two more! These are both on Portra 400 NC, the first one shot at 1600 and developed normally in C41, the second one being a repeat of my "rotate body while advancing film", so I have no idea what ISO that came out to ;D
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/20210131_002-Portra-400-1600-C41.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/20210131_002-Portra-400-1600-C41.jpg)
(http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/20210131_004-Portra-400-C41.jpg) (http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/20210131_004-Portra-400-C41.jpg)
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Very cool work you are doing there.
Mark
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It is absolutely mind boggling to me that this came out so smooth and seamless. First of all, it's a stitch, because my scanner is less than 20" long. Second, and most amazingly, it's my standard 1/2 double exposure, so only the 6cm on the far right and far left are NOT double exposures. The second two (of 4) exposures are completely double exposed. But it looks like one huge, smooth panorama. MAGIC, I tell you 😂
(https://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/20210622_Woodstock_stitch.jpg) (https://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/360panoramas/20210622_Woodstock_stitch.jpg)