Interior Photography

[Chris Gahran]

I was speaking with a fellow photographer who shoots Canon. We work together on projects that benefit from using my CF-22MS backs. (New clients are excited to get good lighting and great detail from 4-shot images after years of trying to shoot themselves or hiring Canon/Nikon shooters who come in with a few umbrellas.)

He is hoping to buy into the H series (he needs help focusing) with a 1-shot camera even though I am advising him to buy a multi-shot system. (I'll be leaving the area in a few years so I won't be able to work with him.)

I'm investigating shooting hotel room interiors. I mentioned this to my friend who wants to buy into Hasselblad (best images and files he's ever seen after shooting Canon digital for years) that I may need to buy into a Canon or Nikon system so I can use can use really wide angle lenses.

He suggested I stay with my V-System, use my 40mm lens, pan the camera using a pano head and stitch multiple images together. I don't believe that will work because I may be shooting over a coffee table or have an easy chair on the edge of the frame and I believe stitching will produce distortion when objects are in the foreground.

Maybe I can put my back on a H body and using a HTS and shooting vertically shoot left, center, shift right and then stitch.

For some reason I don't think I can pan the camera left, center and right for stitching when there are objects in the near foreground because there will be distortion. Am I wrong? Thanks...

[NickT]

I think stitching is just going to cause headaches.. When I shoot room interiors I tend to do pretty big brackets, sometimes also doing focus brackets. I might also do some shots with the strobe turned off (If say i was forced to bounce them into the ceiling and needed a frame with a non-blown out ceiling... I agree about coffee tables etc being a pain. I think the problem for you is the small size of the 22mp chip meaning you are not getting the best out of your wide angles..

[jerome_m]

For some reason I don't think I can pan the camera left, center and right for stitching when there are objects in the near foreground because there will be distortion. Am I wrong? Thanks...

You can if you rotate the camera around the entrance pupil of your lenses. Hasselblad gives the position of the entrance pupil of all their lenses in their lens brochure.

[Chris Gahran]

Nick,

The sensor in my CF-22MS is 36.7 x 49.0 mm which is just as big as the CCDs currently sold in Hasselblad backs. It's my understanding that the CCDs remained the same physical size but the light capturing pixels became smaller thus increasing the resolution of the image captured in newer digital backs. AFAIK, there is no reduction in coverage when using wide angle lenses.

If I may, I really love the 9 micron pixels in my CCDs (the fabled fat pixels). The ability to stop down to ƒ22.5 before diffraction rears its ugly head, the ability to shoot 1-shot, and 4-shot or 16-shot true color, true resolution images is terrific.

Panos seem to produce curved ceilings and distort anything close to the lens. Probably won't do multi-shot captures and that's why I'm thinking H-System HTS or a Flexbody cameras.

[NickT]

Hi Chris
The new chips (albeit CMOS) are physically larger. I don't have the specs to hand but will look them up next week.

[Chris Gahran]

Hey Nick,

The H6D-100c is 53 x 40 mm and is indeed larger than Hasselblad's CCD backs which are generally 37 x 49.0 mm..

However, the H6D-50c is 43.8x 32.9 mm and is only 80% of the size of Hasselblad's CCD backs. 

My sensor sizes are from B&H Photo and it's possible they may be wrong.

Chris

[NickT]

Hi Chris I'm sure you are right. When I have time I'll compile a list of chip sizes, sorry if I've confused the issue here.

[NickT]

You can if you rotate the camera around the entrance pupil of your lenses. Hasselblad gives the position of the entrance pupil of all their lenses in their lens brochure.

Jerome I don't know much about this stuff, if you rotate around the entrance pupil (with an RSS adaptor?) will it just work?

[jerome_m]

Panos seem to produce curved ceilings and distort anything close to the lens.

Not really, no. The distortion you noted comes from the underlying mathematics of rectilinear projection when the angle of view is really large and happens just the same with extremely wide angles.

This to say:
-it is not the panorama in itself, it is the angle of view: if you limit your angles of view, the effect will be smaller
-or you could change the projection in your panorama tool: often cylindrical projection is a good alternative choice.

[jerome_m]

You can if you rotate the camera around the entrance pupil of your lenses. Hasselblad gives the position of the entrance pupil of all their lenses in their lens brochure.

Jerome I don't know much about this stuff, if you rotate around the entrance pupil (with an RSS adaptor?) will it just work?

I don't use RSS (I did not know they had an adaptor), I use a panoramic head from Manfrotto. But yes: if you put the entrance pupil of the lens at the center of rotation, it will just work. And, as I said, Hasselblad is the only company I know that gives the values for their complete lens line.

[jerome_m]

When I have time I'll compile a list of chip sizes, sorry if I've confused the issue here.

60 and 100c: 53 x 40 mm
CCDs in 22, 39 and 50 mpix: 37 x 49.0 mm.
CCDs in 31 and 40 mpix and CMOS in 50 mpix: 43.8x 32.9 mm.

[paulgrundy]

For me the HCD 24mm with a 37 x 49mm sensor is the ideal combination for this type of work. If you find this lens wide enough it will save you a lot of time in post. As a general rule I think to shoot wider often creates compositional issues that show more of the space but reduces the quality of the image.

Best to avoid autofocus shooting interiors, I would recommend focusing manually and shooting into a laptop to check DoF.

Most hotels these days also require 360s for their websites. I sub these out to a photographer who does a brilliant job shooting them with an 8mm Sigma on a FF DSLR using a simple adaptor to rotate around the entrance pupil.

[ruedigerglatz]

My suggestion would be actually the set-up I work with, which is a ALPA 12MAX with a Schneider 28mm 5.6 (or Schneider 35mm 5.6) and your back.

I use the CFV-50 which has the same CCD censor size and since the 2 lenses have a great image circle with 90mm (and 105mm) you can do some great stitching. Of course you need to be aware, that you need to shot for each shot a white balance shot to remove the colorcast, that you implement with scene calibration in Phocus in each shot before you stitch the images.

The set-up with those two great Schneider wide-angle lenses with a great image-circle does not work with bigger CCD sensor nor with the CMOS sensors. For those you would need the alternative lenses from Rodenstock, which are even more crisp, but have a way smaller image circle.

...this set-up isn´t cheap, but it is a mayor step forward in matter of image quality and visual options, since you can not just stitch, but as well stich and shift the same time.

[Chris Gahran]

After doing a lot of reading I believe making panos of interiors would be difficult.

I believe the best method would be to setup the camera on a HD tripod, make multiple exposures with lighting changes and exposure changes then layer the images in PS for blending into a final image. This method would allow me to bounce lights off a ceiling, for example, for overall fill light but have another ceiling image for use in the final picture. I could place light stands in the image to add light to dark corners and only blend the lightened corners into the final picture.

I believe doing that lighting while making three shot panos would be extremely complex. BTW, to my eye one of the best in the interior photo business is Ashley Morrison who shoots with a Flexbody and a 40mm lens.

Chris

[NickT]

Yeah Ashley isn't stitching.