I feel kind of stupid. Long time ago, years ago I got myself two fisheye lenses – the Sigma 10mm and the 4.5mm. I tried hard at the time to make them work as QTVR lenses but somehow I failed or I got better results with my 10-20mm lens. Now, I have this project coming up which made me dust of my QTVR skills and I started off by making a couple of QTVR’s using the Sigma 8-16mm  - which is really wide! It’s actually the same width on the new SD1 as the 12-24 is on a full frame camera.

Anyways. I did a couple of panoramas but wasn’t fully satisfied as I had to work kind of hard with the stitching software to make those images overlap perfectly. But after a few fails I sort of got a pretty decent, sellable result. A couple of days ago I saw this lens list showing the angle of view possible by different lenses and then I saw that my super wide 8-16mm lens only gave me somewhere around 115 degrees per shot – not bad really – but now I saw my 10mm fisheye on the list and it said 154 degrees (on Sigma SD14/15 camera) – That’s a huge difference and I might be stupid but I didn’t realize that fisheye gave that much more. (probably blinded by the mm) – So I attached my 10mm fisheye – calibrated it carefully on my Manfrotto SPH head and updated my PTGui software and WOALA it stitched those images directly without hesitation and without ANY need of my own click.

One of the eight images used to make the panorama below (but there is more images as it’s a three shot HDR). You need to have Quicktime installed to view.

(click inside to view pano or download the file here).

I found that six images around plus up and down would stitch perfectly for a full spherical panorama. And the quality is jaw dropping amazing! Perhaps even better than what I previously got using any of my rectangular optics – but that’s not entirely true as with more images you get more resolution. Now I can’t wait using the Sigma SD1 + my 10mm fisheye.

Now, you might ask yourself – what about that 4.5mm lens of yours? Did you try that one? and YES I did and the results is simply amazing if you think about what kind of lens we’re dealing with. A fully circular, 180 degree lens capable of making a fully spherical image in only three shots. Now, my current Manfrotto SPH isn’t suitable for a 3 shot pano but with four shots it looks great!

As you see on the above image part of the Manfrotto SPH head is inside the image, takes up quite a bit of the view. The new version of PTGui 9 has this wonderful function of being able to mask stuff – so all I did was to simply mask out the manfrotto head – and the result is perfect!

Sigma 4.5mm (click inside to view, or download the file here)

My sister Anna and her husband Krister recently bought some land – and on this land there stood a house, a house that they most likely will replace with a new one but before doing so I wanted a few shots to play with – and here we have the result.

Sigma 4.5mm (click inside to view pano or download the file here).

Sigma 4.5mm (click inside to view pano or download the file here).

I’ve been working at the church before and I really love being inside these beautifully crafted buildings and I went to one yesterday to see if I could make something – I’m not entirely happy with the result as it was a really dull day – we had dull days now for at least a full week – but using a three shot HDR you still have lots of information. Mind you that these are long exposures and light is really mixed. (You can see how blue the outdoor becomes)..

Click above image to go to the tour – this one is exported to work on iPhone and iPad as well, it´s HTML5 based exported from PTGui. I still need to learn how to erase that bottom tripod or how to add another image on top of the tripod (to hide it) before exporting for web.. Oh well. :) If you know, please tell! And those panoramas in the tour with the (HD) sign is taken with the 10mm fisheye – the rest is 4.5mm.

Sigma Photo Pro and SD15 used.

Another really fun wedding session, this time a bit north or everything in a town called Mariestad – more famous for it’s fine beer. It was a bit tricky as Linn is now working down south as a guide on a castle and she couldn’t be my assistant. I really wanted that – so we improvised and used the best man for the job. Lucky for Jon and Carolina, it worked great! You can actually see him on several shots.

Oh, I also improved my car shooting style thingi – fun stuff! Lucky for me we had the time needed to play.

Cameras used was SD14 and DP1 – I had many lenses with me – more or less all but I ended up using the trusty 12-24 the most as I love the cokin filter border effect so much. Second place I think is 30 or 50mm 1.4 not sure as 50 is so new for me I tend to reach for the 30mm. 120-300 does give me joy when needed. It’s not very easy to find good occations or locations for it but when it’s time then it’s great!

I also noticed a slight magenta cast in some of the “just out of the church” shots – just so you know. :D

When open the whole article more pictures appears as well as some whom has been shown already above. Don’t be frightened about that, it’s perfectly normal.

Another wedding session, and I’m happy to announce that DP1 is a great b camera! :D Linn had hers with her all the time (she assist me) and she took quite a few really nice shots. I used mine as well and I got more keepers from the DP1 (compared to amount of shots taken) than with the SD14. More time to think? I think one or two of Linns are among these too.

My workflow has slightly changed and looks like the following. I make the basic adjustments from SD14 and DP1 RAW in SPP 2.5 Windows. After adjustments are done I import all into a new project in Apple Aperture.

In Aperture I use the new plugin called Viveza to further adjust certain spots – add light to face or simply to enhance black and white images. I also use Aperture to dodge and burn, crop and straighten, add vignetting and my little watermark. I don’t apply vignetting to all but to many shots. So don’t judge lenses because of my images. hehe..

During all this I also add stars to my favorites, this I later use when publishing to the couple and the very best here on my website. I ended up with 44 images in this post and 133 to the couple, I started with about 300 from SPP and around 700 in total from field..

The two above shots are DP1

DP1

There is all in all 44 images in this post. Click each image to view the full size image. Remember that this is copyrighted material.

DP1

DP1

DP1

DP1

Linns shot, 10-20mm

DP1

DP1

DP1

DP1

I went out yesterday together with Linn and the amazing Sigma 4.5mm circular fisheye. We had a great time and my goal was to do some QTVR – stupid me forgot a small screw for the 303SPH – and had to play with the lens in other ways possible.

Like this: (Click for bigger)

All shots taken wide open at f2.8 with a shutter speed of around 2s. I used the 500DG Super turned back. I did drive at the same time (look at the light outside) – kind of stupid but I just couldn’t wait. (tricky stuff) The last shot was shot by Linn.

All shots developed with Raw Developer. Want to know more about this lens? Click here.

Links to discussions: Fotosidan.se (swedish) | Sigma forum / dpreview.com