How to Shoot Vertical Panoramas (Vertoramas)

The Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty. Redwood trees. Not all the world fits into our horizontal frame of it. Some of it climbs up and up! For those images you need to learn a new technique; vertical panoramas, or vertoramas as they are known.

What are vertoramas?

A vertorama is simply a panorama, but shot vertically. It is for the tall things of the world, and uses much of the same techniques as a panorama, but with some important considerations I’ll touch on later in this article.

They are as simple as two shots combined to capture more foreground, or a chance to capture the tallest of the tall things on the planet without a wide-angle lens. They are a great option when you don’t have a super-wide angle lens, or you want to capture more detail than that wide angle lens will provide in one shot.

Picking the best subjects

Tall things are the obvious choice for making vertical panoramas, but also look at your normal images to see what can be included in the foreground.

For instance, this view of Mount Lassen in Lassen Volcanic National Park is pretty enough.

But what else is going on in the foreground? And not just the foreground, but the extreme foreground?

A Vertorama can take your normal landscape image and give it depth, like this image of Delicate Arch in Utah.

I pick subjects where my vantage point gives me something above and below a level view of the subject. This view of a temple in Bhutan is such a location, as I was on a balcony with subjects below and certainly above.

Vertoramas are also used to emphasize the enormity of an area. In this case I used my iPhone’s panorama mode, turned the phone sideways, and kept panning up and up, and then back over the top of my head (flexibility is a key with this format!) to show the grandeur of the structure. Shot inside the amazing Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris.

Waterfalls, statues, buildings, trees, landscapes…they are all ripe for the format.

How to shoot vertoramas

Shooting vertoramas is not much different than shooting panoramas, but there are some important considerations. First, if you need help with panoramas, dPS writer Barry J Brady has a good article on them here: How to Shoot Panoramic Photos. The settings are the same for vertical panos, but you need to make sure you can pan all the way up with your subject, which is sometimes hard to do with a tripod.

Where it gets a little trickier is in the distance of your subject. This is fundamentally different than panoramas, because for the most part, panoramas have a roughly equal distance from the camera to all parts of the scene. Roughly.

But a vertorama often has a subject leading away from it and this can cause distortion.Can you imagine the truck of this redwood tree being much closer than the 200 foot tall top?

In which case, give yourself plenty of room at the bottom of the image as that will be your constriction point when you go to crop. I shoot landscape orientation (camera in horizontal position) for almost all of my vertoramas, in order to have enough space to crop.

Editing Options

I find more and more that the PhotoMerge -> Panorama feature in Adobe Lightroom works just fine for vertoramas. So does the same feature in Photoshop proper, maybe 80% of the time. Where it comes up short is in the variety projections.

If you are looking for a little more power, try AutoPano Giga by Kolor (now owned by GoPro). There are a number of projections that can help with vertoramas, including Hammer. Plus it has the fun Little World projection that helps make those funky, little world images.

Both programs are run just as they would be for a horizontal panorama.

Things to consider

Sometimes I look at vertoramas and I think they have no place in our digital world. When so much of what we view is on a horizontal screen, it’s hard to see their full beauty. You can turn your phone sideways, but you’re still missing the scale of the shot. Have you found yourself scrolling a lot in this article, and maybe not even seeing the whole images?

That being said, I love how vertoramas look when they are printed. Printing can be done at Costco, Walgreens or any place that prints panoramas.

Vertoramas can be trickier to shoot than a regular panorama as your tripod doesn’t typically pan up and down as smoothly as side to side. I suggest getting more acquainted with shooting these images handheld. It’s not hard to do.

Also, use your smartphone camera. That panorama mode works perfectly fine when you pan the camera skyward. Most newer phones even realize you made a vertorama and flip the image so it looks proper.

Lastly, vertoramas don’t all need to be skinny and tall. They are also used to create a more formal aspect, even a nice square, of a subject hard to capture in a single frame. This image of Central Park in New York is an example as it was shot with a 50mm lens on a crop sensor camera, far from being wide angle. But the result is a nice, wide image that gives more depth to the scene. See also: 5 Steps to Rock the Brenizer Method.

A vertical panorama of trees and tourists in Central Park, New York City, New York, USA

Conclusion

Vertoramas are a fun way to explore the world. They stretch our normal view, and force us to think creatively to capture what we are after. I personally love the format for what the extra foreground can bring to the story.

If you’ve shot vertoramas before, what are some of your favorite subjects? Any other advice you might give to beginners? Please share in the comments below, along with your vertical panorama images.

The post How to Shoot Vertical Panoramas (Vertoramas) by Peter West Carey appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Aquarium Macro Photography of Ornamental Shrimp

“There’s such a thing as ornamental shrimp?” This is the typical response of family and friends when I speak to them about my recent hobby of keeping ornamental shrimp. Believe it or not, there is growing interest around the world about breeding and keeping these little freshwater critters as pets. In some countries, their popularity even rival traditional fish keeping! What once used to be considered another algae eater in tanks has quickly become an object of interest for aquarium enthusiasts, given their behavior, varieties, and breeding possibilities. They are marvelous to look at, and as such are wonderful subjects to photograph.

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/400, f/18.0

The hobby itself is primarily based upon varieties of Neocardina davidi (cherry shrimp) or Caridina cantonensis, which has recently been further categorized as Caridina logemanni (crystal shrimp), mariae and serrata (tiger shrimp). There’s also a popular variety called Taiwan Bees, which originate from a crystal x tiger shrimp crossing, and come in a large range of colors and patterns. They grow no larger than 2 to 3 cm in length (hence the macro realm of photography), reach reproductive maturity in 3 to 5 months, and have a lifespan that can reach about two years. My own shrimp collection is comprised of blue bolts, pinto mischlings, pandas, king kongs, and tangerine tigers; I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do!

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/16.0

My inspiration to pursue shrimp photography comes from Chris Lukhaup, a famous aquascaper, professional photographer, and one of the world’s leading shrimp specialists. Search for any of his images and you will quickly see why he is always brought out to aquatic conferences and expeditions to document the discovery of new freshwater life. Learning how to capture breath taking images of ornamental shrimp like him has certainly pushed my knowledge and skills in both shrimp keeping and photography.

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/320, f/20.0

There is the added bonus of being able to do this sort of photography in the comfort of your own home. Photographing your own aquarium means you have all the control in lighting, staging, and specimens. As a father of a young family, nap time for the kids becomes shrimp admiring and macro photography time for me!

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/22.0

1) Macro Equipment and Technique Considerations

Like most specialty areas of photography, macro work will require a specific set of equipment to help you achieve the images you want. There are a variety of tools that can help you achieve greater image magnification, such as diopters, extension tubes, and macro lenses. When my brother-in-law first introduced me to his collection of shrimp, I started with a Canon 60D and a 55-250mm STM lens with a Raynox DCR-250 diopter to capture images of his shrimp. This combination allowed me to get up to 0.725x magnification, but the images were grainy since I had shot them at a high ISO with a crop sensor camera.

Canon EOS 60D + EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM + Raynox DCR-250 @ 113mm, ISO 1600, 1/50, f/9.0

Not to say that a crop sensor camera is inadequate! Quite the contrary, Chris Lukhaup himself shoots with a Canon 7D, and many other crop sensor shooters have fantastic shrimp images. Adequate lighting is more important to getting good quality shots after all, but more on that later!

When I started photographing my own shrimp, I had made a jump (from crop to full frame) to a Nikon D600, and now a D800E with a Tamron 90mm VC Macro lens. I also purchased Kenko AF extension tubes to go beyond 1:1 magnification. Given that the size of an adult shrimp is no more than 2 to 3 cm, using a macro lens alone at minimum focus distance (MFD) on a full frame camera generally allows an image of the entire shrimp to be captured, with room to compose the shot as well. Adding on extension tubes can get you closer shots of smaller shrimplets, or various parts of interest on the shrimp.

NIKON D600 + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 400, 1/200, f/40.0

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 320, 1/250, f/18.0

Macro photography provides a significant set of challenges in terms of lighting and focus. Shrimp are constantly moving, so focus stacking is generally out of the question. You need a narrow aperture to get enough of the shrimp’s eyes and body in focus, as well as a fast enough shutter speed to capture the image if the shrimp is moving. Most aquarium lights are not bright enough for such aperture and shutter speed combinations, so this means that your images will be shot at a higher ISO rating (1600 or higher). I found that the graininess of the image at such high ISO levels degrade the detail you’d be hoping to capture.

NIKON D600 + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 4500, 1/200, f/6.3

To get the best image quality, shooting at ISO 100 to 400 will most likely require you to use a flash setup to provide additional lighting. This is where your specific aquarium location and setup may lead to some challenges. If you’re like Chris Lukhaup, he uses a soft box above a photoshoot tank to achieve his images. This would require you to have a glass lid or no lid on top of your aquarium. As my own tank is on the top of a tall shelf (I didn’t want my kids to feed my shrimp a coin or candy by accident), I was unable to place a soft box over it. Thankfully, the design of my tank lid allows me to perch one or two flashes with diffusers at various angles just above the water. These flashes are triggered with radio controllers.

iPhone 4S shot of my photography setup for shrimp @ 4.28mm, ISO 200, 1/20, f/2.4

Unless your lens is right up against the glass, placing the flash at an angle in front of the aquarium may result in glare in your photo. For those of us lucky enough to have a beautiful rimless tank with no tank lid, you may want to consider investing in a boom, clamps, or clips that can be attached to the top edge of your tanks to mount your flashes. The last thing we’d want is for a flash to fall into the water…

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/22.0

In my earlier days of shooting shrimp, I struggled to get good captures since the depth of field was so narrow, even at an aperture of F16. To gain some confidence, I set my aperture to be as narrow as F32 to F40 to try and get more of the shrimp in focus! At these aperture levels, I noticed the effects of diffraction made the images less sharp. After a little research, I found out that my lens and camera body combination allows for sharp images to be taken up to F22 before diffraction sets in. As such, I’ve kept most of my images at F18 to F22 to get the best of image sharpness and depth of field, depending on the angle of the shot. Speaking of angles, you’ll get the least amount of distortion from the aquarium glass in your shots if you are as perpendicular and level to the subject as possible!

NIKON D600 + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/200, f/40.0

I have also tried a macro focusing rail for my tripod to stabilize my shots. Essentially, you leave the focus of the lens at MFD and use the dials on the macro rail to take care of focusing, much like using a microscope to focus on a glass slide. This combination did help get sharper images, but it is more cumbersome to work with. The moment you see a shrimp striking a good pose on the other side of the tank, shifting things over and getting things in focus often meant the shrimp has already gone off to graze somewhere else!

I have since resorted back to hand holding my shots, and doing my best to stabilize the camera with good technique (such as bracing in your elbows, holding your breath to steady the camera). I would move forward or backward to focus on the shrimp’s eyes while the lens is at MFD. Using my hands on the edge of the shelf and holding onto the hood also helped stabilize my shots. I did try doing the same with the camera on live view, but the image on the screen would be so dark (given the narrow aperture) that it was still a bit hit and miss, and it also drained the battery life quickly. I believe my number of keepers have improved since I purchased a DK-17M magnifying eyepiece to help see when the shrimp’s eyes are in focus. If all this doesn’t help you get sharp macro images, consider getting your lens calibrated too.

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/320, f/20.0

2) Aquarium Layout and Setup Considerations

For those of us who are unaware, aquariums can be purchased with different types of glass. Regular aquarium glass contains more iron, and thus naturally has a greenish tint to it. Starphire (sometimes called Starfire) glass contains less iron, and thus has a bluish tint to it. Many hobbyists will tout that looking at subjects in a more expensive starphire tank makes for a better viewing experience, but it is known to be a softer glass that may get scratches more easily. From a photography point of view, I would assume that any color changes from the aquarium glass can be easily fixed in post-processing. Thicker glass tanks can also lead to greater image distortion if you are not shooting square on the subject.

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/16.0

There are many interesting props that can be used for the shrimp to perch and pose on. There are a large variety of plants, leaves, cones, wood, rocks, and ceramic structures that can serve as the main stage or background for your shots. Different backgrounds for the aquarium itself can be purchased to provide the right backdrop. Shooting at a narrow aperture also means the background will appear darker, so you may consider using a backlight to fill the background. Personally, I like the low key style shots with most shrimp as it provides a nice contrast to the shrimp, and so I have a black aquarium background. Much like taking a picture of a person with dark hair with a dark background, darker shrimp may benefit from getting a kicker light or a lighter background for contrast.

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/18.0

For my particular lens and camera combination, the MFD is 30 cm from the sensor (as indicated with a symbol that has a line going through a circle near your eye piece). This means that I have about another 5 cm of room to work with beyond my lens with a hood (about 10 cm without the hood). When my moss balls, alder cones, and cholla wood pieces were initially placed too far from the front of the tank, I was unable to focus on a shrimp at 1:1 magnification if they were perched on these objects. I can’t recall how many times I’ve bumped into the tank as I was trying to get a shrimp in focus! As such, I moved these objects closer to the front of the tank to give me more room to work with and get 1:1 magnification. Be careful about taking images of the shrimp that are too close to your aquarium glass though, as the image will pick up scratches and imperfections in the aquarium glass if it isn’t clean.

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/20.0

3) Shrimp Moments: Behavior and Physiology Considerations

Ornamental shrimp are bottom feeders and scavengers with limited storage in their digestive system. As such, they are constantly moving around feeding off of algae and bacterial biofilm on the surfaces of aquarium. They can certainly be lured to new foods that you drop in, and some food are made so that each shrimp can run off with a nugget of food in their claws. This will allow you to get the shrimp to be more stationary for your shots, but it also means you’ll be getting food debris in your shot and a less natural looking image.

NIKON D600 + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/200, f/32.0

I recall how frustrated I was waiting for a shrimp to perch itself on a marimo ball one evening. I decided to take a pair of tongs and flipped the marimo ball over to expose a portion of it that had untouched biofilm on it. This prompted a few shrimp to come over to investigate and graze, which allowed me to get some nice shots of them on the ball of moss. Editing out the food debris was tedious in post processing, but not impossible. Speaking of foods, various foods alter the hormonal control of pigment cells in the shells of the shrimp. Healthy shrimp will give off very vibrant colors in their shells! Discoloration may indicate that the shrimp is stressed or unhealthy.

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/22.0

Watching shrimp molt out of their old shell is an interesting event to witness. When they have grown larger, they will burst out of their shell and leave behind a ghostly outline of their prior shape. Molting can often be witnessed after water changes are done to the aquarium, or after a low pressure weather system such as rain passes by. Don’t remove the molts though, as they provide good nutrition for other shrimp in the tank!

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/320, f/20.0

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/320, f/20.0

When a female is ready to mate, they also molt and release chemicals that attract males in the water. Females are quite timid after completing a molt that gives her tail the right shape to carry eggs, and so she tries her best to hide from males. The males swim actively all over the tank in search for the female, and many breeders call this movement of swimming “the dance”. This is a great time to get shots of “shrimp in flight”, as they actively seek all corners of the tank for the ready female.

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 800, 1/1000, f/20.0

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/20.0

When female shrimp are carrying eggs, or are “berried”, they tend to be shy and hide more early on. Startling them too much with flash photography may stress them out, which may subsequently cause them to drop their eggs. Being “berried” does lead to hormonal changes that make their shells more colorful though. After carrying the eggs for about 4-5 weeks, the shrimplets hatch from below the female and get ready to brave a whole new world.

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/16.0

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/18.0

4) Conclusion

Aquarium photography at home provides a convenient opportunity to capture images of our water based pets and learn about their behavior. Many of the ideas and techniques shared here can be applied for taking pictures of crabs, snails, and fishes too. Factoring in the macro component brings an additional layer of challenges, but the rewards are in the details that are missed by the naked eye. If you want to see the best of your ornamental shrimp in a photo, consider doing the following:

• Clean your aquarium glass before shooting (such as algae scrubbers)
• Do a water change to get cleaner water in the tank
• Temporarily turn off filters to avoid getting too many air bubbles in the shots
• Feed ahead of time to boost their shell coloration and to avoid getting food particles in the shots
• Shoot as perpendicular and as level to the shrimp as possible
• Have ample lighting to allow you to use a lower ISO, faster shutter speed, and suitable aperture
• Post-processing with adequate sharpening, removal of sensor dust, and tank debris

NIKON D800E + TAMRON SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro @ 90mm, ISO 400, 1/500, f/20.0

I hope that taking and sharing inspiring photos of your aquatic pets will promote further understanding and growth in those hobbyist areas. If you are interested in shrimp keeping and breeding, I highly recommend searching for and connecting with international and local communities online to learn more about the hobby.

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This guest post was submitted by Steven Chan, a father, science teacher, and photographer from Toronto, Canada. Besides taking photographs of his family, he loves shooting pictures of wildlife and macros of his shrimp. You can see some of his work here, and specific shrimp photography here. He also thanks Nasim, Thomas, and Spencer for their informative articles and gear reviews that were referenced. They have been instrumental in his learning and purchases, and they have taught him how to be a better and more mindful photographer overall. Thank you!

The post Aquarium Macro Photography of Ornamental Shrimp appeared first on Photography Life.

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Fact: Even Instagram Isn’t Ready for Its Own Pinch-to-Zoom Feature

Although its business practices have shifted more than once since the Facebook takeover, most of us still love Instagram for its ease of use, reach, and simplicity. But today’s app update makes little sense… today. On one hand, the new pinch-to-zoom update is extremely late. The iPhone had this feature since inception (granted, cell phone photos were hardly a thing prior to 2007). On the other hand however, Instagram’s linear photo resolution of 1,200 pixels already comes rather close to the native horizontal resolution of larger phones like the iPhone 6 Plus. Zooming into these photos optimized (read: downsized) for these displays looks absolutely dreadful. What are they thinking?

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Flowers: The Perfect Photography Subject

There is no end to the number of beautiful flowers out there ready to be photographed. And what’s more wonderful is that they will keep blooming all summer and well into the fall. If you’re fortunate enough to live in a warmer climate, you could be photographing flowers outdoors well into the winter months–possibly year-round. Whether it’s a single bud, a single flower, a bouquet, a plant, a bush, or a blossoming tree, flowers are wonderful subjects to photograph. They’re not temperamental, they generally stay where you put them (or where they grow), they’re a great subject to experiment with, and they come in an array of vibrant colors.

“Spring Blooms” captured by PictureSocial member Tommy Cox

Equipment

As with any task, being prepared is important. Gather your camera and accessories and choose the right camera bag for the equipment and the outing. If you plan on going to one location, such as an arboretum or perhaps a rose garden, take along your tripod, lenses, filters, and any other accessories you may need to spend the day making beautiful images. If your camera calls for them, make sure you have back-up batteries and extra memory cards, as well.

Tripod

The tripod really is an essential tool when photographing flowers. As you get closer to a subject, the slightest movement of the camera will greatly affect the outcome of the picture. It’s virtually impossible to hold the camera still enough to take a quality picture without the benefit of a tripod. It will be money well spent. There are small tripods compact enough to fit nicely in the right camera bag.

Focal Point

As with any photography, you need a focal point. A lush, pink rose bud just beginning to open on a graceful thorned stem. Or, maybe you’ve spotted a cheerful plant of daisies with bright yellow centers, but the focal point is the little red ladybug resting on one of the delicate white petals. Look carefully–there’s a lot to see.

“Butterfly set Canon 60D EF 100mm to 400mm at 300mm” captured by PictureSocial member Christopher Okano

Lighting

Lighting can be tricky, at times, depending upon where you’re shooting. It’s almost always preferable to head out with your camera bag in hand in the early morning to shoot your florals, for a number of reasons. The dew is still on the flowers, so you can get some very effective macro shots of droplet covered blossoms. The sun is not yet high in the sky, so your lighting will be more ideal, casting fewer harsh shadows. If you must shoot in midday, pack a diffuser in your camera bag to soften the harsh effects of the glaring sun.

“The Offer….” captured by PictureSocial member Steve Barr

Perspective

Give careful consideration to your point of view. Shooting across the top of a field of yellow daffodils results in a breathtaking picture. Or, laying on the ground and taking a picture from beneath a cherry blossom tree in full bloom results in a picture of a lacy, pink cloud. Look outside the box. Pictures of beautiful bouquets and single stems are still the classics and should never be ignored, but try new, creative pictures. In addition to taking traditional still lifes, try taking a shot of a single bloom close up with just a portion of it in the picture.

“Untitled” captured by PictureSocial member John

Experiment. Have fun with it. Remember, flowers are excellent subjects. All you need is a quality camera bag with the right equipment, some leisure time, and the right season.

About the Author:
Suzanne VanDeGrift has developed this article for m-rock, manufacturer of user-friendly camera bags.

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