GigaPan – It’s All About Composition
Recently I have been lugging around my camera, gigapan, tripod and numerous batteries on most of my trips. I always feel the further I carry it, the more I deserve to get a great panoramic image. And of course it never works out like that… I have realised that the ‘zoomability’ of a gigapan panorama, marvelling at the number photos you took to make it and feeling pleased that you spent 3 hours hiking up a mountain to get to the vantage point is just not enough to create a compelling panorama scene.
At its core I believe that taking a GigaPan is really just like ordinary photography, the whole image needs to have a good composition and look great in its own right. In fact a panorama which is full of technical errors can still be a great composition and compelling to viewers because of it.
Take this example. I hiked for over 3.5 hours to get to this mountain to take the image. My rucksack was heavy with all the gear. It is a fantastic vantage point overlooked by the Nordkette ridge and looking down on Innsbruck and the Inn valley. One of the best views in the area. It was tricky to set up the gear. As it was windy I had to weigh down the tripod with rocks in the snow. It was complex to setup the extent of the 360 gigapan as there were objects in close view. As the wind picked up I got colder. I had to restart taking the GigaPan sevral times as the unit kept on switching itself off (something to do with the batteries?). I took 1092 photos and got colder and colder while I waited. So I really deserved to get a good panorama!
OK so it is big, it stitched relatively well and you can zoom in and see some cool things. But the whole panorama looks crap. Why? It is just simply a bad composition. It looks odd, boring and nothing draws your eye. I was so focused on the technology and conditions, I just missed the simple rules for composing an image. And not surprisingly its ‘Explore Score‘ on gigapan.org is 0.
Then take the next example. It was a leisurely trip to get there. I had had a nice bit of cake with schnapps in the Alm below. I was drinking a cup of coffee as I took it. It was not that many photos in the panorama (800). Easy! So I did not really deserve a good panorama.
Here it is:
When I look at it I see quite a few technical flaws. The sun was going in and out, so you can see ‘stripes’ where the exposure varies (see the grass on the right). I was using autofocus so there are some obvious joins. Some of the mountains in the left distance are over exposed. However it is a compelling scheme to explore. This is reflected by the fact that at the moment it is my gigapan with my highest ‘Explore Score’ on gigapan.org.
So what is the difference? In my mind it is just simple composition. It the 2nd panorama your eye is drawn to the interesting Alm Building with all its clutter. The image is framed on both sides by the grass slopes and then trees. You feel like you want to spend time exploring and experiencing this interesting Alpine scene. It’s not a masterpiece, but I a pleased with it.
With the 2nd panorama the difference was my approach and outlook. I took my time. I did not worry too much about the GigaPan tech in it’s own right, it is juts a tool. In fact while I was eating my cake in the Alm below I started planning my scene and the experience I wanted to capture. For me the Mountains were important, but I wanted the slightly chaotic and lived-in detail of this real alpine agricultural building to be the focus. Therefore it had to be framed by the scenery. Then (while I had another Schnapps) I started to think about where the best vantage point would be. Then I spent a good 20 mins tramping around on the slope behind the Alm to find the best vantage point, the right angle and the right distance. The trickiest bit was getting the extent and alignment of the scene just right. With a GigaPan you cannot just look through a viewfinder and see what you are going to get. You have to be able to imagine it in your head. That’s what makes it so much fun! So all the time I was thinking ‘composition’.
Recently I have noticed that with my photography in general I have been falling into the digital trap of just taking 100s of thoughtless pictures of a scene (while randomly changing a few parameters) and hoping one will turn out well . If you do not think about it, why should it! I have been inspired by a documentary I saw recently that (among other things) featured David Golblatt taking a picture. He spent ages scouting out his scene he wanted to capture, planning it and then getting everything juts right. The he just took one exposure as he was so confident that he had prepared everything so carefully. Here is one example of his approach. More thought on composition and less snapping is what I am now trying…
So that is my GigaPan tip for today: “Composition is everything”
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