Gwangju Korean Pavilion Pano

I've done a few posts containing photos of the Korean Pavilion at Denman Estate Park, but I wanted to do something a little different this time around. So I created a panoramic shot using 17 shots taken yesterday using the Kolor Autopano Giga 2.5 software (website here). I like this tool much better than the Photomerge tool in Photoshop CS5, which I used to create my previous panoramic shots (plus, when I finally decide to take on a gigapixel photo, this software works MUCH better than Photomerge!).

I think that it did a good job of rebuilding the pano considering I used nothing more than the ball head on top of the tripod yesterday. I also created a new folder in my smugmug gallery specifically for panoramic shots so you can view the shot in the original size if you would like; whereas my "primary" gallery only goes up to X3. (I HIGHLY recommend you view this shot in the original size, it may take some time to load, but I think it is worth it!)

To create this shot I made the panoramic image using the Autopano Giga 2.5 software, then tonemapped the image in Photomatix, then applied my normal processing using the Nik Software plug-ins in Photoshop CS5. If you want to try something like this I recommend a pretty powerful computer, while my machine ripped through it fairly quickly, I don't think an off-the-shelf computer that you would find at Best Buy would fare very well. It would likely be reduced to a pile of smoking metal and plastic after about 30 minutes of just trying to create the panoramic shot alone.

Some notes about the photo itself, there are two people in the pavilion itself. The stairs to the pavilion are chained off which suggest that no one should enter the pavilion, but I don't recall seeing "keep off" signs. I think staying out of the pavilion when the stairs are chained off would be an automatic given, but I guess not. Also, the clouds in the water and the sky do not mirror 100% because I took the center 1/3 first, then the upper 1/3 left to right, then the lower 1/3 right to left.

Gwangju Korean Pavilion Pano

If you are so inclined, please feel free to leave any comments or feedback. Also remember that clicking on the photo takes you to my online gallery hosted over at smugmug where you can view this (and my other photos) in various sizes. If you enjoyed this post, please take the time to pass my post(s) on to others whom you also feel would enjoy my work. Thanks for stopping by!