Shooting a Joiner

[wcinro]

I want to create a joiner, but I'm not sure how to map one out prior to shooting. Can anyone provide considerations I should ponder before I start shooting? What's a viable number of photos to create an interesting joiner while providing a sense of motion?

I'd appreciate comments and tips most greatly.

Thanks

[Elmo]

Well I am pleading ignorant as I am old and not up on all the latest buzz words.
What is a "joiner"?

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Elmo

Well I am pleading ignorant as I am old and not up on all the latest buzz words.
What is a "joiner"?

You're not. I'm at a loss too.

[Krusty79]

Ah, do you mean a panorama? If so, there is no set number of images to use. I've read that you should overlap them about 20-30% and portrait mode works well.

Stitching

[inkista]

We're talking about Hockney joiners, guys. The photo collages of the painter, David Hockney. Widely imitated, never equaled.

Watch for movement through the frame. And, of course, you want to vary angle and focal length and maybe even vantage point, depending on how cubist you want to go. It's very much a feel-your-way-as-you-go-thing. I've only done one, and it wasn't successful, but I seriously need to do more. With an SLR.



Just my personal druthers, but you want at least a double/triple echo to get movement. And make sure what you want echoed is at the edges of the frame . This is where the S90 seriously defeated me, as I didn't have the framerate or ability to time the shots correctly to track my subjects as they walked across the passage.

I've actually seen a handful or two of David Hockney's joiners in museums and galleries, so one of the things I noted (and you'll see this in the Pearblossom Highway pieces) is that he zooms in on points of interest. Since he used a P&S film camera, having varying exposures (i.e., using P or green box full-Auto and using average or matrix metering) can actually be a GOOD thing if you feel like going that way. You can also vary the angle of shots (although I was less than successful with this). This is anti-pano shooting.

I ended up shooting JPEG, and setting the camera (a G9) to the lowest resolution, since I knew I'd be shooting a LOT of images for coverage. Since I do a lot of panoshooting, my coverage guesstimations usually aren't too bad. But if there's one thing I'd say: shoot more than you need. That way you can pick and choose. And if you're using Photoshop, you really really want to make sure your options are set so that you auto-grab layers . And Photoshop's File -> Scripts -> Load Files into Stack... is a godsend.

Have fun and just jump on in! I think this is one of those things where you learn more by doing.

[wcinro]

Well, it's been a while since I've been on this site and I just found your reply. Thanks very much for the input. It's still an item on my list of things to do.