Darkroom Challenge Digital Darkroom Derby #39 (closed, winner announced)

Location
Whidbey Island
Name
Lyle
This is Digital Darkroom Derby #39, a digital image editing/processing challenge. Please read the rules here.

DDD039 strip.jpg

Altes Rathaus, Bamberg DE (2013)

A composition and digital processing challenge. I am providing 5 source images (in raw and JPG formats); they are here.

You may use any combo of the images to create your entries, combined as you see fit. I am not calling it a stitching challenge, because you do not have to stitch them together. However, they were captured handheld with stitching in mind. Proof of concept:

P9090583-87.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

The challenge will end at the end of the day on Monday, May 16th. I will post the results on Tuesday.

If you haven't entered the DDD challenges yet, please join us and give it a try. All are welcomed -- the more, the merrier! Have fun!
 
Last edited:
Used DxO PL5 to adjust the center picture and then applied the same corrections to all the RAW pictures and exported them to Hugin as Tif. (I tried export to application for the first time for Hugin and it worked.)
Set the center picture as reference and let Hugin do its work, but I noticed that the buildings where not straight so I maximized the export so I had all the combined pictures to work on, then I used DxO Viewpoint to straighten the buildings. Then I cropped for maximum area.
Entry #1:
DDD039_1_DxO - DDD039_5_DxO_DxO_Web.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

I think I will have another go at this and straighten the buildings before exporting to Hugin.
 
Last edited:
Used DxO PL5 to adjust the center picture and then applied the same corrections to all the RAW pictures and exported them to Hugin as Tif. (I tried export to application for the first time for Hugin and it worked.)
Set the center picture as reference and let Hugin do its work, but I noticed that the buildings where not straight so I maximized the export so I had all the combined pictures to work on, then I used DxO Viewpoint to straighten the buildings. Then I cropped for maximum area.
Entry #1:
View attachment 310211
I think I will have another go at this and straighten the buildings before exporting to Hugin.
Helpful hints for Hugin (not just for Bo, who probably knows this stuff already):

In Hugin's Fast Panorama Preview window, there is a tab for Projection and another for Drag/Move. You might try different projections (I used “Panini General” for the stitch above, because the the "Cmpr" (compression) slider allows you to adjust from rectilinear to super-Panini projection -- very handy). In the Drag/Move tab, you can pull the center of the stitched image up or down to adjust the angles of vertical lines nearer the edges.

With cylindrical and Panini projections, you can usually get the vertical lines straight and nearly vertical, but the horizontal/diagonal lines will be increasingly curved as you move from the vertical center of the projection. With the various fish-eye projections, nothing will be straight away from center. So for architectural subjects, I usually use cylindrical, Panini, or equirectangular projections.
 
Last edited:
Hardest Challenge so far, I think-- worthy of being called a Super Challenge I think. I opoened the raw files, in DXO PL5 where I used DeepPrime, then exported as tiff files that I then opened in Elements "Guided Edits" where I merged the five images, then used Viewpoint 3 to try to "straighten" them. Back to Elements where I cropped, tried to fill some of the edges and did some basic editing, cropped, and resized.

Untitled_PanoramaA3LL.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
 
This is a bump. There is plenty of time to create an entry. You have until the end of Monday.

If you do not want to stitch images, just pick one image to use.

If you have been meaning to learn how to stitch images, this might be the perfect opportunity. If your image editing tools of choice do not include panorama stitching, there are several free alternatives for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS. A simple internet search will give you the info.

Hugin is free and is what I use. It can be used simply or with complex options. Bo put a link for it in a post above. If you have questions on using Hugin, I am happy to try to help.
 
Entry #2. I applied Nik Silver Efex to entry #1 and cropped a bit more.
[I downloaded Hugin and tried to use it but I found out that I needed more time to figure it out (looks pretty complicated to me): I did get a result from the default settings but the bridge and buildings on the left came out sloping downwards towards the left edge.]

Untitled_PanoramaA3BWLLO2.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
 
Last edited:
We have 8 entries from 5 people. Thank you, all!

Everybody tried stitching 3 to 5 images. Results were decent to excellent. Part of the problem with stitching this image is that my handheld capture wasn't perfectly centered around the nodal point of the lens. Another problem is that in older buildings like these, not all the vertical edges are truly vertical. A third possible problem with some automated stitching apps is that they will create matching features in the clouds, but the clouds are not in the same position in successive images. Still,I thought most of the results were quite good, given the source material.


Results:
Winner: @RobD . I like almost everything about this: the stitch, the crop, the processing. The only thing I could object to is that weird bird that looks like a UFO (or is it UAP now?) to the left of the town hall.​
1st Runner-Up: @kae1 #1. The stitch is solid. The colors and "pop" of the image are great. Love the clouds! Thank you, Ken, for removing the UFO -- whether intentional or not. The fill at the bottom is subtle (although the flowers in the lower left were on the side of the bridge I was on, and not in the water).​
2nd Runner-Up: @BosseBe #2. Nice stitch, Bo. I preferred it to your first entry.​
Honorable mention to @Zeus1 . Nice stitch, exposure and detail, Hendrik. And also thanks to you for removing that bird.​
@gecko : I liked your B&W treatment, but the odd artifacts from the filled areas at the bottom of both entries were distracting. I think it would have been better to crop off the bottom to a cinematic 2.4:1 aspect ratio.​

Rob is back in the driver's seat!
 
We have 8 entries from 5 people. Thank you, all!

Everybody tried stitching 3 to 5 images. Results were decent to excellent. Part of the problem with stitching this image is that my handheld capture wasn't perfectly centered around the nodal point of the lens. Another problem is that in older buildings like these, not all the vertical edges are truly vertical. A third possible problem with some automated stitching apps is that they will create matching features in the clouds, but the clouds are not in the same position in successive images. Still,I thought most of the results were quite good, given the source material.


Results:
Winner: @RobD . I like almost everything about this: the stitch, the crop, the processing. The only thing I could object to is that weird bird that looks like a UFO (or is it UAP now?) to the left of the town hall.​
1st Runner-Up: @kae1 #1. The stitch is solid. The colors and "pop" of the image are great. Love the clouds! Thank you, Ken, for removing the UFO -- whether intentional or not. The fill at the bottom is subtle (although the flowers in the lower left were on the side of the bridge I was on, and not in the water).​
2nd Runner-Up: @BosseBe #2. Nice stitch, Bo. I preferred it to your first entry.​
Honorable mention to @Zeus1 . Nice stitch, exposure and detail, Hendrik. And also thanks to you for removing that bird.​
@gecko : I liked your B&W treatment, but the odd artifacts from the filled areas at the bottom of both entries were distracting. I think it would have been better to crop off the bottom to a cinematic 2.4:1 aspect ratio.​

Rob is back in the driver's seat!
Thanks for the win Lyle! But I will have to pass the drivers seat over to Ken or Bo (I've just been handed some video editing work that will keep me busy for a couple of weeks). Bo needs to get out there and take some more shots. Cheers, Rob
 
Back
Top