Photoshopping a Continuous Landscape

[AntPeople]

Hi All :

Give me some suggestion on my Presentation of the Bottle, Photography etc ...... thanks



Thanks a lot and enjoy..........

Pin

[YT]

Perfect orientation that will not result in any breaks.

Well done Pin!!

My comment remain the same for this sad bottle that fully portrays the sad story you shared about it.

Cheers,
YT

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

WOW  !

Amazing !

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Dear Pin,
very nice. How did you that? I don't have Photoshop. Does Photoshop has a feature to do that? If so, then it would be almost known to anyone (except myself because I don't have it), so why anyone has problem in finding the way to do these panoramic pictures?
Kind regards
Giovanni

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Pin, YT,

     I'm sorry, what was the story behind it? I must have missed it.
Joey


Wow, Pin! Impressive! It really shows off the beauty of the painting.
I just had a brainstorm! Why don't they paint these on a flat surface? 
best,
joey

Hi All :

Give me some suggestion on my Presentation of the Bottle, Photography etc ...... thanks



Thanks a lot and enjoy..........

Pin

[Luke]

Nice job! In Photoshop you can just take sequential pictures going round the bottle and using a function in the programme you can automatically create a panorama. You can also do it by hand in Photoshop. How did you do it Pin? It looks like it's done by hand to me...

[AntPeople]

Hi Giovanni :

It takes quite a lot of work....also need to conceptialize how you want the final product to be... Example, this bottle...I will need the "wind" to blow from right to left... Bec the bottle is drawn with wind blowing from right to left... Also which position the flying picture is going to merge with the actual bottle...

1) First, I took about 40 pictures of the bottles at about 8-10 degree interval.

2) Then I crop out the center strap portion of each photo

3) Use photoshop to merge 8-10 pictures each time.. But then photoshop will not be able to align them perfectly, so you will need to use free transform to manually align some portion.

4) look for imperfection on each merge and do spot correction using stamp or smudge function in Photoshop...

5) Then align the separate section again like step 3 and 4.... Now you will have a picture flat picture of the bottle

6) Now use free transform again and make the picture ”fly“

7) Add a shadow to the flying picture

Take a full bottle and merge with the flying picture... This step can take a while Bec usually auto merge can't even align the picture together... So you will need to do your own jagged edge and use free transform to match it...

9) Clean off any edge and imperfection of the bottle

10) shave off some portion the shadow to make it look more natural

11) do color correction to the pictures or stopper

12) YOU are DONE...

Realistically for a non professional person like me... It takes quite a few hrs between taking picture and Photoshopping...

Pin

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Dear Pin,
wow, a lot of job! Imagine to do that for many bottles, it takes too much time! I have not yet refined the technique, but my camera do that automatically. I had a Fuji x10 that was stolen, then I had to buy another one and found that in the meantime the x10 evolved to x20 and then to x30. So I bought this last one, and found that it did improve a lot on many aspects, including the panorama, that can now take pictures of cylinders. It didn't say so in the instructions manual, I found that myself. Here is the panorama of a bottle.
Kind regards
Giovanni

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Giovanni

I have just bought the x30. Would you mind sending some instructions if and when you have the time.  This is an amazing result you achieved ! Thanks in advance! I am impressed.

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Dear Pat,
what a coincidence, you did a great purchase, this camera has no competitors in his price range in my opinion, especially for taking indoor pictures of small objects like the snuff bottles or porcelain as is in my case. It works as you see in my previous pictures, but there are some issue. Give me a bit of time to write down some lines.
Kind regards
Giovanni

[Steven]

Wow, Incredible work Pin!

I can't even accomplish it with my professional skill. Very creative!

Steven

[George]

Really amazing photography !

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Thanks Giovanni

Pin

Great job...

[AntPeople]

Thanks everyone

Steven.... You are too humble... I bet you can do it faster and a thousand times more efficient..

Giovanni.... You are definitely right to say that this is not for every bottle... And if one do not have any interest in Photoshopping... Then it's really painful to go through the tedious process..

[RW]

Hi Pin

 Congratulations for having figured out a way to bring about an interesting and great new perspective on an IP, and congratulations to you for turning the vision into reality

Best

Kevin

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Dear Pat,
sorry for my late answer, have been busy, and I even had to format my PC and re-install everything.
Now, about the “panorama” feature of the Fujifilm X30 camera. When I had the previous model I thought the following: the Panorama feature is meant to take a continuous picture of the horizon, or the space around the photographer. Now, if instead of moving the camera I will move the horizon around it, isn’t that the same from camera’s point of view? So I did try to take picture of a vase placed over a rotating plane, but it didn’t work. I thought that the reason could be because a cylindrical surface like that of a vase has an opposite curvature if compared to the environment around the photographer. I mean that the center of the image is closer to the lens if compared to the sides of the image. Anyway, it didn’t work. When I got the new camera I did try again and after some try I have found that it works, but not always. There are some requirements that must be met. The more important one is that the object must almost fill the window frame. For what I have seen up to now, the object should occupy not less than 2/3 of the image. That is not a problem with a big vase, but it can be with a snuff bottle because of the small size. So the camera must be very close to the bottle. Then you have to provide a rotating plane, that can be rotated by hand. I use an old turntable for the vases. That has a too big diameter in case of bottles, so a smaller rotating plane is preferable. I use the mechanism recovered from an old disc driver. So, with the bottle placed at the center of the rotating device and the camera placed at the right distance so that the bottle is filling most of the area of the screen field, you press the shutter release button and start to rotate the plane. At which speed? That is the problem. There is an index on the screen that is progressively increasing when you take a panorama picture. If the speed is totally wrong, either too quick or too slow, you will see that the progressive index on the screen will not advance, and after a few seconds the camera will display a message saying that the speed is too low. That is not always true, because you have the same message also when the speed is too high, and also if the object is too small. So it is a generic message that means that something is wrong, or better, that the camera’s processor can’t do his job. To have an idea, the panorama sequence normally takes about 5 – 7 seconds. You should rotate the table at an average speed resulting in 3-5 complete turns in that time frame. You will see that it works by the progression of the index.
At this point you have an image which is a strip with 3 – 5 consecutive images of the whole circumference. In most cases the image is good, you just have to choose which is the better part within the 3 – 5 consecutive images. But there are cases in which for some reason the software of the camera is not able to join the pictures together. This result in a place where you miss part of the subject. That happens always in the same place in all the 3 – 5 consecutive images. By insisting, it may happen that you get one image among let say 6 – 7 images where the problem disappear.
So dear Pat this is the point at which I am by now. I told you that the technique must be refined, the most important point being, I think, to find the correct rotating speed and the best would be to have a table that rotate at such speed but powered by an electric motor so that the speed is constant. I have to work on that, and will do when I have time.
By now, that’s it.
Kind regards
Giovanni

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Thanks a lot Giovanni!  Let me try and experiment.  Hopefully I can muster the same patience you have..

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Dear Pat, of course there is a big problem related to the ratio between the size of the bottle and the distance. Because of this, only cylindrical bottles are suited for the process. Consider in fact a flask shap bottle which is less than one inch thick by two inches wide. If the elns of the camera is palced at a distance of two inches, when you rotate the bottle the distance between the lens and the bottle will vary more than 50%, an enormous variation, with related focus problems. This is not a problem with vases because they are bigger and the distance too is bigger.
Kind regards
Giovanni
Here is the whole picture of a ginger jar and the cropped portion of image.

[AntPeople]

Hi Joey :

Owe you the story on this bottle

The painting of this bottle is on a poem by YangShen (杨慎)

YangShen was from a noble family in the Ming Dynasty. His father was the teacher of the emperor and held a high position in the court together with him. YangShen is usually regarded as the most talented scholar in Ming Dynasty.

YangShen is too smart for the emperor (as usual) and is not afraid to speak up against the emperor in the court. The emperor, had enough of him and over a trivial matter of how a ceremony should be conducted. Beat YS almost to death, confiscate all his property and banished him to the South, never to return again

This poem is written during his journey to the South. When YS came upon the mighty ChangJian River, he ask permission from the prison escort to have a moment by himself and a pen and paper to write down his feeling. This poem is probably the most famous of his 2000 over poem/article that YangShen has written throughout his life.

I will try to translate the poem : 

临江仙 - Title : By the River

滚滚长江东逝水，- The mighty ChangJian River roll tirelessly towards the East

浪花淘尽英雄。- With its crushing waves, the mighty river bring along generations of hero that has come and go with history

是非成败转头空。- Everything : Right, Wrong, Successful, Failure.... in a flash as fast as a turn of the head, it will be gone and be forgotten.

青山依旧在，几度夕阳红。- The mountain will still be lavished by the green vegetation, The Sun still sets with it beautiful colouration no matter what happen

 

白发渔樵江渚上，- Two elderly old man, a fisherman and a woodsman are sitting on the bank of the river

惯看秋月春风。- They are use to the changing season and have seen it all

一壶浊酒喜相逢。- A bottle of wine to celebrate the time of getting together

古今多少事，都付笑谈中。- All the events of past and present, no matter how important or trivial....... its just merely a topic of discussion over the wine after all..............

Pin

[AntPeople]

My Final representation of the bottle....