Weekly Photo – July 11
©Darwin Wiggett
This photo is from Saskatchewan. Here I used the shift feature on my Canon 90mm tilt-shift Lens. First I set the lens to the zero shift position and took a photo to determine proper exposure. Then I set my camera to manual at that exposure (10 seconds at f14). The reason I went to manual exposure is that when you shift the lens left and right shifting causes the light meter in the camera to give improper exposure (underexposed in one direction, overexposed in the other). Then I simply shifted the lens to the left until I got what I wanted on the left side of the photo, then I shifted the lens to the right to get what I wanted in the right side of the composition. The result was blended together in Photoshop’s “Photo Merge” using “reposition”. The two overlapping images fell perfectly into place without any parallax problems. I love using my tilt-shift lens to make panoramic photos and the 90mm lens is great for intimate panos. Click on the photo to see a larger version. The neat thing here is how calm it was. In the 10 second exposure (in dusk light), not a blade of grass moved.
Darwin Wiggett 
July 11, 2010 at 10:16 AM
Great image(s), Darwin – very lucky that there was no wind.
A question … when shifting, do you go “all the way”?
Reason I ask is, on my Nikon 28mm PC (old one), light falls off quickly past about the 8mm point in the shift when shooting portrait, but the max shift is 11mm. I have not gone past this point, a hangover from my old film days. In landscape, I can go the full 11mm. I shoot Nikon APS-C so my factor is 1.5.
Does the Canon lens have the same limitation or do you just ignore it and make it up in terms of exposure? Or, maybe it does not have the same issues?
July 11, 2010 at 10:20 AM
On this one I did not need to shift all the way because the composition did not demand it. With the newest TS-e’s from Canon you can go all the way without vignetting (if you have no filter holder on the lens). I have gone all the way but generally prefer to keep my shifts under 10mm for optimal edge sharpness. Darwin
July 11, 2010 at 1:29 PM
I was wondering how often you shoot on a tripod ?
Would it be a necessary piece of gear to own ?
Cheers
July 11, 2010 at 4:29 PM
I own numerous tripods. All of my ‘serious’ photography is done with a tripod. I use a tripod about half the time with my point-n-shoot. Atripod allows you to use any aperture or shutter speed you want for creative effects. Darwin
July 12, 2010 at 1:18 AM
Thanks for the info,
That’s one thing that I admire about you, it’s that you also use point-and-shoot cameras and end up with equally amazing shots than if you used a dSLR, amazing !
Just got myself the Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 Carbon Fibre Tripod this instant.
Cheers,
Nico Chapman
July 12, 2010 at 8:38 AM
Not a blade of grass moved? Now that’s from living right!
July 12, 2010 at 3:55 PM
Hi Darwin
Just wondering what tilt and shift lens you use the most for doing your panoramics of the mountains? I’m considering purchasing one but don’t know if the 24mm or 45mm would be best for these sort of shots.
Thanks!
July 12, 2010 at 5:57 PM
Hmmm… tough question. If I could only have one lens it would be the 24mm. But the 45mm is really useful for panos. Sometimes the 24mm is too wide. But like I said, if I could only have one… I would pick the 24mm (for my style of photography).
Darwin