Some Ciro-Flex photos taken with an E-model at the Henry Ford musuem. Includes a stitched panoramic photo of the Dymaxion house - seems the tripod socket on the side of the Ciro-Flex is pretty much at the nodal point, and the photos stitched together perfectly.

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00FLyS&unified_p=1

Very nice picture, Doug! Is that you and your family? Nice grouping.

When you say "stitched together," do you mean in the computer or what? What film? Exposure details, please.

The tonalities are very attractive. And weren't you lucky the museum wasn't crowded at the moment?!

Hi Henry,

Thanks for the kind words!

"Stitching" is putting together multiple images using computer software. In Photoshop, which came bundled with my scanner, it's called "Photomerge." Grab several overlapping photos, and it'll merge them together. If you've done well shooting them, the merge will be seamless, and you end up with a nice long panoramic photo. Works best if you've used a tripod, and rotated around the nodal point of the lens.

The exposure is strange. It's not bright in winter at the museum... It was shot on 125-speed B/W film, Ilford I think. I'm sorry, but don't have the neg handy. Used a tripod, and if I recall correctly it was an exposure value of about 3, which would be 4 seconds at F5.6. I set the shutter to T, put a black card in front of the lens, opened the shutter, counted thousand-one, thousand-two etc. under my breath, put the black card back in front of the lens after 4 seconds, and closed the shutter. Four seconds is long enough that even if my own internal clock isn't very precise, it won't matter if I'm off a tiny bit. Rotated the camera on the tripod about 30 degrees, and shot again, same way.

Then scanned two frames at a time on the scanner, to try to minimize the brightness variations that the scanner gives me as it tries to optimize each scan. Once I had a Jpeg with two frames, I could cut-and-paste as needed to create the individual shots.

All worked like a charm. But it's not a quick photo to take - got to think a bit about how to do it, then get 4 photos in a row that are good, then scan and stitch. Results are unique and fun, though. Gives the old square camera a bit of a new lease on life.

Oh, the people - the family is actually a cardboard cutout that's part of the display. And the lack of people is funny, too. There were people passing by, the museum wasn't empty. But I'd usually shoot in between groups of people. So when I shot the left view, maybe there were people on the right, or vice versa. Had to sort of time it, so that people weren't walking fast across the scene. Open shutter just as everybody leaves the scene...

Oh, and there is one real-live group of people coming down the ramp on the left, slowly. They're a blur.

FYI - I also like to shoot with minimum aperture, long exposures of a minute or so in the same conditions. Shooting like that, it normally doesn't matter if anybody wanders through the scene - as long as they keep moving. The photos of the machinery are taken with long exposure times and minimum apertures, usually.

Am trying to get the panoramic technique dialed in perfectly for vacation / scenic shots. So the Ford museum pano was practice for this summer, and other places / subjects.

Nice work Doug!

Thanks!

Part I like best is explaining to non-camera people about putting a black card in front of the lens during long exposures, to block out what I don't want in. Can see the wheels turning slowly...

Doug Grosjean