REALVIZ Creative Panorama Competition

Results of the March Competition

If we thought judging February was hard, March was even harder. Like last month, getting it down to five was not too hard, relatively speaking, but then choosing from those last five was so hard. In the end it came down to really fine, subtle distinctions that might not be so visible on the lower resolution web images shown here.

The March Winner of the REALVIZ Stitcher Express software is Craig O'Brien, of Thirroul, NSW, Australia.

The location of this picture is at Coacliff NSW Australia, an hours drive south of Sydney. It shows the newly constructed "Sea Cliff Bride" which has replaced the old road due to rock-fall. The communities either side of the bridge where separated for a few years while construction was underway. This image was shot in RAW format on a Fuji FinePix S9500 using a Panosaurus tripod head. The resulting 20 images where stitched using Stitcher 5.1 output as a spherical panorama 12680 pixels x 3630 pixels for LightJet photographic printing. You can jump to Craig's website of photography here.

Judges comments: 'This is a great panorama that is both naturalistic and creative because of the effects created'.

Runners up were:

R. Michael O'Hollaren

Judges comments: 'Another perfect panorama, well executed to solve the problems of the subject'

This was a very exciting idea that I concieved as I was shooting a dance contest. As i drove home I got the idea of using the images in a very wide, panoramic photodesign.

Interesting, as I worked on it my file grew till I could not save in on my then current computer. With a new G4 I was able to proceed.

I wanted to design an image that would print out as a final work, three feet high by six feet wide.

The design is composed of seven original photographs. they were placed to give the impression of a wide stage setting. They are at different levels to give depth a on a stage. There is some black fill behind some and some erasing on others to give a transparency appearance to some of the images. To make it look as though there was a dancer in front of another.

Craig Worth, Pocatello, Idaho, USA www.cuzzins.com

Judges comments: 'A very creative panorama from a normal subject. Creative and interesting.'

Stitched Intersection Main and Center Located in Pocatello Idaho

Jim Anderson, St. Louis, MO, USA 'Japanese Garden'

Judges comments: 'Stunningly beautiful'

Taken February 26, 2005 at the Missouri Botanical Garden in their Japanese Garden. This photo is made up of nine images taken with a Nikon CP 5400. After taking this photo I decided to teach my self more about photography and taking a better picture rather than fixing them in Photoshop.

Harry Lake, EX BUSSUM, Netherlands

Judges comments: 'Nice use of a panorama for an unusual (for stiched panoramas) subject matter'

Four images taken with a Logitech Pocket Digital 130. The second image from the left started with the wall on the extreme left much darker than it is on the extreme right of the first image, so I had to lighten that part using ASCDSee 7 before creating the panorama with the ACDSee plugin StitcherEZ from RealViz. Without that correction the first and second images were incorrectly stitched.

I am sure Logitech will not take it amiss if I say that the least good thing about the PD130 was not its lack of a display but its dreadful viewfinder, which somehow makes all my pictures lop-sided! Otherwise it’s a wonderful camera particularly in the way it copes with contrasts.

Other interesting panorama entries are shown on a second page. Click here.