PANORAMA: GATES OF THE VALLEY
"Gates of the Valley", Yosemite National Park. Photo © Jared Doty.
A bigger version of this photo is currently located here.
Can a hand-held, 6 megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera take a better photo than an expensive 12.8 megapixel D-SLR and a high quality lens?
As soon as we arrived at "Gates of the Valley" (also called "Valley View"), my son Jared took a series of seven, hand-held, vertical photos with a Canon Powershot S3 IS camera. I was busy setting up my tripod.
He overlapped each photo with the prior photo to allow for stitching together later in the computer. The camera was set in an autoexposure mode so the exposures varied from 1/160 at f/5.6 to 1/250 at f/5.6. The software compensated for the exposure variations.
The first photo was taken at 7:03:08 pm PDT and the last at 7:03:52, a total elapsed time of 44 seconds. By the time my tripod was set up and my camera mounted, he was done with his first series. He did take more photos over the next 45 minutes, but this set was definitely a prize winner.
When we got home, I loaded the seven individual photos into Autostitch, set the scale to 100% (full size pano) and left while the software did its thing (it takes a while to do full size panos in Autostitch). I came back a half hour later and the software was done (I don't know how long it took to stitch the images and the time would vary with the horsepower of the computer.)
The end result was a 45.5 MB tiff file (156 MB in layers as a PSD file) that would print out at 9 x 19.5 inches at 300 ppi without any interpolation. I downsized the image to 8.5 x 18.5 inches so we could make a print that would fit on 13 x 19 inch paper. The photo looks great and my son was really pleased with the results. The file should interpolate up in size to allow for a nice 14 x 30 inch panoramic print (our next project).
I compared the resolution of the panoramic file from the S3 to a similar single photo of the same scene from my Canon 5D and EF 24-105mm L series lens. The rocks on El Capitan looked much sharper in my son's pano than in my single photo, as would be expected. A series of photos stitched together, even from a camera with less native resolution (less pixels or photosites on the sensor), can have more total information than a single photo from a camera with a higher resolution sensor.
In this particular instance, Jared created a higher resolution photo with a $430 camera than I did with equipment costing several times as much. Had I done a similar set of vertical photos with my equipment at the equivalent angle of view, and stitched it together later, my photo would look just as good or better in a very large print, but I didn't do that.
I did note some color fringing in high contrast areas with the Canon S3 lens that I did not have with the 24-105mm lens. The 24-105 lens is a better lens. The good news is that the color fringing does not show in the 8.5 x 18.5 inch print.
The really good news is that a camera with less resolution and a somewhat inferior lens can produce better photos than a single high resolution photo from a more expensive camera and lens if the photo is divided up into separate shots and stitched together later. Something to think about if you are using a point-and-shoot camera and you are doing a big scenic photo and want a big enlargement. Of course, it should be a good quality camera to begin with.
On the other hand, even with a higher resolution camera, if you want a really big print, take a set of photos and stitch them together later, rather than doing it all at once in one shot with a wider angle lens.
To find the Gates of the Valley location, read the next post.
The Canon Powershot S3 IS camera is a fine camera for still shots. It has a class leading movie mode, the reason I bought the camera in the first place. Why look at dinky little movie clips of my grandchildren when I can have screen filling clips at the touch of a button. The camera has received top marks from DP Review and Popular Photography magazine (June 2006 issue). It is the camera I carry if I don't have a D-SLR with me. If you want to buy one, you can get a great price, pay no shipping, and help suport this site by buying your camera at the Amazon link below.
Autostitch is great software for stitching photos together in a Windows XP computer, and the demo version is free. Read more in the Autostitch article at my photo web site.
THE 4th of JULY
Fireworks over Yukon, Oklahoma. Photo copyright (c) Jim Doty, Jr.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
From the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4, 1776. Written by Thomas Jefferson (1762-1826). 3rd US President (1801-09).
To see an engraving of the original and George Washington's personal printed copy, go here.
The entire declaration follows.
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts
John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
SOURCE: Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington
