Spanning The Century

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Spanning The Century ~

Spanning The Century, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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Special events like this don't come along every day, but this is certainly one of those events and one of those days. It's my first jaunt out with my new iPhone 5 - that's right folks, I've got my hot sticky hands on it at last. But that's not all.

This photo, straight out of the camera with no postprocessing whatsoever, is the first ever I've taken using the fancy new panoramic function, and the results are amazing. I'm not saying this is an amazing shot - how could it be as my first attempt - and yet I'm still pretty excited about it.

The subject really lended itself to a panoramic treatment - the renovations at Les Halles from a viewing platform with about 180° worth of chaos to contemplate.

I had no idea - no, that's not true - I had a slight idea of what to do because a recent photo tour client had a new iPhone 5 and showed me how to do it. What surprised me at first was that you hold the phone vertically as you sweep it horizontally across the scene. When you consider the technology it makes sense really coz you get more top to bottom pixels for your efforts than if you held it landscape style. Counter-intuitive but logical in the end. And the results - well, this result - amazing.

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It's amazing because you literally can't see the joins. Maybe there aren't any for all I know or it's so sophisticated that 'joins' are totally last century probably! And despite being a torso swivelling virgin, and running out of twist at the end of the exposure, it's still ok.

You can see a couple of rather interesting artifacts which I'll have to think about. First of all the people on the right are a bit stretched out, which might be because of my dodgy panning. Secondly, you can see that the railing being so close to me has given it a definite curve which would have been less pronounced if there'd been more distance between us. Another learning experience from the very first shot.

And almost scarily, does this mean that I don't actually have to bother with all those complicated SLR panorama techniques you read about in photo mags and on enthusiasts' web sites any more? I never even got around to trying them out and now, as the quality of smart phones gets better and better, maybe I never will. Why reinvent the wheel, or go back to the metaphorical stone age of photography when the answer's right there in the palm of your hand?

The place is a mess, and it'll be fascinating to see how it pans out, if you'll pardon the expression. I'll keep you posted, of course. Let's swivel!

And why not...

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