panorama to blur zoo fences

[MrFotoFool]

As we all know, to blur out a zoo fence you need a telephoto lens and large aperture. The problem sometimes is that when you are zoomed in, you only get part of the animal. But when you zoom back to get the whole animal, then the fence shows up. Here is one solution. I zoomed in (200mm wide open with a 70-200 2.8) and did a series of three vertical shots. Start at the head and work my way down, with manual focus and manual exposure. Then put them in the panorama builder in Photoshop Elements 9 and there you have it! (Just a few minor tweaks afterwards, including Tonal Contrast in Nik Color Efex 4).

Canon 5d2, 70-200 2.8L (non IS), great hornbill, Reid Park Zoo (Tucson, USA)

 

[MrFotoFool]

Not sure why the smiley face with sunglasses showed up. In my preview it was the number eight followed by the end parenthesis.

 

[Sauropod]

I suspect the 8 with the left parenthesis is the "shortcut" for "cool shades smile"
I thank you for your post as I walk by bird after bird because of the fence issue. Next time I'll be sure to try your suggestion!

BC

and I'll try 8 and a parenthesis right...now: 8)

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Not sure why the smiley face with sunglasses showed up. In my preview it was the number eight followed by the end parenthesis.

This is a example of typical smiley's and the code for them. This forum does not support all of these, but as you can see, the code for "Cool" is a 8 followed by a )

http://www.thesilverball.com/index.php?action=help;area=smileys

 

[PeterJ]

Neat idea . I'm not familiar with panorama builder in Photoshop Elements (or others for that matter), how critical is the image alignment? Just wondering if that sort of shot is practical handheld of if you need a tripod?

 

[MrFotoFool]

This actually was taken handheld (even though I had a tripod with me), so that I could lean in closer to the fence.

 

[robbymack]

This is really a great idea but I gotta know how it would have been any different had you just taken a step or two backwards and accomplished this in one shot not needing all the extra work?

 

[bvukich]

This is basically a truncated version of the Brenizer method. Also a creative way to solve your problem!

 

[sanj]

Very smart!

 

[lol]

This is really a great idea but I gotta know how it would have been any different had you just taken a step or two backwards and accomplished this in one shot not needing all the extra work?

This technique is about blurring the foreground fence, which means getting as close as you can to it. If you back off, the fence would become more visible again. That's typically an impractical amount of work to PS out. Besides, the work required is minimal. The pano function in PSE is pretty much fire and forget. Add the files, push go and assuming the quality of the input is good enough, you're done. Just have to hope the subject doesn't move too much during the pano, and you don't move to cause the background to shift.

I have also done wildlife subject panos for a similar but different reason. Sometimes I just run out of zoom range on the 100-400L, and stepping back is not possible for many reasons, nor is 2nd camera with wide angle on it available quickly enough. My only alternative is therefore to take multiple shots in rapid succession.