Has anyone used NN5 for food photography?

[apocolibri]

Hey,
I thought I'd try this forum in my search for an answer to whether NN5 could be used with a fixed focal length lens to photograph food? The idea is to get something that looks like it was shot with a MF digital back by stitching two rows of 6-8 shots. I posted on another forum and received nothing but advice to rent a MF digital camera w/back as it would be much less of a headache. My thought is that locating the exact entrance pupil is critical to avoid parallax at such close range (around 3 ft) and am wondering if this is even possible or more of a headache than it is worth? I'd be shooting with a Leica DMR (10 megapixel) a 100 macro lens, ProFoto lighting, mirrors, reflectors etc. Thanks for any feedback.

[nick fan]

Hey,
I thought I'd try this forum in my search for an answer to whether NN5 could be used with a fixed focal length lens to photograph food? The idea is to get something that looks like it was shot with a MF digital back by stitching two rows of 6-8 shots. I posted on another forum and received nothing but advice to rent a MF digital camera w/back as it would be much less of a headache. My thought is that locating the exact entrance pupil is critical to avoid parallax at such close range (around 3 ft) and am wondering if this is even possible or more of a headache than it is worth? I'd be shooting with a Leica DMR (10 megapixel) a 100 macro lens, ProFoto lighting, mirrors, reflectors etc. Thanks for any feedback.

many people use NN5/5L for high resolution mosaics for landscape. There is no difference for your application. I know a friend doing mosaics for portraits.
For macro pano, you need to calibrate the pano head precisely.


Nick

[apocolibri]

Thanks Nick.
A number of other posters on another forum suggested using live view to get the exact nodal point but I don't have live view on my camera. I'm being told by most that just looking through the lens will prove extremely difficult when trying to nail the nodal point on a subject one meter away as parallax will rear it's head in those instances.
I'm hoping to hear from someone who has actually done this and can estimate the time involved for each shot (with 6-8 images stitched) as I have a chance to do some food photography for a restaurant in a hotel and would like to use the stitching technique with a panning bracket such as NN5. Renting a MF digital camera would require many days to learn the system and software and I'd rather put the time into attempting mastering the panning and stitching technique (prior to the actual shoot, of course).
Lawrence

[John Houghton]

There are no particular problems shooting a panorama with your proposed setup. Liveview is not necessary. The no parallax point can be found quite straightforwardly by taking pairs of shots as for a panorama, with something near the camera in the area of overlap seen against a more distant background. Set the lens at the focus setting to be used in your intended panoramas. Compare the image pairs in Photoshop by layering them with the images aligned and switching the upper layer on and off to reveal even the smallest parallax shift. Adjust the camera on the upper rail until no parallax can be seen. You can gauge the approximate position of the camera for the starting position for your tests simply by looking into the lens with the aperture stopped down to f/22. With the back of the camera facing a bright light or window, you will see the bright spot of the entrance pupil. That needs to be positioned at the panohead axis, where it should be for zero parallax. See http://www.johnhpanos.com/epcalib.htm.

I shot a 6x2 panorama just now with a 120mm (35mm equivalent) lens on a 40D using a subject at 3ft and it stitched perfectly. Depth of field might be an issue, depending on your particular subjects. PTGui produced a 13000x6000 image. If you have all the items of equipment necessary, it doesn't take long to do a test shoot and stitch. Of course, a MF camera is quicker and more convenient if that gives you the resolution you need.

John

[apocolibri]

Thanks for the explanation, John, and also the link. Great stuff!
Lawrence

[bigwade]

Hey apocolibri.
I'm not sure why you want this.
Most foodshots in the Netherlands are made with a very small DOF/wide open.
Upres an image can be done easaly.

Of course multishots/mosaic can be made but with an unsharp part of the image, stitching is not fun..
Maybe you can give us an example link of what you want.
grtz
Frank