VerdutismoVision

[bill t.]

Here's yet another shot from the old Santa Fe Railroad Maintenance Shops in Albuquerque.

This a 5 panel stitch shot with an 18mm lens.  Photoshop can't even think about stitching this baby, but PTGui handles it in stride.  The nearly 180 degree FOV looks almost tame thanks to PTGui's "Verdutismo" projection.  The price is that the vertical dimensions for the image at extreme left and right are stretched almost 2 times more than the center of the image, but as far as I know it's currently the best available option for super wide architectural shots.  I feel the residual curves lend a certain Art Nouveau quality to the image that is in great contrast to starker,  narrower but straight-lined rectilinear interpretations.   Another hour spent stamping out of cigarette butts, pigeon feathers, and graffiti, and I'm done.

Back in the day, one chugged one's steam engine onto the two rails straddling the ditches for a tune up or whatever.  There are something like 16 such stations in this building.  Giant machine tools occupied the opposite side of this building.

[francois]

Thanks for sharing and for the technical info. I like it a lot.

[Patricia Sheley]

Thank you for sharing these Bill...is a book to come? Where in this view would be the turntable outside, does it still exist?

[bill t.]

Hi Patricia.  The turntable still exists and is operable.  I have personally had the pleasure of doing a bumpy orbit, powered by the yellow gasoline engine.

Unfortunately, all the wonderful steam engines that for so long populated the roundhouse are dispersed to the 4 corners of the US.  The roundhouse itself burned down a few decades ago.

Not a very good picture.  The 5 panel pano is mapped with FullFrame projection which did the best job of preserving the roundness of the pit, at the price of distorting the horizon.  That shadow is me at the top of my 10 foot high, roll-around PanoLadder.  I would like to go back and redo all these shots with a D800 and a really good lens.  This was taken in 2008 as part of a quick & dirty effort to promote the site for film use after the city bought it.  The large building in the background is the one in the photo above.

No book is planned, too much work for too little reward.  But these shots are wildly popular with architects, lawyers, and people who are into local history, and I sell a lot of them.

[Patricia Sheley]

Thanks Bill...almost as imagined, including the yellow! Site is more sterile than expected...liability/city clean-up I guess. Can easily see an Hitchcock night shoot here...

and as to the sales...can feel your grin, a bit like that of Elliot E's. 

[davidh202]

  I would like to go back and redo all these shots with a D800 and a really good lens.  This was taken in 2008 as part of a quick & dirty effort...  

Bill,
What you have is outstanding as is, no need to do it over.
There is nothing wrong with the WA distortion of the horizon and it actually compliments and enhances the roundness of the pit.
I find the distortion on the inside of the building is quite nice, with an artistic quality,  as you said yourself ;-)

David