Appropriately enough, today marked the first real white day of snow and colder weather since we came back from Hong Kong. A rare evening off also resulted in being able to put up the tree and get our decorations on. It’s always a great time at Christmas, most likely because I never grew up and I still look forward to the day with big open eyes and a little smile.
Located on the south eastern tip of the island, Stanley is where Honkers (Hong Kong residents) go to relax. Stanley is renowned for its many bars and restaurants on its waterfront along Stanley Main Street where visitors can enjoy a variety of different foods (including French, Italian, American, Indian and Thai) or relax with a beer and soak up the friendly atmosphere in one of its bars.
Now that’s a big airport….
From Wikipedia;
Hong Kong International Airport (IATA: HKG, ICAO: VHHH) is the main airport in Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China. It is colloquially known as Chek Lap Kok Airport (赤鱲角機場), because it was built on the island of Chek Lap Kok by land reclamation, and also to distinguish it from its predecessor, the closed Kai Tak Airport.
The airport opened for commercial operations in 1998, replacing Kai Tak, and is an important regional trans-shipment centre, passenger hub and gateway for destinations in Mainland China (with over 40 destinations) and the rest of Asia. Despite a relatively short history, Hong Kong International Airport has won seven Skytrax World Airport Awards in just ten years.[1][2]
HKIA also operates one of the world’s largest passenger terminal buildings and operates twenty-four hours a day. The airport is operated by the Airport Authority Hong Kong and is the primary hub for Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Hong Kong Express Airways, Hong Kong Airlines, Air Hong Kong (cargo) and Asia Jet (private). Flights are operated by roughly 90 airlines to over 150 cities across the globe, and in 2008 it was the 12th busiest airport worldwide in terms of passenger throughput, registering 47,857,746.[3]. HKIA is also an important contributor to the Hong Kong economy, with 60,000 people employed at the airport.
Centred on the Jumbo and Tai Pak Floating Restaurants in Aberdeen Harbour, it is an internationally renowned tourist attraction. As a Hong Kong icon and a premier tourism and fine-dining establishment, Jumbo has regularly been upgraded over the past 30 years. Jumbo recently had a multi-million dollar refurbishment which not only gave the Jumbo a new look, but also transformed it into a theme park on the sea. Jumbo Kingdom is now a modern complex of dining, sightseeing and cultural attractions – a required stop in any tour of Hong Kong.
I’ve received some e-mails since I posted the Victoria Peak panorama asking how it was done and how big. Here’s an insight into the workflow involved in the creation of that image.
The image was taken on Findlay Path just east of The Peak Observatory. It’s a composite of 29 images, 15 megapixels each with a Canon EOS 50D and a 50mm f1.4 lens. The camera was supported by an Induro AB2 tripod with my camera bag and jacket acting as a weight ballast to help combat the wind gusts.
The images were shot in RAW format to try to capture as much dynamic range as possible while still allowing leverage in developing the image for optimum detail. RAW offers a better workflow solution when making a composite panorama because it retains everything that the camera sensor captured instead (over 65 thousand shades) compared to the compression of JPEG files which retain only about 1/3 of that information. Here’s a shot from Digital Photo Pro of some of the composites involved in the panorama;
The images were developed in Canon’s Digital Photo Professional with the goal of resolving any color correction, peripheral vignetting and lens distortion. They were exported at full print resolution of 350dpi to TIFF files.
The multiple TIFF files were then thrown into Kolor Auto Pano’s wonderful software called GIGA which automates the stitching of the images together and helps cut down the time involved in lining up and manually stitching the image together. The composite of what the program kicks out looks something like this;
As you can see, the contrast and liveliness of the image isn’t quite there yet. There is also a great deal of “missing” material from the top as well as the right hand side as a result of data that was thrown away during the stitching process. At this point, it should also be noted that the overall image size is 27375 x 9600 pixels, or, enough for a 92″ x 32″ print. The overall file size has also ballooned from the original 29 images which came in at 547MB to a whopping 1.95GB!
Now the real work begins. The listing of corrections performed on the panorama is as follows;
You can see some of the differences in color and detail compared to the previous screenshot;
After approximately 20 hours of retouching work, the final composite is what you see on the Victoria Peak post. And keep in mind, even that is a 75% downsized version of the original file!
Download the desktop image here
