HDR Panorama portrait - the ( close ) Encounters Project Info

Posted by RW Groothuis · November 24, 2019

The (close) Encounters Project - Part 11 - Ilja Walraven - HDR Panorama portrait - Copyright © Bob Groothuis

About the ( close ) Encounters project

HDR panorama portrait information:

This is a ongoing ( non- commercial *) ) project that started about 2009 and is called the ( close ) Encounters.

The HDR ( High Dynamic Range ) panorama portrait panorama’s are made out of 63 pictures (minimal 9 exposures per angle, 7 angles so 63 images are used to make a HDR portrait panorama.

That makes taking the image with some thrill — it could be ruined due to the fact that if the people are moving the portrait could fail. That idea makes it fascinating for me to do it, Its always exiting to shoot. Warn the "customers *) " in advance: “we will see in the final image who moved, so do not dare to move!” Until now ( almost ) everyone has listened very good in the portrait shoots from the last years.

Sometimes people wonder "how do you come in contact with such people" simply send them a mail ( or a DM with Twitter ) in most cases.

Also tell with the first contact that there are not cost involved *), have to admit when someone asks this to me won't believe it either.. "this must a trick and later need to pay a lot of money! ". Well that's not the case everyone wins with this setup. Asking money for it would ruin my motivation.

The "customer" gets for free a digital version and a photo print if they want that too. Next to that they can do with the digital file or photo print anything so no need to pay me royalties.

Whats in it for me would you perhaps think, well the whole adventure is price-less in my opinion: from the moment of having a idea about the next person(s) until the final HDR portrait is always great adventure!

The only thing asking if I may publish it on my website. If a person first want to see whats going to be published that's ok too . And if one would decide to not have it published then that's ok too ( without consequences ) and still get the digital version and a photo print.

After a HDR panorama portrait is finished and published on this site start thinking of the next person (s) who might be the subject (in background thinking modus).

Extra note: please do not contact me with a suggestion of a person that could be the next "subject" that does not work for me at all. New subjects need to appear naturally on my path.

After the shoot the most time consuming part starts: tonemapping, color correction & retouch. The actually shooting is done within 1 minute per pano, post production can take about 20 or 30 hours (or even more).

There can be several months between the recording and the posting here on this website: due to the fact it has to be done in the spare time and above all its a fun project so no tight production schedule.

Last years the technical development of 360° camera’s ( so no need to shoot in several angles but just push the button once ) is going very quickly. More and more are entering the market and this is fantastic news. But have to be honest, for the ( close ) Encounters series not want to use such camera’s its just too easy. Its much more exciting if there is a bigger chance of failure. It reminds me also to the early days of ( portrait ) photography, people were told by the photographer “ please do not move”.

ps the header image is : The (close) Encounters Project - Part 11 - Ilja Walraven

Last update 4 December 2020:

Next HDR panorama portrait adventure is not known yet. For sure there will popup a new one somewhere in the future.

Other Editions ( close ) Encounters

Note:

Not had the time to put all older ( close ) Encounters back online. Below you can see all HDR panorama portrait 's that are currently online. The rest will appear later.