Advice photographing a street

[MarlowTrips]

I want to document what my local High Street looks like, as it's constantly changing and I think it'll make a good historical project. My idea is to stitch together a whole load of photos so that I can get a long composite of the street.

I think I'm going to have to get up early to avoid having too many people and cars in shot but I'm after advice on how to actually take the pics. The road is normal width (about 30 foot?) so I'm going to need a wide angle lens to get the most in each shot. Does anybody have any other advice or suggestions?

If it works I'll post a version on here so that you can see how it comes out.

Thanks in advance for any help given.

 

[superstat]

so I'm going to need a wide angle lens to get the most in each shot.

this is true but watch out for nasty distortion.....i think i'd rather shoot a little longer than have distortion...

with regard to actually shooting them i have no idea sorry..

 

[photon]

When the local paper publishes then & now shots, the old ones win cos the camera had "movements" (you know: looked like an accordion, to correct the converging verticals). Without movements or a shift lens you can use a wide angle aimed at an eye-level point and then crop the foreground.

I know what you mean about people and cars, but I'd love to see photos of cars, carts, carriages and ordinary goings on over the years from where I live.

Whatever your thoughts about HDR, you should bracket the shots and archive them for processing with future software.

 

[SuperCNJ]

I know what you mean about people and cars, but I'd love to see photos of cars, carts, carriages and ordinary goings on over the years from where I live.

Totally agree, if its a snap-shot in time (pun not intended ), the way people dress, the cars they drive and even things that we take for granted such as billboards is all part that era and time. So I guess it would be nice to look back and see the differences.

 

[StewartR]

Ooh, Marlow High Street? Interesting. And a panorama too. My favourite.

I'd suggest you don't want to go too wide. Just wide enough so that, when you have the lens pointed horizontally at eye-level, the tops of the buildings are nicely framed. Or just wide enough so that you can get one shop nicely in the frame. Something like that. Take one photo (or several, bracketed) outside each shop, with the camera as close to square on as you can manage, and then move along a bit.

A few things to watch out for:
- If you're taking the photos over a period of time, the angle of the sun might well vary from one session to another. That could cause stitching problems if the shadows are in different places.
- If you're taking the photos over a period of time, your exposures could end up being quite variable from one session to another. Good stitched panoramas rely on consistency of exposure. It would be worth thinking about how to get some sort of exposure "reference" (a grey card, say) to help enforce consistency.
- Marlow High Street runs roughly SSE to NNW. The left hand side of the street (as you look up from the river) gets the sun in the morning, and the right-hand side gets it in the afternoon. Getting up early will only do half the job!

If there's any practical assistance I can offer, Jide, seeing as how it's local to me, I'd be very happy to.

 

[MarlowTrips]

Thanks Stewart, I'm going to try just doing a few shops to start with so that I get my technique right. I'll let you know how it goes and if the results are at all respectable I'll post them on here.