not sure if this is the right place to post this, but if not can a mod please stick it in the right place.

I was looking, on google earth, at Gorgemas Junction, and reaching the limit of my skills, placed my little man on the bridge of the A9 over the tracks, and printed off some views of the station, track etc.

then the dangerous moment occurred

I wonder if it is possible to merge a series of such views and print them as a backdrop ?

now I realise that you'd need to be able to correct the perspective etc, but is it possible, and if it is, how easy is it for an old git who struggles with most things after the on button ?

I'm guessing that you'd need to make the whole picture as a file and then take it to a print shop to get it printed in one strip.

thanks in advance for any help on this

cheers

alan

Hi Alan,

Your biggest problem would be fixing the perspective which I feel would be a mammoth task.  I have seen layouts where people have used actual photographs as part of their scenery but they have taken the pictures purely for that purpose.

You can take a series of pictures that slightly overlap each other and there is software that will stitch the pictures together to make one long print.  Some digital cameras have this built into them, all you have to do is pan the camera and it will take the pictures automatically.  After that if you can customise your printer settings to get it to print on a long piece of paper or card then you will end up with a backdrop.

cheers John.

Hi John,

thanks for that. I seem to remember having a camera years ago that took panorama shots, I presume a development of the idea used for the old school photos [anyone ever manage to appear twice in theirs, at both ends  ] but I'm afraid that I'll probably be limited to using views from google earth because of the sheer distances involved in going and taking photos.

looks like another bright idea destined for the bin.

thanks for your input anyway.

cheers

alan

Hi Alan,

After you wrote where you were thinking of I went onto Google Earth and had a look.  The view behind the station is fairly flat and rural so I had a go at capturing a couple of stills from Google Earth and inserting them into a Word document.  The end result is far from perfect but I feel sure if more time was taken you could end up with a reasonable backdrop which would show the land behind the station.

cheers John.

Quote from: class37025 on June 29, 2013, 08:19:10 PM
I seem to remember having a camera years ago that took panorama shots

If it was anything like mine (an APS), then all it did was move a block top & bottom so you ended up with a pseudo panorama ...

Quote from: scotsoft on June 29, 2013, 08:49:31 PM
Hi Alan,

After you wrote where you were thinking of I went onto Google Earth and had a look.  The view behind the station is fairly flat and rural so I had a go at capturing a couple of stills from Google Earth and inserting them into a Word document.  The end result is far from perfect but I feel sure if more time was taken you could end up with a reasonable backdrop which would show the land behind the station.

cheers John.

Hi John,

many thanks for that. I had a look at the trial, and as you say not too bad. certainly something for me to play with.

thanks again

alan

Quote from: Only Me on June 29, 2013, 08:55:43 PM
Alan if you send me the pictures you want stitching together ill do it with photoshop.
Paul

Hi Paul,

thanks very much for your kind offer.

I'll try later on tonight to save some and PM them to you.

again, thanks

alan

Quote from: class37025 on June 29, 2013, 08:00:06 PM
I was looking, on google earth, at Gorgemas Junction, and reaching the limit of my skills, placed my little man on the bridge of the A9 over the tracks, and printed off some views of the station, track etc.

then the dangerous moment occurred

I wonder if it is possible to merge a series of such views and print them as a backdrop ?

It would be very triicky to stitch them together with the angles and light, plus they have © Google watermarks on them so any professional producer will refuse to print it for you

Pay it a visit, stand on the bridge and take a set of photos together under the same light then feed them to a stitching tool.

Alan