Hans Nyberg of panoramas.dk was chosen to capture the recent Danish Royal Wedding and is likely the first panoramic photographer to be hired for such an event. Hans was hired by the national Danish Radio and Television based upon his website panos and was present at most of the events.
The royals are extremely popular in Denmark and the May 14th wedding was a royal extravaganza as Crown Prince Frederik wedded his Tasmanian commoner bride, Mary Donaldson, whom he met during the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in a local bar. Royal families from throughout Europe and Japan attended, along with hundreds of other prominent guests.“This has been a great experience,” says Hans. “You may call it the assignment of my life.” Hans had less than 60 seconds to shoot each of the panos, sometimes waiting hours for that one moment. “When Mary and Frederik entered the balcony the national song was sung. It takes about a minute and that’s when I had to do it; also, the place I had was very limited, as you can see in the panoramas.”
Hans attended the gala pre-wedding performance at the Royal Theatre and was also present at the church during the wedding and the wedding banquet that evening at Fredenborg Palace, where the day ended with the traditional wedding waltz at midnight in the Dome Hall.
“The [pano] in the Royal Theatre is my favorite,” says Hans of the pre-wedding performance, where he and other photographers were packed into a tiny area beside regally dressed guests looking down upon the majestic theater. “Also the place I had was very limited, as you can see in the panoramas. In the theatre I had the lens of one of the TV cameras moving as close as five inches from my Canon 10D.”
As expected, security at the event was high. “I was checked at least five times by security people, police and bomb dogs… and we had to be at the church three hours before the wedding started.”
The Crown Prince was clearly moved as a slightly late bride arrived at the altar after walking down the aisle in the same veil as both Queen Ingrid and Queen Margrethe wore at their own weddings. Here again shooting conditions were very tight but Hans says everyone was very courteous and professional and he managed to get a stunning shot of the couple at the altar.
The wedding reception was held at Fredensborg in an enormous white tent with row upon row of long tables arranged in front of the royal head table. Following the dinner, guests watched the traditional wedding waltz which was, according to etiquette, held just before midnight. Hans was there in the balcony and his full screen panorama shows the royal couple dancing and includes a recording of the music and subsequent cheers as the royal couple dance amongst their guest. (Remember to wait for the sound of the wedding waltz, which Connector unfortunately places at the end of the movie.) The wraparound balcony is jam-packed with reporters and photographers, making one wonder how Hans managed to take a handheld pano under such tight conditions.
The Danish monarchy is one of the oldest in the world and the royal family can be dated back to Gorm den Gamle (958) and his son Harald Bluetooth I. It is a constitutional monarchy much like the British and the monarch cannot independently carry out political acts and the Queen herself has no political influence, although she signs all laws concurrently with the prime minister.
Hans believes this is the first time full screen QTVR has been used in an event of this type and size. The reaction to news of Hans’ panos on industry Internet groups was very enthusiastic as this type of high-profile use of virtual reality photography bodes well for the entire industry. “The client is happy and I believe we will see more panoramas from large events in Denmark,” Hans predicts. Here’s hoping he’s right and it translates into wider usage throughout the world. In any event, Hans has made a significant breakthrough for which we are all very happy and proud.
Hans Nyberg's Shoot Details:
Vor Frue Kirke: This pano was made several months ago for the Wedding page at DR.dk. It is 4+1 shots with the Canon D60 + Sigma 8 mm All images for my panos were made as RAW files and converted in Photoshop CS saved as 16 bit tif.Stitching was made in Photoshop CS using Pantools plugin from www.kekus.com/. Images converted to spheric and handstitched. All stitching was made in 16 bit.
For the Wedding session I have updated my camera to a Canon 10D. It was necessary to have one which I could use at 800 ASA wihout too much noise. The Royal Theatre was shot at 800 ASA and I had about one minute to take the images while the national song was sung. Actually I had prepared to take a place as close to the public as possible but fortunately the Australian photographer came first and took it. The place right between the two TV cameras was perfect. The place was very narrow and the camera to the right was as close as 10 inches from my camera sometimes. I made three shots bracketing and actually used the brightest, which was made at 1/6 second f5.6 . The image of the photographers to the right was made long before the actual panorama was made as I suspected that the photographers would not be in a good position during the shoot. The prism in the ceiling was shot separately with another lens.
This was made with the extension on the tripod to get up above the heads of the other photographers. The tripod was placed as close as possible to the balcony edge and left at the same place all the time. This pano was very difficult to stitch as the photographers moved in two directions on each side and they were very close. As we had plenty of wait time I made top and back images during this time. There was plenty of light as TV had extra light.
400 ASA 1/45 f5.6
This looks like an easy pano but was actually very difficult to do as I only had 30 seconds to take it. We were not allowed to stay after the guests sat down and that was the only time when I could do a decent pano. This was made with the Sigma 12-24 mm and 8 images. I made them in 20 seconds. Some Photoshop work had to be done as a couple of security people ran out in front of one of the images. When I returned to the startpoint they were already stopping the other photographers and they where packing their stuff.
800 ASA 1/45 f6.7
The tradition says that the wedding waltz should be danced before midnight and this was in the last moment.
As we were told not to take any extra equipment I used the tripod extension with the camera about one meter above my head and placed it as close as possible to the edge of the balcony. I could not see anything of what happened behind me as I shot the images and it was very dark on the balcony. However plenty of light on the floor.
800 ASA 1/45 f5.6
My panohead is made mostly from Manfrotto parts and is constructed so that I can use it also with my heavy 15-30 Sigma.
The lens is simply balanced on the adjustment screw at the nodalpoint. The extension to the lefty is actually the 099 lightstand extension and I also use it as a monopod. My Manfrotto monopod is too heavy to carry and this one can be 2,5 meter which is much higher than any monopod. With the tripod I can reach a height of 4 meters. Note the double bubble level which I can see from below. It makes it easier to do handheld several meters above my head.
