[Leica] IMG: large panorama installation

[Adam Bridge]

Yesterday Steve Barbour generously gave of his time (and risked life and limb) to help me install the largest panorama I have ever attempted. It’s a morning shot from our camp on the Serengeti in Tanzania. 

Just for reference the installation is 175” wide and 40” tall. That’s 4.4 m by 1.0 m for the non-Imperial world. It’s comprised of, I think, 8 separate shots with a Sony A7ii, combined and edited in Photoshop (out of Lightroom) and printed in three segments on an Epson 9900 using Epson Premium Luster (270). I could have printed the entire image but I felt the chances of having something go wrong with the printing were too great.

I was faced with how to display it. I thought, originally, to make a triptych of equally spaced panels, but that broke the content in the wrong places. So I made what was essentially a scale model in Photoshop and divided the panels in various ways. I think I had a version with 9 different panels. Fortunately my wife talked me out of that.

Technically the largest panel I could make had a maximum dimension of 8 feet (2.4 m) because that’s how large sheets of gatorboard are made. So I elected to make three different panels and divide them asymmetrically along the horizontal.

I had the panels mounted in Sacramento and then when Steve was free we took an hour or so, a few ladders, and some gulping, to put them into place. I used 3M Command Strips to afix the images to the painted wall surface.

So, here’s a link to how it looks:

<https://adam-bridge.smugmug.com/2015-Tanzania-Service-Trip/On-Safari/i-7QrXTH7/A>

I am a little unhappy with the way the lights cast shadows against the wall behind the image’s gaps. I’m thinking that I can slide very black paper behind them to reduce that shadow effect. The panels are off-set by .5 in (1.27 cm). I can have gatorboard fabricated to fit between the segments which would eliminate the shadow. I may try both over time between some of the panels to see how it works out.

The lighting comes from below because, well, that’s the way it had to. Although I had envisioned a large panorama for this space I knew that in the sort run it would have individual prints so I needed flexibility.

I’d appreciate any thoughts on this. Seriously. If you mount large works, or if you have seen similar works displayed I’d love to know what might be a better way.

Thank you!

Adam