[Akathisia]

I need to have pictures taken from an Air Traffic Control tower of the view (360 degrees around) from the tower. Total there needs to be about 8 photographs (to cover cardinal points) and they need to have to full detail of the city skyline in the daytime.

We had some pictures taken and the foreground and distant mountains are very clear, but the city horizon is completely without detail. Please bear in mind these photos have to make picking out points near field (.5 miles or so) and far out (20+ miles) possible.

The purpose of the photos is to be able to determine visibility from the tower based on prominent objects throughout the city. If anyone has any tips it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dj_mocok]

I am not quite sure what you mean but for this sort of more formal job, can't they just hire a photographer to do a quick one? It probably won't cost them much.

 

[Zodduska]

I'm no pro but IMHO you should be using a tripod and an aperture of about f/11 or f/14 then set focus on a foreground object, say 50-100 feet away.

 

[islewind]

Did your photographer shoot through the windows of the tower? That could cause issues with how much detail you can achieve. Otherwise, Definitely use a tripod, a good sharp lens (preferably not a zoom) and keep the aperture small. Focus will be on infinity for your purposes. Also, consider atmospheric conditions (smog, fog, overcast) and time of day (highest contrast light is at beginning and end of daylight) when photos are taken. This is also one of the rare occasions when megapixels do matter, though still less than a bunch of other factors.

 

[intoflatlines]

Pick a bright clear dry day. Shoot with a small aperture, focus to infinity. Use a tripod with timer, remote, or cable release. Use a polarized filter (make sure to align it correctly) to further reduce glare in the atmosphere. Shoot in high resolution, and use a DSLR or other camera with a larger size sensor - high megapixels on a small point and shoot sensor won't cut it.

 

[Lex2]

Don't forget to set on manual exposure assuming the light doesn't change too much; you don't want the pictures to look different when you stitch them together later on due to being shot on automatic mode.

 

[Pincher]

Use and aperture of f8, going smaller will cause diffraction and blur the image. f11 might be OK, but by f16 and beyond it's bad. This is assuming you are using a APS-C digital camera. Full frame, film and larger format don't apply here.