Young photographer Renan Astier, with Alain Laurenceau and François Jannin, performed for the French National Assembly a panoramic view intended for the media. The 110 x 70 cm photo has also been offered to the 577 MPs.

The shots were taken with 3 Canon EOS 5D digital reflex cameras, each one equipped with a 16-35 mm lens, then a 14 mm one. Afterwards, the pictures were stitched with Autopano Pro, ‘a French software that works very well’, explains French magazine Réponses Photo, which dedicates a 4-page article to this stitching in its January 2008 issue (n°190).

‘It is a photo for History’, pursues the magazine, a photo that required however a huge organization: all MPs had to be there (the shots were taken on the day of a major governmental speech), protocol had to be respected (a photographer cannot stand behind the Assembly president, hence a distant trigger was set up), and exposure variations due to the clouds had to be corrected (the Palais Bourbon, which hosts the Assembly, is covered with a big sun lounge).

A prestigious picture for Autopano Pro!