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panaramas are hard!!!

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morgans1980

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Hello all,

I recently took a trip to colorado with my 350xt, tripod and 24mm lens. I thought i was going to get some clean panaramas, but when i tried to stitch them together in ps nothing fits. I know the distortions on my lens aren't bad at all so what's the deal (24mm 2.8)? I left ample room between designated marks and just turned my panning axis on my tripod with no luck. I even made sure my balance on my tripod was in balance(this shouldn't really matter, should it?) I'm really bummed because that trip was probably once in a life time and my shots are worthless one by one.

I really want to make sure this never happens again. Can someone explain to me how you made those nice panaramas that are stitched with a combo of nearly 4 pics? Is this the wrong lens to be doing this with? tripod(manfrodo 3030 head)? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
They never come out exactly perfect. You need to fiddle with them a bit in postprocessing. This one here: http://www.pbase.com/hwyhobo/image/36014378 was shot offhand (no tripod), 5 shots. Took about an hour to put it together. It's not perfect, but it's acceptable to me. Perhaps your expectations are higher than mine?
 
Oh, I should have added that I prefer to shoot panoramas with at least 50mm equivalent lens. Wide angles tend to exaggerate any even minute mistakes in camera level. 24 mm would be quite a challenge, I would think, because of the above, and because of the inherent distortions.
 
I think that's right - using a wide angle lens is going to introduce angle distortions that will make the images harder to stitch together. I use Canon's Photostitch software and find it very easy - I've stitched together up to eleven images with no problems at all. Here are a few examples:

Rose
--
http://www.pbase.com/romy_uk

Red sunset (3 images)



Shooting at 1,000 yards (3 images):



Poppy fields (5 images)



Poppy fields 2 (11 images)

 
are fun and take time to learn....

I am no expert but I find I do better taking them in manual mode, portrait mode at 28mm wide with alittle zooming in.

I have tried some 360* panos and using PTgui or autostitch.

This is 5 stitches processed in autostitch (used from my 17 stitches to create a 360* pano)
http://www.pbase.com/sueymarky/image/49667359/original



Here is what the 17 stitches would look like on a flat picture before I see it in my 360* QTVR movie processed in PTgui
http://www.pbase.com/sueymarky/image/49667952/original



Note the panos in PTgui are with the help of Bo Lorentzen who on this forum is the Pano expert :)
http://www.bophoto.com/panos/
Bo' pano tips
http://www.bophoto.com/lessons/index.html

This pano was 5 stitches taken at Mt Hood, Oregon. Handheld in manual and portrait view.
http://www.pbase.com/sueymarky/image/48370597/original



I use a pano bracket like this rather than my tripod/monopod for my 360* panos



Hope this helps some ....

--------------------------------
morgans1980 said:
Hello all,

I recently took a trip to colorado with my 350xt, tripod and 24mm
lens. I thought i was going to get some clean panaramas, but when i
tried to stitch them together in ps nothing fits. I know the
distortions on my lens aren't bad at all so what's the deal (24mm
2.8)? I left ample room between designated marks and just turned my
panning axis on my tripod with no luck. I even made sure my balance
on my tripod was in balance(this shouldn't really matter, should
it?) I'm really bummed because that trip was probably once in a
life time and my shots are worthless one by one.

I really want to make sure this never happens again. Can someone
explain to me how you made those nice panaramas that are stitched
with a combo of nearly 4 pics? Is this the wrong lens to be doing
this with? tripod(manfrodo 3030 head)? Any suggestions would be
greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
--
My warmest regards,
sue anne

Pro1
http://www.pbase.com/sueymarky
http://www.sueymarky.smugmug.com/
------------------------

 
Hi,

I seldom take panoramas but so far I am very happy with the results on Photo Stitch. The one below was 4 or 5 pictures, handheld. I just used the screen markings on my S45 to align the pictures. Because of the wideangle lens setting the joins are a bit darker due to vignetting. I could have fixed this with PS but it doesn't bother me.

Cheers, Ralph



--
  • -Better a small camera in the pocket than a big one on the shelf --
 
sueanne said:
I use a pano bracket like this rather than my tripod/monopod for my
360* panos
Click to expand...
Sueanne,

First, let me say - very nice panoramas! Shooting the component frames in vertical is a great idea.

Could you describe a bit more about the bracket you use? Is it one you designed yourself or is there a set of plans somewhere? It looks like it disassembles when not in use. Does that present any problems with parts shifting when you do use it?

Thanks,

Dave
 
Dave,
MDaveM said:
sueanne said:
I use a pano bracket like this rather than my tripod/monopod for my
360* panos
Click to expand...
Sueanne,

First, let me say - very nice panoramas! Shooting the component
frames in vertical is a great idea.
Click to expand...
Thank you.... also when working in vertical, room for some cropping but for the 360* able to make it more vertical view for the QTRV movie.
MDaveM said:
Could you describe a bit more about the bracket you use? Is it one
you designed yourself or is there a set of plans somewhere? It
looks like it disassembles when not in use. Does that present any
problems with parts shifting when you do use it?
Click to expand...
Ah the bracket is made by Bo Lorentzen as he is pro pano and he sent me one for beta testing ;)

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=15063196

It does disassemles when not in use but I take it off and leave it as a whole when not on the tripod.

No problems, as it made well with screws to adjust tightly and so easy to use with the Pro1.

The difference between using this bracket and tripod, is I could overlap two layers of pano images or three if I am that bold (something I haven't tried yet - waiting for the right outdoor moment to do so)

Also the bracket enables to rotate around the nodal point and to use the Pro1 vertically

http://www.philohome.com/panorama.htm
MDaveM said:
Thanks,

Dave
Click to expand...
--
My warmest regards,
sue anne

Pro1
http://www.pbase.com/sueymarky
http://www.sueymarky.smugmug.com/
------------------------

 
This is my first attempt at a panorama.

The important thing is keeping the camera level as you take the various shots.

I use the supplied photostitch software (for the A610) and it seems to work well.
Here's an example.

Kingston in the early morning.



--
The sea..
The sea....
I long for its embrace
 
Well i would like to thank everyone for their comments. I'm going to try to pp these shots some more with the recommended software and see how things go. I never thought that 24mm would be bad for pananos, but that shows you how new at this i really am. Thanks a bunch and I'll try to post my shots if i ever get them stitched properly together.
 
...they just require practice.
At least this is what I think.

I saw Sueanne's gear and it's what a pro should have. I can't afford something like that but I did quite a few panoramas with my S1 and S2 and I'm pleased with the results. You can use the Panorama mode (I think your camera has it) which will help you frame the next shot based on the previous one. Then just stitch the photos.

Keep the zoom at half to avoid distortion and for best results take the photos vertical.
The software I love for panoramas is Autostitch (best it's free):
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html
...

Autostitch is the world's first fully automatic 2D image stitcher. Capable of stitching full view panoramas without any user input whatsoever, Autostitch is a breakthrough technology for panoramic photography, VR and visualisation applications. This is the first solution to stitch any panorama completely automatically, whether 1D (horizontal) or 2D (horizontal and vertical).

Autostitch is built using cutting edge research from the AI lab at UBC, but it's incredibly simple to use! Just select a set of photos, and Autostitch does the rest: digital photos in, panoramas out.
...

Try it, it did miracles for me.
Please check out my panoramas gallery here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/giorgios/sets/1702828/

If you want to see more just do a search with the tag 'autostitch' on flickr or check out the Autostitch group pool here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/79139841@N00/



George
--
morgans1980 said:
loved the S1, got the S2
Click to expand...
http://flickr.com/photos/giorgios
 
You probably ran into some bad luck on those shots, probably (as said) due to the wide angle, and possibly due to some roll and matching angles.

Generally I handhold them using the half shutter to maintain exposure/focus and have pretty good results but sometimes the thing just doesnt do it (Photostich).

So the summary of suggestions seem to be:

1. use the sweet spot on you lens, probably f5.5 at just off wide angle.
2. maintain at least 20-25% overlap

3. hold the next shot at the same "altitude" which may begin to skew the panorama's level but maintain stich possibilities.
4. keep all focus and exposure constant until done.
5. stay away from great lighting differences.
6. duplicate the shot right to left left to right.
7. Practice before you are in the field to see what works for you

Below is a wide angle 28mm vertical stich, original was probably 7 frames, all hanheld.

 
Thanks, Sueanne. That explains why I didn't see it on Bo's website.

D.
 
Hi all!

A question about panoramas from a photography newbie:

Is it a correct assumption that when doing landscape panoramas like the ones above (all of them beautiful, btw), one should physically "strafe" left or right between pictures? As opposed to standing still and rotating the camera that is.

The exception I presume would be 360 degree panoramas, where you would have to stay in the same spot.

Thanks in advance
Erik
 
I have tried several stitching programs & I think Canon's Photostitch is as good as any. I have tried PhotoShop Elements stitching program & it was the worst. Always had very distinct stitch lines. This may be the same as PS.

Panorama Factory (or something like that) had a free trial demo program which was good. But not perfect. So I just use Canon's software.

I see mention of an Autostitch program which does not sound familiar & will have to try it.

Do other camera manufacturers supply stitching programs with their cameras? IOW, maybe a Nikon program would work pretty good. Everyone I know has Canon, so I can't ask around.

Mike
 
One more thing to add to my previous comment about using normal to long lens instead of wide. I also recommend using manual exposure instead of automatic. Auto tends to be influenced by many attributes of the picture, and you will have widely different shades in the sky, clouds, etc. Select one exposure and shoot the whole series with it.
 
There are several methods which can be used for HQ capture which lends itself to stiching with minimal PP, including:

1. Using a T/S lens which will allow you to shift the image without moving the camera's position on the tripod

2. Using the ballhead's panning base on a leveled tripod

3. Using specialty rails and brackets for panos with lots of images to stich together. These will also elimate paralax error which results from shifting the lens's focal point when a camera is panned.

Check out this page from the RRS website

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/tutorials/pano/index.html
 
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