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norman carter

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I'm going on safari and would like to take some panaramix photos but:-

Do I need a tripod?

Do I need to use an Olympus Card?

How do I stitch them together?

Any advice
 
norman carter said:
I'm going on safari and would like to take some panaramix photos but:-

Do I need a tripod?

Do I need to use an Olympus Card?

How do I stitch them together?
Click to expand...
I've been doing some large panoramas lately, for example, here is a VERY low resolution version of one I just did of a huge construction site, stitched from 18 photos - we printed this 10' long:



I use Panorama tools with PTGui front end: http://www.ptgui.com/ Note: Panorama Tools is difficult to use without one of the front end software packages. PTGui makes it much easier, but even so, I spent a few days experimenting and learning.

There are packages that do automatic stitching for you with almost no effort, but the one's I've tried have many limitations and you often get poor quality (visible seams). Many people are satisfied with these. Using Panorama Tools will take some effort but the results can be outstanding. Note that the large pan above resulted in a 300 meg Photoshop file (12000x1711 pixels) so the computer used needs to be relatively healthy.

It is better if you use a tripod. Do not use automatic exposure, but set an average exposure for the entire scene. I try to shoot when the sun is the highest in the sky for the most even lighting. For best results, use manual focusing with DOF to cover the whole scene. Most people shoot in the "portrait" orientation to cover more vertical area. If shooting close objects, insure the camera rotates around the nodal point of the lens.

Any camera will do. It is easier if the lens you choose does not have significant distortion. For the pan above I had a remotely-controllable camera mounted on a 70' pole.

It's easier to stitch the result if the camera is horizontal (not tilted), but not absolutely necessary - the one above was done with the camera tilted downwards about 20 degrees or so. In this case, you must use stitching software capable of warping each image to match the perspective from the tilt AND capable of correcting the result to give a straight horizon. Panorama Tools will do this.

It would be useful to practice before you take important pictures.

I have a bunch of "useful" web links with panorama info, but I'm covered up with a big project right now. I can look them up this weekend if you want.

JKJ
 
I have a few more examples of panos if interested. Go to the website and click on panos.

http://www.fotoventure.com

good shooting,
doc
Bill Pitcher said:
I'm just visiting from another forum and this thread caught my eye.
I shot my first panorama yesterday (Oly C2100uz)
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=2633610
I'm certainly happy enough with the results, but this is an
incredible photo. There's so much to learn - thanks for posting
this. It's inspiring.

--
Bill
http://www.goldenbcphotography.com
Click to expand...
--
doc

http://fotoventure.com
 
Bill Pitcher said:
... this is an incredible photo. There's so much to learn - thanks
for posting this. It's inspiring.
Click to expand...
You are too kind. I hesitated posting the picture here since it was not done with an Ollympus camera, but it seemed appropriate to the subject. The 10' print, BTW, was well received.

JKJ
 
I just wanted to reitterate someone else's advice.

Don't use auto-exposure. It will make it impossible to cleanly stich the shots together, because the sky (and rest of the shot) in each will be exposed differently. Also, make sure your exposure is appropriate for the entire panorama. I made that mistake on one of mine: http://jacemouse.com/photoalbum/MonumentValley/MonumentPano.asp
norman carter said:
I'm going on safari and would like to take some panaramix photos but:-

Do I need a tripod?

Do I need to use an Olympus Card?

How do I stitch them together?

Any advice
Click to expand...
--
http://www.jacemouse.com
 
norman carter said:
I'm going on safari and would like to take some panaramix photos but:-

Do I need a tripod?
Click to expand...
If the image is mostly far field, then a tripod is not necessary. It does pay to practice each sequence of shots to keep the camera as level as possible. I recomment about 50% overlap. Use manual white balance and manual on exposure and shutter. If the scene has a varying exposure, I determine which shot has the highest exposure and set the camera to get the highest exposure without blowing out any highlights. All of the other shots will be within range or on the dark side.
norman carter said:
Do I need to use an Olympus Card?
Click to expand...
No.
norman carter said:
How do I stitch them together?
Click to expand...
I use Adobe Photoshop. If I am using wide angle, I first use LensDoc by Andromeda to remove the slight barrel distortion in the images. Then by using layers , the distort command, and the angular lasso with a reasonable feather, you can do very good matches. The distort command can then be used to manipulate the image to get the look you want.
norman carter said:
Any advice
Click to expand...
 
I just have to recommend Panoramic Factory. I know it's been mentioned many times on this forum but, I only recently downloaded it. I had been doing panos in Photoshop. They would come out all right but, I would spend quite a bit of time on them. With Panoramic Factory, I did the one below in less than 20 minutes with only a handful of mouse clicks. This was my first one just trying the program out. It couldn't be easier. I've always been wary of any automated type program but, I'm thrilled with PF. J-

 
Don't forget that panos don't have to be either horizontal nor of open landscapes. Panos effectively give you an extremely wide-angle shot if narrow as a single row.

Try a vertical 360 degree'r in some indoor space, turning round at the top. Very interesting as it works whichever way up you look at it. Or looking down into a deep gorge or canyon?

As others do, I recommend Panorama Factory for a starter - the easy wizard gives excellent results; hand-held, taking care over your levelness in all dimensions; a 50% overlap is easy if you moved to the next one with the new edge hitting where your centre was in the previous one; enter the correct focal length as found in the EXIF data; etc.

But one of the unexplored possibilities with multiple-shot stitchers is that you can deliberately vary the exposure and focal point and white balance from shot to shot. At least within limits. This allows you to cope to some extent with high contrast scenes. PF calims to even out exposure variations across the pano.

I also start with a central datum shot, moving in one direction, then returning to the datum shot to set things up again as before, then going the other direction. I find this is more accurate than starting at one end and pressing on regardless.

John Bunney
norman carter said:
I'm going on safari and would like to take some panaramix photos but:-

Do I need a tripod?

Do I need to use an Olympus Card?

How do I stitch them together?

Any advice
Click to expand...
 
Following the following questions some weeks ago I have finally had some time to try out panaramic photos for the first time.

Thes are two of my first results taken of a friends back garden one is just 2 shots the other is 9.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/norman.carter/pages/The%20Small%20House%201a.htm

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/norman.carter/pages/The%20Small%20House%203.htm

I used manual exposure, a tripod and "panorama factory" to stitch them together.

Panarama Factory was excellent just did it all for me.

Any comments.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my questions the answers have been invaluable.
norman carter said:
I'm going on safari and would like to take some panaramix photos but:-

Do I need a tripod?

Do I need to use an Olympus Card?

How do I stitch them together?

Any advice
Click to expand...
 
Hi Norman,

that is a nice pano - and definitely a very nice place!
norman carter said:
I used manual exposure, a tripod and "panorama factory" to stitch
them together.

Panarama Factory was excellent just did it all for me.
Click to expand...
Yes - but Panorama Factory also gave you these annoying blurred areas where the images are stitched together. If you had used PanoTools and PTGui you would have had full control of the seams and could easily have removed them.

This pano for example, with all the rocking boats, would have been almost impossible without PanoTools:



Here is a larger pic:
http://hem.passagen.se/passtywm/panos/img/Skeppsholmen2.jpg

--
TommyW
 
I have been through 7 programs for stitching panoramas, and finally settled on Pano Tools and PTGui. Like some have said, there is a learning curve, but the benefits are well worth the effort. The PTGui front end takes care of a lot of messy details, and the worldwide news group associated with Pano Tools provides quick and ready help on just about any subject.

For all the detailed information you could possibly want, check out panoguide.com.
Mark Devine
 
I have to agree that Panorama Factory tends to blur the joins.

I use Pano Tools with PT Assembler, which is also freeware. I looked at PTGui and it looks like. Its just that PT Assembler does what I need and why pay $$$ when the free alternative is good enough. :)

I just put a new panorama I took last night up on pbase @

http://pbase.com/image/2369593

Panorama Factory could not even work with this image. First try out with Pano Tools and PT Assembler I got a workable image.

Thanks and take care,
TommyW said:
that is a nice pano - and definitely a very nice place!
TommyW said:
I used manual exposure, a tripod and "panorama factory" to stitch
them together.

Panarama Factory was excellent just did it all for me.
Click to expand...
Yes - but Panorama Factory also gave you these annoying blurred
areas where the images are stitched together. If you had used
PanoTools and PTGui you would have had full control of the seams
and could easily have removed them.

This pano for example, with all the rocking boats, would have been
almost impossible without PanoTools:



Here is a larger pic:
http://hem.passagen.se/passtywm/panos/img/Skeppsholmen2.jpg

--
TommyW
Click to expand...
--
TonyK
 
Hi Mark,

I could use the URL or news group info for Pano Tools.

Thanks,
Mark Devine said:
I have been through 7 programs for stitching panoramas, and finally
settled on Pano Tools and PTGui. Like some have said, there is a
learning curve, but the benefits are well worth the effort. The
PTGui front end takes care of a lot of messy details, and the
worldwide news group associated with Pano Tools provides quick and
ready help on just about any subject.
For all the detailed information you could possibly want, check out
panoguide.com.
Mark Devine
Click to expand...
--
TonyK
 
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