Some observations on panoramas with the slr/c

Alfred Rijnders said:

Occasionally I like to play around with stitching images into
panoramas. I had a couple of slr/c files that I used in creating
the panorama that is included in this post. During the stitching
process I realized the slr/c introduces an additional challenge
that I hadn’t been thinking of before.

My standard recipe for creating panormas:

1. Focus once on the most common distance for all of the images and
put the lens in MF before the actual shooting (you don’t want
different focusing between the images).
2. Meter the scene and choose an average metering that does not
overexpose on the brightest image (you want the same exposure
across all images).
3. Set the camera in manual mode and use the metering found in
point 2.
4. Use a fixed white balance (you don’t want a different color temp
between the images because this will be apparent immediately).
Since I’m using raw I don’t care much on white balance during
shooting I’ll set it afterwards during the processing of the files.
5. Use a tripod and be sure to have the camera level with the
horizon (also during rotation). The better you do this the more
successful the stitching will be.

Until now my recipe would end here. However the slr/c images I
wanted to stitch didn’t seem to have the best lens optimalization
settings. On causual inspection I didn’t notice this but the slight
difference in color cast between the left and right hand side of
the image was apparent immediately after stitching making the
panorama look rather bad. So I had to add the following step in my
recipe:

6. “Optimize” your lens optimalization setttings , preferably
beforehand in the camera. If this fails you have to adjust the lens
optimalization manually in photodesk to get away with the cast as
good as possible (this immediately means you can’t use photoshop
acr on panoramas). Also be sure to use the same lens optimalization
strength across all images to not introduce another colorcast.

Adding this step gave me very good results. I’ve included a sample
of a (to some a familiar) river scene. I created the panorama using
the photomerge functionality of photoshop cs. This functionality
proofed to be challenging too. It’s important to use the advanced
blending mode to get good seams between the images. The high
quality of the seam is especially apparent in the running water and
the green foliage. However photoshop intrudced a slightly darker
band over the seam that I could not get rid of. This band is
especially apparent in the sky (cloned it out a bit). This is a
shame because apart from this I really like the result of this
functionality. Let me know what you think of it and any additional
tips on creating panoramas are welcome too.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~alfredr/kodak/panorama.jpg

Alfred
http://www.foto-alfred.nl

Click to expand...

DMillier said:

Have you used Panorama Tools and max Lyons' GUI?

Alfred Rijnders said:

Occasionally I like to play around with stitching images into
panoramas. I had a couple of slr/c files that I used in creating
the panorama that is included in this post. During the stitching
process I realized the slr/c introduces an additional challenge
that I hadn’t been thinking of before.

My standard recipe for creating panormas:

1. Focus once on the most common distance for all of the images and
put the lens in MF before the actual shooting (you don’t want
different focusing between the images).
2. Meter the scene and choose an average metering that does not
overexpose on the brightest image (you want the same exposure
across all images).
3. Set the camera in manual mode and use the metering found in
point 2.
4. Use a fixed white balance (you don’t want a different color temp
between the images because this will be apparent immediately).
Since I’m using raw I don’t care much on white balance during
shooting I’ll set it afterwards during the processing of the files.
5. Use a tripod and be sure to have the camera level with the
horizon (also during rotation). The better you do this the more
successful the stitching will be.

Until now my recipe would end here. However the slr/c images I
wanted to stitch didn’t seem to have the best lens optimalization
settings. On causual inspection I didn’t notice this but the slight
difference in color cast between the left and right hand side of
the image was apparent immediately after stitching making the
panorama look rather bad. So I had to add the following step in my
recipe:

6. “Optimize” your lens optimalization setttings , preferably
beforehand in the camera. If this fails you have to adjust the lens
optimalization manually in photodesk to get away with the cast as
good as possible (this immediately means you can’t use photoshop
acr on panoramas). Also be sure to use the same lens optimalization
strength across all images to not introduce another colorcast.

Adding this step gave me very good results. I’ve included a sample
of a (to some a familiar) river scene. I created the panorama using
the photomerge functionality of photoshop cs. This functionality
proofed to be challenging too. It’s important to use the advanced
blending mode to get good seams between the images. The high
quality of the seam is especially apparent in the running water and
the green foliage. However photoshop intrudced a slightly darker
band over the seam that I could not get rid of. This band is
especially apparent in the sky (cloned it out a bit). This is a
shame because apart from this I really like the result of this
functionality. Let me know what you think of it and any additional
tips on creating panoramas are welcome too.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~alfredr/kodak/panorama.jpg

Alfred
http://www.foto-alfred.nl

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

JannaB said:

Wonderfull panorama, love the very fine detai.l

--
http://www.pbase.com/vantaa

Click to expand...

JannaB said:

Wonderfull panorama, love the very fine detai.l

--
http://www.pbase.com/vantaa

Click to expand...

Alfred Rijnders said:

Thanks for your remarks!

No I haven't used this. I only have experience with the canon
stiching tools I got with my D60, but I wanted to try photoshop
this time. Are the results comparable with these tools?

Alfred

DMillier said:

Have you used Panorama Tools and max Lyons' GUI?

Alfred Rijnders said:

Occasionally I like to play around with stitching images into
panoramas. I had a couple of slr/c files that I used in creating
the panorama that is included in this post. During the stitching
process I realized the slr/c introduces an additional challenge
that I hadn’t been thinking of before.

My standard recipe for creating panormas:

1. Focus once on the most common distance for all of the images and
put the lens in MF before the actual shooting (you don’t want
different focusing between the images).
2. Meter the scene and choose an average metering that does not
overexpose on the brightest image (you want the same exposure
across all images).
3. Set the camera in manual mode and use the metering found in
point 2.
4. Use a fixed white balance (you don’t want a different color temp
between the images because this will be apparent immediately).
Since I’m using raw I don’t care much on white balance during
shooting I’ll set it afterwards during the processing of the files.
5. Use a tripod and be sure to have the camera level with the
horizon (also during rotation). The better you do this the more
successful the stitching will be.

Until now my recipe would end here. However the slr/c images I
wanted to stitch didn’t seem to have the best lens optimalization
settings. On causual inspection I didn’t notice this but the slight
difference in color cast between the left and right hand side of
the image was apparent immediately after stitching making the
panorama look rather bad. So I had to add the following step in my
recipe:

6. “Optimize” your lens optimalization setttings , preferably
beforehand in the camera. If this fails you have to adjust the lens
optimalization manually in photodesk to get away with the cast as
good as possible (this immediately means you can’t use photoshop
acr on panoramas). Also be sure to use the same lens optimalization
strength across all images to not introduce another colorcast.

Adding this step gave me very good results. I’ve included a sample
of a (to some a familiar) river scene. I created the panorama using
the photomerge functionality of photoshop cs. This functionality
proofed to be challenging too. It’s important to use the advanced
blending mode to get good seams between the images. The high
quality of the seam is especially apparent in the running water and
the green foliage. However photoshop intrudced a slightly darker
band over the seam that I could not get rid of. This band is
especially apparent in the sky (cloned it out a bit). This is a
shame because apart from this I really like the result of this
functionality. Let me know what you think of it and any additional
tips on creating panoramas are welcome too.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~alfredr/kodak/panorama.jpg

Alfred
http://www.foto-alfred.nl

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Alfred
http://www.foto-alfred.nl

Click to expand...

APY_Jr said:

That's way cool Alfred.

And you just use photoshop for that?
No special shooting head?

here's a photoshop trick for your color shift problems. I use an
expodisk with this trick.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1026&message=7863986

Albert

Click to expand...

DMillier said:

Max's Galleries:
http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/cgi-bin/image.pl?gallery=12

Max's famous 1 GPixel 196 frame stitch:

http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/gigapixel.htm

Max's technique/software (a gui front end to make using the complex
Panorama Tools straightforward):
http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr.htm

Alfred Rijnders said:

Thanks for your remarks!

No I haven't used this. I only have experience with the canon
stiching tools I got with my D60, but I wanted to try photoshop
this time. Are the results comparable with these tools?

Alfred

DMillier said:

Have you used Panorama Tools and max Lyons' GUI?

Alfred Rijnders said:

Occasionally I like to play around with stitching images into
panoramas. I had a couple of slr/c files that I used in creating
the panorama that is included in this post. During the stitching
process I realized the slr/c introduces an additional challenge
that I hadn’t been thinking of before.

My standard recipe for creating panormas:

1. Focus once on the most common distance for all of the images and
put the lens in MF before the actual shooting (you don’t want
different focusing between the images).
2. Meter the scene and choose an average metering that does not
overexpose on the brightest image (you want the same exposure
across all images).
3. Set the camera in manual mode and use the metering found in
point 2.
4. Use a fixed white balance (you don’t want a different color temp
between the images because this will be apparent immediately).
Since I’m using raw I don’t care much on white balance during
shooting I’ll set it afterwards during the processing of the files.
5. Use a tripod and be sure to have the camera level with the
horizon (also during rotation). The better you do this the more
successful the stitching will be.

Until now my recipe would end here. However the slr/c images I
wanted to stitch didn’t seem to have the best lens optimalization
settings. On causual inspection I didn’t notice this but the slight
difference in color cast between the left and right hand side of
the image was apparent immediately after stitching making the
panorama look rather bad. So I had to add the following step in my
recipe:

6. “Optimize” your lens optimalization setttings , preferably
beforehand in the camera. If this fails you have to adjust the lens
optimalization manually in photodesk to get away with the cast as
good as possible (this immediately means you can’t use photoshop
acr on panoramas). Also be sure to use the same lens optimalization
strength across all images to not introduce another colorcast.

Adding this step gave me very good results. I’ve included a sample
of a (to some a familiar) river scene. I created the panorama using
the photomerge functionality of photoshop cs. This functionality
proofed to be challenging too. It’s important to use the advanced
blending mode to get good seams between the images. The high
quality of the seam is especially apparent in the running water and
the green foliage. However photoshop intrudced a slightly darker
band over the seam that I could not get rid of. This band is
especially apparent in the sky (cloned it out a bit). This is a
shame because apart from this I really like the result of this
functionality. Let me know what you think of it and any additional
tips on creating panoramas are welcome too.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~alfredr/kodak/panorama.jpg

Alfred
http://www.foto-alfred.nl

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Alfred
http://www.foto-alfred.nl

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

KAllen said:

JannaB said:

Wonderfull panorama, love the very fine detai.l

--
http://www.pbase.com/vantaa

Click to expand...

Just an idea, if you turned your camera to frame in portrait , then
you would match the optomisation shift, needless to say you would
have to shoot more frames, but that might be easier than trying to
correct the colour difference.
Kevin.

Click to expand...

APY_Jr said:

That's way cool Alfred.

And you just use photoshop for that?
No special shooting head?

here's a photoshop trick for your color shift problems. I use an
expodisk with this trick.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1026&message=7863986

Albert

Click to expand...

PaulLandscape said:

I don't want to sound picky but this example is a great
demonstration of the convergence in the sky I have refered to. If
you're use to looking at stitches then the 2 overlaps seem obvious.
I think that Max Lyon's pics have been able to remove this
aberations. But I see from the earlier post that he has a lot more
ram on board than I do. I think the highest I can go is about
1gig. I use a laptop because I go in the feild a lot and need to
download all the time.

I'm assuming this a 3 shot stitch! If not then I'm wrong about what
I think is the obvious sky fudge around the blending. If I'm right
then I suspect you will find Panotools will be the only answer to
over come this problem. Unless anyone can suggest a better program?

I have also found that using portait increases the change factor ie
more area of the sky that will have moved and then need fudging. By
shooting in landscape you can minimise the amount of scene that
needs to be blended. This is important if you want to get a near
perfect result.

Also can you tell me what lens and focal length, fstop, ISO and
speed you used. Many of my stitches are confounded by vingetting.
I'm not sure if it is the lens or I'm going about it wrong. I have
found using f11 in the fading light allows moving sky to become
slightly blurred because of the slow speed. But using say f5.6
increases the vingetting problem. I seem to be caught chasing my
tail. Max seem to make the whole process look easy. But I can't
even get a simple 3 shot image right.

But 2 points I hadn't given consideration to was setting the WB
rather than using auto and switching the lens to manual. Most of
the scences I shoot are at infinity so I have just guessed there is
no change in focus. Maybe not!

Every little bit is a step closer to getting what I hope will be
some comparable panorama's to film.

APY_Jr said:

That's way cool Alfred.

And you just use photoshop for that?
No special shooting head?

here's a photoshop trick for your color shift problems. I use an
expodisk with this trick.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1026&message=7863986

Albert

Click to expand...

--
Paul R

Click to expand...

Alfred Rijnders said:

What a detailed post!

You are right about the sky not being perfect. Because cs
introduced differences in brightnes on the seams this is very
apparent in the sky. I tried to clone the sky a bit introducing
faults in the sky.

Maybe I'm going to try panotools on this one but I need to check
that out first since it seems a lot more low level...

The lens I used was my 50/1.8 prime. ISO 160, 1/15th and f20 (a bit
overkill, it ruined the overall sharpness a bit) Vignetting is
something I am worried about a bit too. This full frame body is
much more sensitive on this and vignetting will definitely ruin the
panorama.

Alfred

PaulLandscape said:

I don't want to sound picky but this example is a great
demonstration of the convergence in the sky I have refered to. If
you're use to looking at stitches then the 2 overlaps seem obvious.
I think that Max Lyon's pics have been able to remove this
aberations. But I see from the earlier post that he has a lot more
ram on board than I do. I think the highest I can go is about
1gig. I use a laptop because I go in the feild a lot and need to
download all the time.

I'm assuming this a 3 shot stitch! If not then I'm wrong about what
I think is the obvious sky fudge around the blending. If I'm right
then I suspect you will find Panotools will be the only answer to
over come this problem. Unless anyone can suggest a better program?

I have also found that using portait increases the change factor ie
more area of the sky that will have moved and then need fudging. By
shooting in landscape you can minimise the amount of scene that
needs to be blended. This is important if you want to get a near
perfect result.

Also can you tell me what lens and focal length, fstop, ISO and
speed you used. Many of my stitches are confounded by vingetting.
I'm not sure if it is the lens or I'm going about it wrong. I have
found using f11 in the fading light allows moving sky to become
slightly blurred because of the slow speed. But using say f5.6
increases the vingetting problem. I seem to be caught chasing my
tail. Max seem to make the whole process look easy. But I can't
even get a simple 3 shot image right.

But 2 points I hadn't given consideration to was setting the WB
rather than using auto and switching the lens to manual. Most of
the scences I shoot are at infinity so I have just guessed there is
no change in focus. Maybe not!

Every little bit is a step closer to getting what I hope will be
some comparable panorama's to film.

APY_Jr said:

That's way cool Alfred.

And you just use photoshop for that?
No special shooting head?

here's a photoshop trick for your color shift problems. I use an
expodisk with this trick.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1026&message=7863986

Albert

Click to expand...

--
Paul R

Click to expand...

--
Alfred
http://www.foto-alfred.nl

Click to expand...

PaulLandscape said:

If your going to try Panatools you should down load Max's PT
Assembler. Don't get me wrong this package has its own limits.
Quite often the preview is how the result will come out. Anyway,
I've downloaded the Panorama Factory to see how that goes. Good
luck.

Regards

Paul

Alfred Rijnders said:

What a detailed post!

You are right about the sky not being perfect. Because cs
introduced differences in brightnes on the seams this is very
apparent in the sky. I tried to clone the sky a bit introducing
faults in the sky.

Maybe I'm going to try panotools on this one but I need to check
that out first since it seems a lot more low level...

The lens I used was my 50/1.8 prime. ISO 160, 1/15th and f20 (a bit
overkill, it ruined the overall sharpness a bit) Vignetting is
something I am worried about a bit too. This full frame body is
much more sensitive on this and vignetting will definitely ruin the
panorama.

Alfred

PaulLandscape said:

I don't want to sound picky but this example is a great
demonstration of the convergence in the sky I have refered to. If
you're use to looking at stitches then the 2 overlaps seem obvious.
I think that Max Lyon's pics have been able to remove this
aberations. But I see from the earlier post that he has a lot more
ram on board than I do. I think the highest I can go is about
1gig. I use a laptop because I go in the feild a lot and need to
download all the time.

I'm assuming this a 3 shot stitch! If not then I'm wrong about what
I think is the obvious sky fudge around the blending. If I'm right
then I suspect you will find Panotools will be the only answer to
over come this problem. Unless anyone can suggest a better program?

I have also found that using portait increases the change factor ie
more area of the sky that will have moved and then need fudging. By
shooting in landscape you can minimise the amount of scene that
needs to be blended. This is important if you want to get a near
perfect result.

Also can you tell me what lens and focal length, fstop, ISO and
speed you used. Many of my stitches are confounded by vingetting.
I'm not sure if it is the lens or I'm going about it wrong. I have
found using f11 in the fading light allows moving sky to become
slightly blurred because of the slow speed. But using say f5.6
increases the vingetting problem. I seem to be caught chasing my
tail. Max seem to make the whole process look easy. But I can't
even get a simple 3 shot image right.

But 2 points I hadn't given consideration to was setting the WB
rather than using auto and switching the lens to manual. Most of
the scences I shoot are at infinity so I have just guessed there is
no change in focus. Maybe not!

Every little bit is a step closer to getting what I hope will be
some comparable panorama's to film.

APY_Jr said:

That's way cool Alfred.

And you just use photoshop for that?
No special shooting head?

here's a photoshop trick for your color shift problems. I use an
expodisk with this trick.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1026&message=7863986

Albert

Click to expand...

--
Paul R

Click to expand...

--
Alfred
http://www.foto-alfred.nl

Click to expand...

--
Paul R

Click to expand...

Adrian Roy said:

Hi Alfred,

I really liked the panorama.

Here is a useful link for panoramic heads.
http://www.red-door.co.uk/pages/which_head.html

They explain here why it's easier to work with a panoramic head,
rotating the lense around the nodal point and also how the post
processing time is reduced when you use a panoramic head.

Adrian.

Click to expand...

Ken Wilson said:

Ken in Boulder

Adrian Roy said:

Hi Alfred,

I really liked the panorama.

Here is a useful link for panoramic heads.
http://www.red-door.co.uk/pages/which_head.html

They explain here why it's easier to work with a panoramic head,
rotating the lense around the nodal point and also how the post
processing time is reduced when you use a panoramic head.

Adrian.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

PaulLandscape said:

Is this the same as Iseemedia's photovista panorama? If so I have
that. It is quick and easy to use. I find it quite black box
style. In that you can't do much to correct any anomalies in your
shot. Or is this same name but another manufacturer and if so do
you have a web address so I can have a look?

Regards

Paul

Ken Wilson said:

Ken in Boulder

Adrian Roy said:

Hi Alfred,

I really liked the panorama.

Here is a useful link for panoramic heads.
http://www.red-door.co.uk/pages/which_head.html

They explain here why it's easier to work with a panoramic head,
rotating the lense around the nodal point and also how the post
processing time is reduced when you use a panoramic head.

Adrian.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Paul R

Click to expand...