how to shoot digital panoramics?

[forestgnome]

Looking for any tips. I want to perfect mountain panoramics, can't seem to get two images that perfectly blend with Photoshop stitching. There's always a slight difference in the two images. How would you do this? Is it easier at a certain time of day? Is the polarizer killing it? I want that nice blue sky!

Thanks

 

[DougPaul]

You might find "Getting Started with Digital Panoramas" http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-panoramas.shtml worth a read.

Doug

 

[Papa Bear]

Canon has a feature in the camera which allows you to shoot a Pan with the settings fixed so the shots will match (more or less) but it's not easy to get even lighting and focus etc. They also have stitch software.

Not easy to pull off. Here's about the best I've managed:

The Travelers

Pretty bad glitch in the middle which I couldn't seem to get around (not yet ready for Life Magazine ). But hey, the sky is blue.

 

[David Metsky]

http://www.hikethewhites.com/gathering35/pan1.jpg
http://www.hikethewhites.com/gathering35/pan2.jpg

These are panoramic shots I took a while back. I used 3rd party pano stitching software that I can't remember the name of. It worked very well, with shots that weren't lined up perfectly. Since then I tend to use the built in Canon pano software and take the shots in pano mode. It works pretty well, but not perfectly. There's almost always one shot in the sequence that doesn't quite mesh.

I find that holding the camera to your eye and swinging around from the waist is the best way to keep the camera steady.

 

[w7xman]

Two quick peices of advise, I'll try to elaborate tomorrow.

1) Shoot in manual, don't use filters, and keep the same exposure settings across the scene.

2) Download a free trial of Panarama Factory

 

[lumberzac]

All good advice so far, the only thing I see that hasn’t been mentioned is to use a tripod when shooting panoramas. This ensures that the horizontal position is the same on all the pictures in the sequence (no rotation between pictures) and also reduces parallax (distortion between two pictures when not taken from the same point) as the pivot point is under the camera rather than behind it.

 

[darren]

Speaking of parallax, the "proper" way to do it is to use a special panoramic tripod head that mounts the lens over the pivot point and not the camera body. I don't know anyone that has one or uses one, they are not cheap.

If you just use a normal tripod, you can get good results. A full 360 degrees would be tough, but you can generally pull off up to maybe 150 degrees ok.

You should not use a polarizer filter. The effect of the CP filter is dependant on the angle to the sun. If you are changing the angle to the sun the sky will vary from light to dark and it will not look right. This can happen even on a single shot with a wide angle lens. See this thread for an example:

http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15437

If you do not have a tripod, then as Dave said, hold the camera to your face and rotate your wiaste. Do not hold your camera out at arms length and use the little LCD screen to take the shots. You will get severe distortion and the image will roll off down in a curve.

I have used the Canon PhotoStitch software and gotten decent results. I haven't tried it in Photoshop yet. It is supposed to be better.

- d

 

[pudgy_groundhog]

We've been happy with the Canon Photostitch software. A few examples using it:

Peyto Lake

Burgess Pass (this one Steve took. the sky isn't perfect in it, but close enough for us)

The Ramparts

I don't have the full Adobe Photoshop program, so I haven't used it for stitching.

 

[Jay H]

+1 to Panorama Factory..

I've tried the canon photostitch software, didn't like it, slow and the quality was not anywhere as good (IMO) as PF.

I don't even use the canon's Photostitch mode which will lock the aperture and some other settings, but I think I get good results.

Jay

 

[darren]

Jay raised an important issue - locking aperature.

If you camrea has an aperature priority mode, use it. If the camera has to adjust exposure during the scene make sure it adjust shutter speed and not aperature. Aperature determines depth of field. You want to have constant aperature on all shots so that the depth of field (amount in focus) is constant in all images.

For example if a 1/2 of a rock in the foreground is in focus and the other 1/2 is not, the picture will not look right.

- d

 

[bikehikeskifish]

If you do not have a tripod, then as Dave said, hold the camera to your face and rotate your wiaste. Do not hold your camera out at arms length and use the little LCD screen to take the shots. You will get severe distortion and the image will roll off down in a curve.

The LCD shows the right edge of the previous shot. Isn't that kind of helpful in setting up the next shot?

This photo of Kancamagus from Lower Greeley Pond was taken using the Canon panorama mode, and stitched by hand using Paint Shop Pro...

I am leery of installing the Canon software on my machine, as I have heard bad things about it--causing crashes and the like. I can't, unfortunately, remember exactly where or what I read.

Tim

 

[DougPaul]

The LCD shows the right edge of the previous shot. Isn't that kind of helpful in setting up the next shot?

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-panoramas.shtml recommends an overlap of 1/4 to 1/5 of a frame.

This photo of Kancamagus from Lower Greeley Pond was taken using the Canon panorama mode, and stitched by hand using Paint Shop Pro...

The source pic boundaries are visible. Proper stitching software should be able not only to align the pics (including rotation), it should be able to interpolate the boundaries to reduce their visibility.

I am leery of installing the Canon software on my machine, as I have heard bad things about it--causing crashes and the like. I can't, unfortunately, remember exactly where or what I read.

I have seen comments to the effect that its quality isn't as good as some other software, but I don't recall anything about crashes. (But I also haven't tried it.) Image processing does consume a lot of space, so you will want a good bit of RAM and swap space.

Doug

 

[darren]

I am leery of installing the Canon software on my machine, as I have heard bad things about it--causing crashes and the like. I can't, unfortunately, remember exactly where or what I read.

Tim

I've had several revisions of the Canon software and I have installed it on about 5 computers. I've never had any problems with crashes. YMMV.

- darren

 

[darren]

The LCD shows the right edge of the previous shot. Isn't that kind of helpful in setting up the next shot?

Yes, however keep it close to your head and not out at arms length (or any length). From a panoramic tripod head website:

"to take accurate panoramic photos it is important that the camera be mounted and then rotated around what is called the optical center (sometimes called the nodal point or entrance pupil) of the camera's lens. This ensures that optical distortion, called parallax distortion, will not be introduced into your pictures before they are then stitched together using computer software."

The bigger the arc you sweep the camera in the more distortion you will have. You can't fight the laws of physics. Stupid laws....

- d

 

[darren]

$10 fix....

http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161123




Oh, and I have no idea why the plant pathology department at Cornell cares about pano photography, but here is a nice explaination of issues:

http://www.plantpath.cornell.edu/PhotoLab/KnowledgeBase/DigiPhotoTips/MakingPanoramas.htm

- d

 

[Willoughby]

Franconia ridge



Franconia ridge taken from the Old Bridle Path. Originally 5 shots taken with my Canon Powershot A85 in landscape mode (it has a Panorama mode but I must have forgotten to use it), and stitched with the open source hugin/autopano/enblend tools. This image is a rectangular area cut out of the full stitched panorama, which has uneven edges and probably some warping up towards the corners.

One trick I've used is to place the camera on top of a hiking pole (aka unipod), and rotate around that. The pole helps me keep the axis of rotation close to the camera.

This was one of my first attempts at a panorama. hugin et al were quite easy to get started with, although I've by no means mastered them. This was a helpful tutorial.

 

[forestgnome]

Thanks for all the responses. I think my problem is the polarizer. I usually rotate it to where I see maximum effect in the viewfinder, probably overdoing it. I'll try less effect and without next time.

I always use a tripod and I avoid parellax by not including a close foreground object in more than one image. I only shoot in manual mode to keep the exposures congruent, and no problems lining up images during stitching in PS.

The polarizer isn't neccessary to get blue sky in certain conditions. Below is a shot looking north at sunset with no polarizer. I was afraid of losing the pretty releflection on the water. Would have that been the case?

Happy Trails

 

[DougPaul]

The polarizer isn't neccessary to get blue sky in certain conditions. Below is a shot looking north at sunset with no polarizer. I was afraid of losing the pretty releflection on the water. Would have that been the case?

The polarizer can enhance or reduce the reflection on the water depending on how you orient it. Same with the blue sky.

Low angle reflections off (horizontal) non-metallic surfaces (eg water) tend to be mostly horizontally polarized. Thus a horizontally polarized filter will pass the reflection and a vertically polarized filter will block it. (That is why you rotate the filter to get the desired effect.)

Light scattered from airborne particles (haze) can also be polarized. Back scattering (haze when looking away from the sun) and forward scattering (haze when looking toward the sun) are not polarized and thus the filter will do no good. Side scattering (haze when the sun is off to the side), however, does produce polarized light which can be blocked with a properly oriented filter. Angles other than 90 deg produce partially polarized light. This dependence on scattering angle is why a polarizing filter will have a noticeably different effect across the field of view in a wide-angle shot.

Since the sunrise/sunset pic in question is mostly looking at the sun, my guess is that the polarizer would have only been able to enhance the blue sky a small amount, mostly at the edges of the pic.

(Note that all camera polarizing filters are linear polarization on the outside. So called "circular polarizers" are linear on the outside and convert the light to circular polarization inside the camera because the automatic mechanisms may be affected by linearly polarized light.)

There is an easy tutorial on the topic at http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/light/U12L1e.html
and a more complete one (with pics showing the effects) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization.
One more reference, specifically aimed at cameras: http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Polarizer

Doug