Anyone do Panoramas?

NSXTypeR

I have shot panoramas in anticipation of stitching them together... but I have no idea where to start. Mind you, this is also coming from someone who has no history of retouching photos...

So any tips and ideas on where to start and what software to use?

Thanks!

Paperman

I did hundreds - maybe a few thousand with Hugin. It is very basic but works for me. Free & easy to use. PanoramaMaker was also OK but I guess the version that can handle large Mps expires after a while. I am sure there are others.

haroldp

Photoshop works well but is manually intensive.
I usually use autopano, it is easy, and will compensate for parallax errors, exposure, vignetting etc.
It can also scan directories looking for stitchable shots (don't hold your breath while this is happening)..

Autopano is best for spherical or cylindrical rendering, I find photoshop best for flat rendering (such as art scans).

I regularly stitch 27 frames (shot portrait mode, 9 across, 3 up.

Stitching is the modern 'large format' camera.

.... H

Golf007sd

+1 on Paperman's recommendation on Hugin.

Shooting pamo's and getting good results does require proper tools and equipment. I have spoken on this on the RRS treads dated February 4th.

Beso

I have shot a number of Panoramas using several different techniques. The first techniques involves a Gigapan Epic Pro robotic camera mount device. Briefly, it mounts on a tripod, you level it, you go through a quick setup routine for your camera and lens, show it the upper left and lower right corners of the image you want and it takes as many images in rows and columns as is necessary based on the image specified and the lens used. The software stiches the images and you literally end up with gigapixel images - stuff you can blow up to wall size while maintaining every bit of the detail. Just google GigaPan to see the device and some of the images produced.

The second technique I use is simply to determine the panorama and then, based on lens, handhold and manually shoot left to right (or right to left if you prefer). This techniques works well if you thoroughly overlap the images, can rotate your shooting on the same plane, and control how far you rotate for each shot. Once the images are taken you can download them to photoshop and use the PS utility for stitching, or download to Lightroom, process the images, and then stitch in PS. If the technique is sound the resulting panorama will be very good.

The third technique is to use a tripod with a calibrated head so that each image overlap is calculated and consistent. Processing is done as above.

Several things that are important to remember in taking panoramas. The camera should be in the portrait position unless there is a really unusual situation calling for otherwise. White balance should be manually set and locked so the images do not change from shot to shot. Often when shooting panoramas the light will change significantly from east to west, north to south, or something in between. I have found that picking an average exposure and white balance avoids blowing out the highlights while preserving information in the shadows that can be brought out in post processing. Use a 30% to 50% overlap to provide the software with the necessary information to stitch the images seamlessly.

There are many sites that discuss technique and there are numerous software applications that can stitch properly shot panorama images. The approach I use is based on what I have and the software I use on a regular basis. Good luck and have fun!

spraynpray

As this is a thread exclusively on pano's, I'll repeat what I've said on this forum elsewhere before in case it is of any use to anybody. It is my brief and simple workflow:

I bought a Slik Pro 700 DX off eBay for £65 a while back. The beauty of it is that it had a circular QD plate that fixes to the bottom of your camera. Initially it came with a three way head, I quickly changed that for the ball head that uses the same QD plate. By attaching the QD plate to an Arca-Swiss compatible clamp, I was able to fix it to my L bracket when I wanted to do a pano. Leveling (using the cameras built in level; was a moments work, then I just loosened the clamp lever, rotated the camera with a 30% overlap - click - rotated the camera with a 30% overlap - click and so on until the subject was covered and the job was done. I could set up and be clicking my pano within 30-40 seconds of seeing the shot and then off and walking away afterwards within another 30 seconds. I use PS to process but got goodish results using free software too. The bonus of using PS is that you don't end up working with a jpeg then deciding the pano needs further work on some shadows or whatever once stitched and finding the detail just isn't there in a jpeg.

sevencrossing

The bonus of using PS is that you don't end up working with a jpeg then deciding the pano needs further work on some shadows or whatever once stitched and finding the detail just isn't there in a jpeg.

+1

this one was hand help and finishes with PS and LR

haroldp

I always shoot raw, develop the raw's to tiffs (usually in Nikon Capture NX2 or NX-D) , and then stitch the tiffs, whether in PS or Autopano.

All parameters in the shoot (exposure, focus ISO etc) should be manual so hey do not change between frames.

When I can, I use a RRS pano rig to rotate around the lenses nodal point and avoid parallax shifts between for an background.
While modern software can correct some of this, it is better if it does not have to.

No more trouble than setting up a view camera.

27 X 9 FX frames is bout an 8" X 10" sensor and with a D800 / 810 will yield about a 600 mp image after overlaps.

.... H

spraynpray

All parameters in the shoot (exposure, focus ISO etc) should be manual so hey do not change between frames.

.... H

Very true Harold, but that doesn't mean there aren't going to be areas that you want to adjust in some way after you see the complete pano.

ThomasHorton

I have never shot a panno. But this thread has started me thinkin'....

haroldp

All parameters in the shoot (exposure, focus ISO etc) should be manual so hey do not change between frames.

.... H

Very true Harold, but that doesn't mean there aren't going to be areas that you want to adjust in some way after you see the complete pano.

Absolutely,

but we should be careful about adjusting anything at an 'edge' or overlap that will be stitched unless we do all contiguous frames the same way.

If doing local 'masking' adjustments, avoid edges, as it may not stitch, or will stand out unless you adjust across the intersection.

I will often make adjustments to the raw or tiff files, but will apply the same adjustments to all frames.

... H

Paperman

Panoramas are fun but they can be addictive taking you a direction which you may regret later ...( turning you into a robot, taking you away from creativity )

Even though I loved my long evenings out shooting city scape panoramas, I came to a point where I was day & night shooting panoramas of regular scenes that would fit normally in one frame ( with enough detail ). I started doing it standing up, with a monopod, hand held, of moving objects, and even while on moving objects ! ( yes, did it on a ferry a few times ) ... Anything I saw became 7-9-11 photos instead of 1, and my 1-2 minute processing time in PC for shots I liked became 10-20 mins for what may or may not come out right ! . Even simple family shots turned into panoramas.

I had the disease 2 years ago but thankfully I am cured now .... ( Not really )

NSXTypeR

I did hundreds - maybe a few thousand with Hugin. It is very basic but works for me. Free & easy to use. PanoramaMaker was also OK but I guess the version that can handle large Mps expires after a while. I am sure there are others.

Photoshop works well but is manually intensive.
I usually use autopano, it is easy, and will compensate for parallax errors, exposure, vignetting etc.
It can also scan directories looking for stitchable shots (don't hold your breath while this is happening)..

Autopano is best for spherical or cylindrical rendering, I find photoshop best for flat rendering (such as art scans).

I regularly stitch 27 frames (shot portrait mode, 9 across, 3 up.

Stitching is the modern 'large format' camera.

.... H

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I've never heard of Hugin and Autopano but I'll look into them. Been here for years and I've never heard of either software options.

Photoshop is out of the question for me, as I don't own it and I'm not going through the hassle of pirating that stuff.

rmp

I do not shoot a lot of panoramas, but I am working on one that is quite complex. Using a telescope for a lens (0.81 m) on a D810 camera it takes an array of at least six rows of six images to cover the moon. The array is not evenly spaced, the overlaps are not uniform, and the moon is not a flat surface, so the panorama is complex and very large. I found that Autopano Giga is the most efficient program to use. I tried Photoshop and Hugin and both took quite a bit longer to get a final panorama. Autopano was the only program that would produce a complete panorama without my intervention. For simpler panoramas, the description on the Really Right Stuff's web page is quite good and either PS or Hugin will do the job.

dissent

It takes a bit more manipulation perhaps, but you can do the panorama merge in Photoshop Elements as well as in the full blown PS.