Need tips on panoramas

summeryjoy · Mar 21, 2012

Hello everyone,

I'm new here, and this is my first post. I sure could use your help.

My question is simple. How do you take a pano? I've seen the other thread about when and when not to take a pano, but it doesn't answer my question. I'm more interested in the technical details of how. Like, for instance, are there preferred angles to use? How do I make sure that the exposure in all shots to be stitched together is the same? What should I take into account to produce the best DOF? Are there differences between day panos and night panos? How many shots do I take, and how much should each two adjacent ones overlap? Also, is there any good panorama software? I usually stitch the shot "manually" using Photoshop, which is very exhausting and not always accurate.

Any tips?

480sparky · Mar 21, 2012

summeryjoy said:
Hello everyone,

I'm new here, and this is my first post. I sure could use your help.

My question is simple. How do you take a pano? I've seen the other thread about when and when not to take a pano, but it doesn't answer my question. I'm more interested in the technical details of how. Like, for instance, are there preferred angles to use?

Whatever angle fits the scene.

summeryjoy said:
How do I make sure that the exposure in all shots to be stitched together is the same?

Shoot in Manual

summeryjoy said:
What should I take into account to produce the best DOF?

Use a smaller aperture, just like any other image.

summeryjoy said:
Are there differences between day panos and night panos?

Exposure times.

summeryjoy said:
How many shots do I take, and how much should each two adjacent ones overlap?

30% overlap is a minimum. I generally use a 10mm on a DX camera in portrait orientation, so my horizontal FOV is ~72. I strive to shoot every 10°, so I end up overlapping ~85%. That may be considered overkill, but if I have a frame that the software doesn't like for some reason, I can remove it from the process and still have plenty of data available from the adjacent frames.

summeryjoy said:
Also, is there any good panorama software? I usually stitch the shot "manually" using Photoshop, which is very exhausting and not always accurate.

Any tips?

I use AutoStitch.

summeryjoy · Mar 21, 2012

Alright! Thank you

I'd like more elaboration on the exposure though. I do use manual setting. My question is, do I set each shot to it's own zero exposure setting, or do I use that exact same settings (let's say the ones that give zero exposure in the middle shot) for all shots?

HughGuessWho · Mar 21, 2012

summeryjoy said:
Alright! Thank you

I'd like more elaboration on the exposure though. I do use manual setting. My question is, do I set each shot to it's own zero exposure setting, or do I use that exact same settings (let's say the ones that give zero exposure in the middle shot) for all shots?

DO NOT change the exposure in anyway. The ONLY thing that should change from shot to shot is the FOV.

summeryjoy · Mar 21, 2012

Thank you!

480sparky · Mar 21, 2012

HughGuessWho said:
DO NOT change the exposure in anyway. ....

Ditto.

Sweep the camera across the scene, and watch your meter. Some areas will be overexposed, some under according to the meter. Try to find the middle ground, set the camera to that, and then take your frames.

ann · Mar 21, 2012

Just to disagree a bit with sparky, you can use aperture priorty, so the DOF remains the same regardless of what the shutter speed may be.

Other than that, he has given you some good tips.

Autostitch is very good alto lately I have been using Kolor's Autopano

Joey_Ricard · Mar 21, 2012

Summer Joy,

To answer your questions:
Angle - straight and level - L to R or vice versa, wont make a difference in stitching, attempt not to include powerlines or parallel lines to your movement.

Exposure - manual, same setting for all shots

DOF - a pan is no different from a regular single frame - choose your focus point and keep it the same for all shots

Day pan, night pan - no differnce other than the difference from a day single and night single, same applies

How many - take as many as you think will cover the field of view. Typically for me, landscape horizontal shots, overlap approx 20%, vertical more, 160 deg 10 shots

Software - photoshop is my choice, I merge, flatten to a single layer then transform stretch to correct corners and process as a single image

Panoramas do not have to appear as panoramas meaning you can do a pan and the dimensions of the image can be that of a single frame. I do that for a lot of my mechanical and building work, but for regular stretched pans, see below

examples and I even included a night time - on flickr, you can see some details

West Virginia's Grandest View by Joey Ricard, on Flickr

History Rocks! by Joey Ricard, on Flickr

Moonlite and desire! by Joey Ricard, on Flickr

analog.universe · Mar 21, 2012

ann said:
Just to disagree a bit with sparky, you can use aperture priorty, so the DOF remains the same regardless of what the shutter speed may be.

Other than that, he has given you some good tips.

Autostitch is very good alto lately I have been using Kolor's Autopano

If you're in aperture priority, and you end up with different shutter times, won't there be seams between frames? or at least some kind of anomaly due to the difference in exposure? I've even noticed artifacts from natural lens vignette in certain instances...

Also, hugin, is a nice open source pano app, to add to the list.

480sparky · Mar 21, 2012

ann said:
Just to disagree a bit with sparky, you can use aperture priorty, so the DOF remains the same regardless of what the shutter speed may be.

Other than that, he has given you some good tips.

Autostitch is very good alto lately I have been using Kolor's Autopano

Aperture priority will change the shutter speed, so the frames will be exposed differently across the scene.

rentavet · Mar 21, 2012

480sparky said:
ann said:

Just to disagree a bit with sparky, you can use aperture priorty, so the DOF remains the same regardless of what the shutter speed may be.

Other than that, he has given you some good tips.

Autostitch is very good alto lately I have been using Kolor's Autopano

Click to expand...

Aperture priority will change the shutter speed, so the frames will be exposed differently across the scene.

I like Microsoft's free Image Composite editor........... drag and drop here's the flickr group for it
Flickr: Microsoft Image Composite Editor

ann · Mar 21, 2012

I have never had a probem with the exposure changing that rapidly. A pano does take but a few minutes. Even the one I took with over 28 shots was about 2 minutes if that.

HughGuessWho · Mar 21, 2012

ann said:
I have never had a probem with the exposure changing that rapidly. A pano does take but a few minutes. Even the one I took with over 28 shots was about 2 minutes if that.

As you pan, the sky can become lighter, for example, thus, if you are in AP, the the shutter will speed up and your exposure will be different between the two adjacent shot. I dont think that would be preferred. Shoot in maual so all shots are exposed the same and make any needed corrections in PP.

480sparky · Mar 21, 2012

ann said:
I have never had a probem with the exposure changing that rapidly. A pano does take but a few minutes. Even the one I took with over 28 shots was about 2 minutes if that.

It's not an issue of whether the lighting changes. It's an issue of using some form of auto exposure. Panning the camera from one part of the scene to another can easily change the EV.

Aim your camera at the north side of the street, the buildings are in bright sunlight. Pan 180° to the buildings on the south side, and they're all totally shaded..... two different EVs.