panos?

[CFRacer22]

how is this done? simple question, unfortunately I'm gonna bet the answer won't be as simple lol

 

[Garbz]

In digital often panoramas. I have had great success with PTStitcher which uses the PTtools package to perform the stitching. Even handheld I get very viewable results which after some photoshopping the seam lines can't be seen.

You should probably try and mount you camera on a tripod with some kind of bracket that recesses it back further so the mess rotates around the lens's nodal point. This eliminates parallex (sp?) errors, which cause the stitching not to line up.

 

[Steph]

Or, if you are extremely rich you can buy one of those.

 

[CFRacer22]

well, unfortunately, I'm not extremely rich, so anybody got any other answers?

so you're just taking shot after shot after shot and using software to "stitch" them together?

 

[Alex_B]

so you're just taking shot after shot after shot and using software to "stitch" them together?

Exactly. There are several software packages around to help with that.

however, software cannot compensate for all the problems you can create while shooting.

Common issues:

1. parallax : if from shot to shot the lens is not rotated around its nodal point (the point where theoretically all the light rays meet), things in the foreground and the background shift with respect to each other and you get misalignment when stitching the right hand side of one image to the left had side of the other image.

-> use a tripod with a panorama head that rotates around the nodal point of the lens

2. horizon : if you do not have the horizon right through the middle of each image, you will get perspective distortion which complicated stitching.

-> use a tripod and set it up properly

3. exposure : if you do not use the same exposure, then some stitching software might be in trouble and you might see jumps in the brightness from one frame to the next.

-> use software which can handle this, or alays use the same (manual) exposure for each shot .. might be a problem, if variation in brightness is strong in the panorama scene you try to capture

4. vignetting: if your lens vignettes, then you get problems with the brightness again (can be compensated with software though)

-> if wide angle, use a small aperture, and/or correct the vignetting with software

5. focus and aperture : if you do not use the same aperture and the same focus, then stitching will be a nightmare since you have varying DOF and focus from frame to frame.

-> shoot manually for panos, keep focus and aperture constant.

.. many more issues, but those are the ones that came to my mind first


.. well, use a cable release, be aware of moving objects which can cause trouble (clouds, water, tourists, ...), ... bring lots of CF cards

 

[Alex_B]

oh, by the way .. canon dSLRs come with stitiching software I think ...

 

[BoblyBill]

oh, by the way .. canon dSLRs come with stitiching software I think ...

Yes they do... At least my Canon d30 did and so does the Mark III that just came out this February...

When I have a chance CFRacer22, I would be happy to give you a screen shot tutoral of what I do when I stitch the pictures together.

 

[CFRacer22]

Yes they do... At least my Canon d30 did and so does the Mark III that just came out this February...

When I have a chance CFRacer22, I would be happy to give you a screen shot tutoral of what I do when I stitch the pictures together.

sounds great, and thanks for the tips Alex_B.

I don't think my XTi came with stitching software, but maybe i just didn't know what I was looking for, I'll go and check everything that I got with the camera...