How to have a good panorama?

[premoutn]

I took some panoramas with my G2 (in panorama mode, then used PhotoStick software to make final pictures). However, boundaries between individual pictures that are merged together are not very smooth
Anyone having experiences to get nice panoramas?

[flash]

I have made many panoramas with my G2. The quality I get is dependent on how steady I was when I made the exposures. I presume that the "PhotoStick" program you refer to is a mis-type of "PhotoStitch" from Canon. That's the program I use to merge the individual photos into a panorama. If that's not the program you're using then ignore the rest...

One thing to keep in mind when making exposures in panorama mode is the need to keep all exposures the same. Panorama mode is supposed to do this for you by adjusting exposure and locking it during the first exposure. You should be sure to take all the rest of the exposures immediately thereafter before the lighting conditions change.

Another thing to keep in mind is the need to include overlap in the images. This helps the PhotoStitch program align the images during merging, providing nice smooth transitios across the panorama image. The more obvious the features in the overalpped sections of the exposures, the easier it is to merge well.

Yet another thing to keep in mind is the focal length used. A mentioned in the G2 users manual, it is important to move the camera in a specific way when you are shooting a distant subject, vs a close subject. See the manual.

• Compose each frame so that it overlaps 30 to 50% of the adjoining image. Try to keep the vertical misalignment to within 10% of the image height.
• Do not include moving items in the overlap.
• Do not try to stitch images that include both distant and close items. Objects may appear warped or doubled up.

[aberdeen]

I have spent a lot of time trying to get decent panoramas from all of my cameras. It is definitely a labor of love!!!

I have also experimented with various different stitching programs. One that worked rather well with my G2 was "Panorama Factory" by Smoky City Designs.

In going with the KISS method, it seemed to do pretty well!!!

[markshap99]

I was in Alaska in September of this year and took the following 6 image panorama of Denali National Park with my Canon G2 set to "Stitch Assist Mode" I rested the camera on a railing and rotated it from left to right between exposures making sure that I got a good image overlap from frame to frame. I used Canon StitchAssist 3.1 for the final panoramic image. I then used Roxio Photo Suite 5.0 to lightly sharpen the resulting image and apply the caption in the lower right corner.


http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/data/500/1198DenaliPanorama2-med.jpg?1473

[es839145]

Sometimes in the uniform blue sky there can be a slight vertical line of a step in graduation of blue tone. I also found it better to stitch photos that were made not at the full wide stop of the zoom (7mm) but rater an intermediate setting like 11mm.
Example of 10 pictures taken without tripod on a mountain top at -10°C and put together with Canon photostitch

http://www.pbase.com/image/13694241/large.jpg

[somegeek]

I've found as well that taking more images with larger overlapping areas yield a better stitched image...

http://goss.ferdaze.com/pub-this/somegeek/mtadams_east_2003/thumbnails/mt_adams_panorama.jpg (http://goss.ferdaze.com/pub-this/somegeek/mtadams_east_2003/images/mt_adams_panorama.jpg)
Click for full size.

http://goss.ferdaze.com/pub-this/somegeek/mt_st_helens_06_02_03_dome_low_res.jpg

However, I am still trying to figure out how to get a better looking sky with the panoramic photos. Had to touch up the above images a bit to try to get rid of the bold blue bars.

So zooming in a little bit can help curb the effect of the blue bars in the sky area?

Question - when taking a panoramic photo with the sun towards one side - where in the subject should the exposure metering be done(lower image)? Sun was to the East(climbed at sunrise).

Hans.