Is banding like this normal with Photo Stitch?

[dphoto]

Hello all,

This is a stitch of 5 images. Is the banding (especially on the right) normal? Is it an indication of anything? I know that it can be fixed in photoshop, but I was just curious.

http://capitalcityphoto.com/tmp/sunset-banding.jpg

Hehe... this is the first time that I've posted *a picture* in the forum. What fun! :)

Thanks,
-Deva

[PacAce]

Hello all,

This is a stitch of 5 images. Is the banding (especially on the right) normal? Is it an indication of anything? I know that it can be fixed in photoshop, but I was just curious.

...

Hehe... this is the first time that I've posted in the forum. What fun! :)

Thanks,
-Deva

I don't think it's a problem with PhotoStitch. I think what you have there are the individual pictures vignetting from having the zoom at the widest angle setting.

Did you have a wideangle lens attachment on the camera?

[edit]Oops. I guess that was a stupid question since you posted in the DSLR forum.

[dphoto]

Actually, these were shot with a focal length of 80mm at f/4.5 (ISO 100).

-Deva

[Belmondo]

I've had fairly good luck with photostitch, but I had to learn two lessons before it came together:
1. Set the camera to manual so your settings don't change when you move to the next picture.
2. Overlap your shots by at least 50% or so. When in doubt, take even more pictures than you think you need. PhotoStitch can generally sort it all out. Pictures often deteriorate, and occasionally darken near the edges, so the greater the overlap, the less of the outer portions of the image will be used in the stitching process.

At least that's been my experience.

Tom

[PacAce]

Actually, these were shot with a focal length of 80mm at f/4.5 (ISO 100).

-Deva

Have you tried looking at the individual pictures to see if those dark areas around the edges are there or if it's PhotoStitch that's the culprit?

It could be the lens you're using, too.

Just some thoughts.

[robertwgross]

I agree completely with Tom's two points. Sometimes you can get away with Auto exposures, but sometimes not. I commonly need to remove the polarizer from my wide angle lens. The overlap is a good point.

I commonly do a third trick. That is I tip my camera over to portrait format and shoot. This allows me to piece together six or eight frames to make a larger overall image that is not so wildly wide. Anyway, having and using a spirit level on your camera or tripod will aid in getting this all level before the fact, and not after the fact in Photoshop.

---Bob Gross---

[dphoto]

I checked the individual frames, and they are not darker at the edges. I think the overlap is a really good idea. Also, I should fix the settings by using the manual mode. And yes, I meant to get frames above and below, but somehow it didn't happen. Hmmm... did I take those using another memory card or something... :)

Thanks for the ideas. Now if it would stop raining, I could go try some of these ideas out! :)

-Deva

[jrm]

I had the same effect on my first pano attempt. It is not photostitch, it is the exposure of the shots themselves.

On mine, I had no idea I had photostitch, so I tried to manually combine them in PhotoShop. The banding was pretty dark. Once I realized I had Photostitch, I tried that and the banding effect was greatly reduced. So, Photostitch actually helped out there.

[ChrisNardone]

As stated: in the future use Manual exposure and increase overlap. As far as salvaging the image you have. If you shot in Raw, you can check the exposure (shutter and aperature), and then adjust the exposure as necessary. i.e. +1/3 ev here -1/2 ev there, on each individual frame until they are all set for the same ev. This is what you will get in the future by using a consistent manual exposure. I learned this the hard way after shooting 800+ shots on a 2 week midwest vacation.

[dphoto]

800+ shots... ouch! Yeah, some lessons are harder learned than others. The other day, after shooting at ISO 400 indoors, I forgot to switch back to 100 and I shot all of my outdoor, well composed pictures at 400. Dang it! Great shots, complete with grain and all. Oh well, I always remember to check it now. :)

Thanks for all the great input everyone!
-Deva

[mjordan]

I had that problem when I did a panorama with 5 pictures. I forgot to put it in manual and as I took the pictures, my 10D metered on buildings, trees, water and sky. You can imagine the banding that I had. Photo Stitch still did a almost good job, although didn't get rid of the banding. I then tried Panorama Factory and it fixed all of my mistakes. I was so impressed with the demo that I bought it right after I tested it on this group of shots.

You might try out Panorama Factory and see what it does for you.

http://www.panoramafactory.com


Mike

[ChrisNardone]

Did you know that Photoshop CS comes with a plugin to merge photos? I have had less success with it than Canon's version, but I haven't really put much effort into it i.e. adjusting parameters etc. Anyway, in case anyone's interested:
File>Automate>photomerge...

[Mark Kemp]

I agree - set manual EVERYTHING

manual focus
manual shutter speed
manual aperture
AND
manual white balance

then the individual pictures start to look much more similar and the stitched results don't show the joins.

set them up for the 'main' subject i.e. a tree or a building or something else prominent in the picture then go to one end of the pano and start shooting. I usually try for about 30% overlap and haven't had any trouble so far.

A spirit level is also helpful and sometimes tilting the camera to portrait as robert suggested. In fact I have evn tried an up and down pano of tall subjects with some success.

[Mark Kemp]

PS.

To avoid vignetting try not using the long end of the lens if its a zoom, set it somewhere nearer the middle.

Its a pano anyway it would only mean stitching one more shot to get the same result.