Shooting Panarama

[steven]

I'm wanting to shoot some multi-shot panarama's both single and multi row.
Started reading Max Lyons wonderful web site about it.

I was wondering how many of you are doing this sort of photography?

Thanks

[Jon]

It's often more suitable for the landscapes I run into than a regular wide angle lens (such as they are with a 1.6x factor). Also lets you get better resolution in the final. Yeah, if it's not a dynamic scene I'll try for panoramics with PhotoStitch in mind.

[mjordan]

I shoot panoramas with my 10D. I've shot as many as 13 images across and you couldn't tell where they were joined.

The key is getting the exposure even across all of the images. If you don't, then it will be hard to seamlessly join them together. The program I use is Panorama Factory, which does a very good job.

To do multiple rows takes a bit of work. First you have to do all of the horizontal images, then you turn them on their side so they are very tall horizontal images again and then run it through the program. If it all works out, you will have a multi image panorama.

Mike

[steven]

mjordan, do you use one of the special pano tripod heads?

[mjordan]

Steven,

No, I've never used a pano head. I've either shot hand holding it or on a regular tripod. I have been looking at a few though, but they are either expensive or made of PVC that won't really work with a 10D and 100-400 or 70-200 2.8 lens on it because of the weight. Right now I've been playing around with doing panoramas but really enjoy them. I really want to do a very large one like some of the other people have done (multiple rows both vertical and horizontal) and for that, I probably wouldn't have as good luck hand holding or using a regular tripod.

Here are links to a few I have done so far:

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/gorgepano.jpg (6 images doen with a 24-70 2.8L)

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/bonniville2.jpg (9 images done with a 70-200 2.8L)

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/crownpt.jpg (6 images done with a 100-400 4.5-5.6L lens).

The above 3 were all done hand held, although braced on a car door frame or with the window half rolled down.

Mike

[steven]

Thanks Mike,

very nice pics, Hope my efforts turn out as nice :P

steve

[mjordan]

It just takes a little bit of practice, Steven. And keeping a few things in mind.

Shoot in manual mode and set your exposure after taking a reading on the area that you want to be your base setting. You can leave auto focus in auto since you want each section to be in focus.

Be sure and overlap at least 25% of the area, more won't matter other than you will get more images.

Shoot in vertical orientation. This will give you more vertical area. Horizontal will give you a wider area, but the image will be narrow. My Bonniville Dam shot was done horizontal. I wish I had done it vertical, even if I would have had to take more images. But it almost looks to narrow to me.

If you use a tripod, make sure it's level. If you hand hold, make sure you are level and try to follow a line across all of the images. My dam was easy since I had the top of the dam to follow across the shots. My Columbia River Gorge was a bit harder since I had such a large area to shoot.

Shoot from left to right. You can shoot from right to left, but then it's a pain to load the images in and switch them around. I know, I've done this a few times. :lol:

Take several series and check your historgram after a couple of test shots.

Good luck, Steven.

Mike

[Jesper]

Yes! And I've just received the Panosaurus tripod head (http://www.tawbaware.com/panosaurus_review.htm). It's a cheap, plastic tripod head, but works well. You even get discount when you're a registered PTAssembler (http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr.htm) user.

If you're not too close to the subject, you can also shoot a panorama by hand (i.e. not on a tripod). It's not really difficult. You need a panorama head if you're going to include subjects that are close to the camera, otherwise you'll get parallax errors (because you're not rotating around the lens' optical center).

Have a look at this website: http://www.panoguide.com/ - all about panorama photography.

[mjordan]

I saw this the other day too and thought it was interesting... even more so when you compare prices with the equivalent stuff on B&H. But it still concerns me about it being PVC and flexable to an extent. It's weight rating isn't that high although the comments on the site were that they had used it with heavier equipment on it. But a 10D with a 100-400 on it is not a lite setup. But it might be interesting to give it a try and see how it does.

Mike