panoramic

ok, here is a noob question I cant find an answer for... when shooting a panoramic photo, do you set up in the middle of the shot and pan from side to side or do you move the camera in a line down the way? I have a group of motorcycle riders that want a panoramic of the whole crew. they will line the bikes up and mount them and I will take the shots. would I get a better image if i panned or if I moved? also, what size do you normally print them at?

Your best best would be to make sure you use a tripod and keep it level. It will make merging the images easier. Make sure you overlap at least 1/3 of each image so that you don't miss anything. I would start in the middle and work 1 direction than the other. Use Photostitch that came w/ your camera. It works well and you already have it. The photomerge in Photoshop works great, too.

ok, so move and not pan?

pan, but remember that the axis on which you should be turning is at the rear of the lens, not the rear of the camera.

momoe wrote in post #9536780
ok, so move and not pan?

Nope, pan. If you move, chances are you'll move closer or farther away and put things out of perspective. Also, don't zoom when you pan.

spiralspirit wrote in post #9536836
pan, but remember that the axis on which you should be turning is at the rear of the lens, not the rear of the camera.

if im on the tripod, is there any other way for it to move? could you explain a little more?

momoe wrote in post #9536930
if im on the tripod, is there any other way for it to move? could you explain a little more?

That's where having a decent head on the tripod comes in handy. Leave the tripod set up and turn the head/camera. If you don't have a decent tripod/head, the you can hand hold the shot. You are just putting too many variables in the mix and making the software work harder and it might miss something. I'm not saying it can't be done.

asysin2leads wrote in post #9536997
That's where having a decent head on the tripod comes in handy. Leave the tripod set up and turn the head/camera. If you don't have a decent tripod/head, the you can hand hold the shot. You are just putting too many variables in the mix and making the software work harder and it might miss something. I'm not saying it can't be done.

sorry, im not use to different tripod heads. does the head move with the center column or does the camera turn on the head? im just not picturing it. not trying to be a smart ass.

i think the point he is trying to make is that for best results the camera should rotate about the rear of the lens and not the camera. imagine sticking a long pin vertically through the rear of the lens when its mounted on the camera, this would be the ideal place to rotate from to get a true perspective. i have a cheapo tripod that prolly rotates about the back of the camera rather than lens. not sure though, gonna try my hand at pano's this week sometime too. goodluck and let us know how it goes.

momoe wrote in post #9537126
sorry, im not use to different tripod heads. does the head move with the center column or does the camera turn on the head? im just not picturing it. not trying to be a smart ass.

The head of the tripod pivots. The camera is secured to the head of the tripod via the little threads on the bottom of the camera. Take a look here. This is a tripod ball head. Hope this helps.

Ideally, you would want to rotate around the nodal point of the lens.

itzcryptic wrote in post #9537401
Ideally, you would want to rotate around the nodal point of the lens.

I was trying not to get too technical. Ideally, he would want a pano head, but I don't think he's going to be doing something like this very often.

In principle you could do it either way, i.e. by translation or by rotation. Rotation is by far the easier option. As was stated earlier, ideally you'd use a panohead to ensure rotation about the no-parallax point. For a one off you could use a "philopod" (Google it !), which works well when done correctly. You can make industrial strength panoheads too - there are instructions on my webpage, here:

http://xray.uky.edu …in/panohead/pan​ohead.html