Shooting panoramic photos - DPChallenge Forums

04/19/2005 02:41:48 PM · #1

I have tried my hand at doing these in the past, but mostly without achieving 100% success. I have several panorama sofwares, but I think my main problem is not taking the photos properly, as they never seem to really line up properly for stiching.

I understand that common exposure, focus, and plenty of overlap are essential. I think the problem comes from using a normal tripod head. I know panoramic heads exist, and work to rotate the camera and lens around the nodal point of the lens. I'm not sure I understand this completely.

OK the point of my post: Is there an inexpensive way to mount the camera to a tripod to get the camera rotating properly to create better panoramas? I have looked at panoramic heads and they seem quite expensive.

Any assistance here would be great. Thanks.

totaldis

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

04/19/2005 02:47:44 PM · #2

i bought a 14$ cheap mini tripod from walmart or something. instead of using the tripod to swivel i use the camera. i have a 5700 and i tighten up the tripod ball so it doesn't move. i think unscrew the base of the camera from the tripod about halfway. (enough so it is still level and secure, but still allows a full range of around 120degrees.) my panos aren't really fabulous or anything, but it seems relatively easy to me this way.

//totaldis.fbeye.org/pano/full/pano_stadium.jpg

04/19/2005 03:01:54 PM · #3

A lot depends on your definition of success. If you're like me, only an undetectable stitch, when viewed at 100%, is really satisfactory. I'd invest time and effort into the best software and technique before I invested in a pano head. I shoot most of my panos hand-held and have rarely failed to get the quality of stitch that I'm after. A few guidelines:
- Shoot in full manual mode, with a set white balance (not auto). Avoid auto WB even if shootig RAW, since your converter will try to adjust for the varying WB and you'll need to yank it back. Change exposure when it's really necessary, but never by more than 1 stop per image.
- Shoot with 30% overlap, at a focal length of 24mm or greater, with a lens that has relatively low distortion. Consider using PTLens to correct barrel/pincushion before stitching.
- Practice rotating the camera around approximately the front of the body (the plane of the lens mount). This will be behind the "correct" point, but unless you're shooting indoors or have foreground objects within about 20 feet, parallax will be inconsequential.
- Always stitch using manually-set control points. Experience is the best teacher as to where to locate them, but in general they should go about where you anticipate the seam, and should be spread across the height or width of the images.

- Output your pano to a layerd PSD format, and tweak the seams in photoshop. Adjust colors to match the center image, and work outwards. Use gradient masks to vary the color or exposure change very gradually if required.

Edit:
I recommend PanoTools with the PTGUI front end as a stitcher. It's not that friendly but will stitch what others will not. Panotools is free, but PTGUI is about $40 USD.

Message edited by author 2005-04-19 15:03:52.

04/19/2005 03:11:23 PM · #4

Fritz, thanks for the reply.

I have pano-tools, and have made some decent stiching attempts. My problem seems to be with lines not meeting up properly. I need to make a panorama of a building interior, so the room walls need to line up properly.

Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC for Canon

04/19/2005 04:00:42 PM · #5

I am working on this exact same thing for work. I am using Stitcher Express by RealViz.

However, I do not have a proper pano head for my tripod so objects in the foreground do not stitch well together (parallax). I plan on trying it out in a large area (a park or something) with my current setup to make sure that it is a problem with my images and not the software. If so, I am going to find a pano head.

I have to shoot the interiors of some houses, so it's imperative to rotate around the focal point pretty exactly.

Rob

Discraft

Canon EOS-20D

04/19/2005 04:07:47 PM · #6

I do not want to rob this thread but the thread i posted this just seconds a go was locked and i have not found a solution on this thred since i was pointed to this thread. so i will be asking in this thread if you don't mind.

I use panorama factory to do a stitch of 360º photos i only did one that was done perfectly but i tried to make a 360º of my room and the stitch isn't coming out very nice. Is there a trick or something?
I think i can't make the sticth since things are very close... i don't know. any tips

Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC for Canon

04/19/2005 04:12:42 PM · #7

are you using a pano head, discraft?

Discraft

Canon EOS-20D

04/19/2005 05:16:28 PM · #8

Originally posted by muckpond:

are you using a pano head, discraft?

Nope just a simple tripod... but my problems are the parts on the side which get more closer and create diferent angles.. do i have to have a pano head for a room panoramic?

MaYz

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro for Canon

04/19/2005 05:43:17 PM · #9

I think that the best way to do a pano is to shoot the pano right first, then the type of software you use wont be as important. The main thing about panos is that when you shoot them your camera should be turning on the nodal point. This way you will cut the image distortion down and it will make it easier to merge. A few things I keep in mind when I'm shooting them are to shoot them vertically because you get more data at the top and bottom of your image, adjust the exposure for the brightest area/ stay with that exposure for the whole series, use a remote to cut down on vibrations, and overlap 1/3 of your images to avoid wide angles that can distort your image.

If you get really serious about shooting panos I would suggest buying a a gitzo tripod head. It has a lot of usful features like: many leveling function and a nifty feature the turns the head so that you have the proper overlap into each frame. Different adjustablt knobs also allow you to position your camera so that it is going to rotate on your specific nodal point for your camera. But thats only if your willing to spend $300...

Message edited by author 2005-04-19 19:38:26.

04/19/2005 06:57:50 PM · #10

Ah, interior panos. Yup, you're going to have to pay close attention to where the proper rotaton point is. Here is some reading on how to find the correct point for the rotation. MaYz's suggestion of shooting in portrait orientation is good, I always do this as well.
All my other remarks still apply, except the "handheld" part, I'd never attempt an interior pano handheld, unless in a very large space.

Sony 16-35mm f/4 Vario-Tessar T* FE ZA OSS Lens

04/19/2005 07:15:27 PM · #11

Great link, Kirbic. Thanks! I've been looking for something D70 specific.

bryanbrazil

Sony Alpha a7R III

04/19/2005 07:15:38 PM · #12

Here's a hand-held panorama of Mount Ranier. Scroll down to find links to the software I used. I've tried all the software and I've found Panotools with the Hugin frontend and Enblend to work the best. Plus, they're free!

04/19/2005 07:54:36 PM · #13

I decided to do some very rough testing of the difference of using a simple tripod mount vs a panohead mount (mind you, I don't have one so I tied my camera to my tripod using large elastics, trying to come as close as possible to the nodal point for rotation)

Here are the results:

//mariomelillo.com/gallery/Panoramas/Porch_normal_small
//mariomelillo.com/gallery/Panoramas/Porch_normal_crop

vs

//mariomelillo.com/gallery/Panoramas/Porch_panohead_small
//mariomelillo.com/gallery/Panoramas/Porch_panohead_crop

Although my results are not perfect, they seems quite a bit better in the simili panohead setup.

I'm assuming that a perfectly level, and centered (on nodal point) pano would have yielded near-perfect seams. Am I correct?

Thoughts?

04/19/2005 08:00:32 PM · #14

You're obviously very close to the ideal rotation point when you can get a stitch to match that closely with an object that close in the frame (the railing). The railing will show ANY defect in the stitch because of the combination of vertical and horizontal straight lines. If you chose the stitch point here to avoid the vertical pillar, and blended it a bit on the horizontal, you'd never find it.

04/19/2005 08:07:23 PM · #15

This leads me to believe that it could be possible to MAKE my own mount with something more elaborate than some old "broccoli" elastics.

Has any body ever tried to make their own pano head?

04/19/2005 08:12:40 PM · #16

Originally posted by mariomel:

This leads me to believe that it could be possible to MAKE my own mount with something more elaborate than some old "broccoli" elastics.

Has any body ever tried to make their own pano head?

Haven't tried it but it should not be dificult in principle if you've got some tools and a little mechanical aptitude. Rigidity will be very important since you're going to hang the camera off the back of the tripod head.

04/20/2005 04:20:07 PM · #17

Originally posted by kirbic:

Originally posted by mariomel:
This leads me to believe that it could be possible to MAKE my own mount with something more elaborate than some old "broccoli" elastics.

Has any body ever tried to make their own pano head?

Haven't tried it but it should not be dificult in principle if you've got some tools and a little mechanical aptitude. Rigidity will be very important since you're going to hang the camera off the back of the tripod head.

Well I decided to drop into my local camera shop and see what would be available to assist in this quest. I found a Manfrotto sliding plate (357) for $60 (Can$) which allowed me to back the camera up and align the tripod pivot point under the lens's nodal point. This did not allow me to flip to portrait orientation, so off I went to Home Depot for $5 in hardware to flip the camera. Luckily we have a machine shop here at work, so they cut me out a track in by large L bracket so that I can make sure all is centered over the pivot point.

Voila! $65 and I have a fully adjustable pano head.

I have yet to try it out, but everything seems very sturdy. I'm taking some shots tonight. I'll post my results and photos of my panohead setup.

04/22/2005 12:32:12 PM · #18

Originally posted by mariomel:

I'm taking some shots tonight. I'll post my results and photos of my panohead setup.

Well got a chance to shoot my first real pano the other night using my newly developed MARIOMEL PANOHEAD. It worked like a charm. Here are some photos of the unit and 20D, attached to my Manfrotto tripod:

Finding the nodal point was quite easy, as it allowed me to slide the brakets side to side and front to back until I found the point. Everything gets tightened, and nothing moved at all. Very sturdy! Not bad for $65 and a little thought!

Here is the first shot from that night's photoshoot. Made from 6 portrait orientation photos, shot in RAW using Tungsten WB, constant focus, and constant exposure on manual. Very slight level and saturation adjustments in PS7.

Click here for a larger view (NOT full sized)

They were stitched together using a new (?) software called AUTOSTITCH. The program is fully automatic, but does allow many controls. I didn't need to tweak anything. This was full auto (except for the output size).

Let me know what you think. Thanks for listening.

04/22/2005 01:03:39 PM · #19

Nice result Mario, and great resourcefulness on building the pano head! Just for grins I have to try autostitch, it seems to be getting a lot of good press. Can it output a multi-layered tiff or psd file?

Edit for typos, as usual, LOL.

Message edited by author 2005-04-22 13:04:20.

goodtempo

Canon EOS-450D Rebel XSi

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

04/22/2005 01:30:31 PM · #20

I made a pano head out of wood. It was pretty easy except I made two, one to test with to find the nodal point and the second one as the final one. It is not adjustable and it was made just for my camera. I will try to post some pics later this weekend.

Another thing to think about is having the tripod mount or camera level with the ground, (or the lens face perpendicular to the ground) so when you pan around it is on the same horizontal plane. Otherwise you might be panning too high on one side and too low on the opposite side of a 360° pan.

04/23/2005 10:00:28 AM · #21

Originally posted by kirbic:

...I have to try autostitch, it seems to be getting a lot of good press. Can it output a multi-layered tiff or psd file?

At the moment it only outputs JPEGs. Bummer. It is still in the demo phase only.

TerryGee

Canon EOS-30D

04/23/2005 10:45:09 AM · #22

very interesting...I am in the process of trying to learn panos myself...looks like it will take some time.
What about fisheye panos? Anyone try that?

04/23/2005 11:45:11 AM · #23

Originally posted by mariomel:

Well got a chance to shoot my first real pano the other night using my newly developed MARIOMEL PANOHEAD.

Dude....that is BRILLIANT! I was just going to Home Depot to figure out something similar. I don't have easy access to a machine shop, but I'm going to see if there's some kind of sliding bracket I could use (or double up a straight sliding bracket on the L bracket).

I'm really glad I checked on here this morning. Thanks!

Man_Called_Horse

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

04/23/2005 11:55:39 AM · #24

Originally posted by mariomel:

this is because of the "nodal Point" that has to be discovered on your rig.

If you do not have the proper nodal point, then it doesn't matter what kind of stitching app you have, no lines will be lined up perfect.

Google "nodal points" for more info.

Bogun, and Kaidan have great info on nodal points and have the equipment to help with your panos.

GOOD LUCK.