Panoramas or Stitching + Interior Shots

[woollybear]

Here is another picture.  It was taken in Vermont.  Handheld, no nodal point, no tripod.  Its 8 photos stitched together 4 across the top and 4 across the bottom.  I was maybe 100 feet away.  I know I should have a wide angle lens, but I don't...yet.  So the only way to fit all in was to take a flier on handheld.

For reference, the sunrise picture was taken with an accurate nodal point, tripod and ballhead leveled (I guess as close as I could, the horizon is hilly but it looks like it might go down and to the right).

Anyway, no processing done on the first one, but I did on this one.  You think it is sharpened a little too much?

[AUGS]

As has already been said, for close up work or scenes with both distant and close objects, you will get parallax errors and "ghosting" of the objects if you don't use a panoramic head and the correct nodal point.  So indoor scenarios more-or-less demand a proper setup.  I use the RRS (Really Right Stuff) head and find it awesome to use.

But just as important to note, even if you use the best possible setup and have all the nodal points for your body and lens combinations, to get optimal results you must use fully manual setup in the camera - manual focus, manual white balance, and manual setting (not Av or Tv).  Prepare the settings off the part of the image you want perfectly exposed (the rest will generally be very close, but may be slightly over- or under-exposed in a stand-alone image) and you will have far less post-processing issues, and the quality of the final image will be improved.  If you don't do this, you can end up with light banding and areas of softness in the overlapping regions.

If I'm doing landscapes with only distant objects, I will occasionally do hand-held panoramas as the "errors" are far less obvious, but I still use a fully manual setup in the camera.

Hope this helps.

[briansquibb]

As has already been said, for close up work or scenes with both distant and close objects, you will get parallax errors and "ghosting" of the objects if you don't use a panoramic head and the correct nodal point.  So indoor scenarios more-or-less demand a proper setup.  I use the RRS (Really Right Stuff) head and find it awesome to use.

But just as important to note, even if you use the best possible setup and have all the nodal points for your body and lens combinations, to get optimal results you must use fully manual setup in the camera - manual focus, manual white balance, and manual setting (not Av or Tv).  Prepare the settings off the part of the image you want perfectly exposed (the rest will generally be very close, but may be slightly over- or under-exposed in a stand-alone image) and you will have far less post-processing issues, and the quality of the final image will be improved.  If you don't do this, you can end up with light banding and areas of softness in the overlapping regions.

If I'm doing landscapes with only distant objects, I will occasionally do hand-held panoramas as the "errors" are far less obvious, but I still use a fully manual setup in the camera.

Hope this helps.

Stitching is a good way to get those extra mps into a landscape. I have to laugh when I hear that a high mps body is the only way. So shoot in portrait and stitch. Far more detail in a 5x 5DII than a single D800 image

[wickidwombat]

Adobe CS5 stitching is remarkably good,

here is a good tutorial
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/panorama/

[AUGS]

As has already been said, for close up work or scenes with both distant and close objects, you will get parallax errors and "ghosting" of the objects if you don't use a panoramic head and the correct nodal point.  So indoor scenarios more-or-less demand a proper setup.  I use the RRS (Really Right Stuff) head and find it awesome to use.

But just as important to note, even if you use the best possible setup and have all the nodal points for your body and lens combinations, to get optimal results you must use fully manual setup in the camera - manual focus, manual white balance, and manual setting (not Av or Tv).  Prepare the settings off the part of the image you want perfectly exposed (the rest will generally be very close, but may be slightly over- or under-exposed in a stand-alone image) and you will have far less post-processing issues, and the quality of the final image will be improved.  If you don't do this, you can end up with light banding and areas of softness in the overlapping regions.

If I'm doing landscapes with only distant objects, I will occasionally do hand-held panoramas as the "errors" are far less obvious, but I still use a fully manual setup in the camera.

Hope this helps.

Stitching is a good way to get those extra mps into a landscape. I have to laugh when I hear that a high mps body is the only way. So shoot in portrait and stitch. Far more detail in a 5x 5DII than a single D800 image

Too true.  I am a landscape photographer and stitching portrait images is my preferred method when I require/desire "large" prints (upward of 36" - I have a few at 4500x13500=60.75mpix).  By stitching and cropping, you can actually get a better resolved image as well as you are predominantly using the centre area of the lens (based on MTF charts).
The only time this falls over is when you have moving elements in the image, such as seascapes which I also do quite a bit, where I wish I had a big mpix sensor for a one-shot and then cropped panoramic image.  Then again, any softness in the corners/edges may change my mind.

[dr croubie]

The only time this falls over is when you have moving elements in the image, such as seascapes which I also do quite a bit, where I wish I had a big mpix sensor for a one-shot and then cropped panoramic image.  Then again, any softness in the corners/edges may change my mind.

After a few seascapes with moving waves spoiling the image where they lined up, I gave up and bought an ND400. But then I haven't been down to the beach lately to try it (seeing as I've moved house from 5km-from-the-beach to nowhere-near-the-beach).

[danski0224]

Here is another picture.  It was taken in Vermont.  Handheld, no nodal point, no tripod.  Its 8 photos stitched together 4 across the top and 4 across the bottom.  I was maybe 100 feet away.  I know I should have a wide angle lens, but I don't...yet.  So the only way to fit all in was to take a flier on handheld.

For reference, the sunrise picture was taken with an accurate nodal point, tripod and ballhead leveled (I guess as close as I could, the horizon is hilly but it looks like it might go down and to the right).

Anyway, no processing done on the first one, but I did on this one.  You think it is sharpened a little too much?

It is a nice picture. My monitor is not calibrated, but it does look "artificial", for lack of a better term. Maybe that is from the sharpening.

If I am far enough away, some of my panoramic stitching comes out OK.

My HTC Amaze phone has a pretty cool panoramic mode. No stitching, per se. Just aim and pan slowly.

[1DSLR]

Agree on manual exposure so all images are same and locating at the nodal point (also apparently more properly termed the no parallax point or entrance pupil).

Here is a wiki of No Parallax Points for a number of lens and camera combinations.:
http://wiki.panotools.org/Entrance_Pupil_Database

You can also make your own bracket for single row or even multirow panoramas.  Single row is fairly easy with some items from your local hardware store and a low-cost focusing rail from Ebay.  Scroll down this page to the self-made heads and follow the links:
http://wiki.panotools.org/Heads
If interested, I'll post photos of my single row bracket.

[dr croubie]

Here is a wiki of No Parallax Points for a number of lens and camera combinations.:
http://wiki.panotools.org/Entrance_Pupil_Database

Looks like a good list, I'll have to add in my EFs 15-85 and Samyang 35 when I get a chance.

Meanwhile, here's pics of my kit:
Vanguard Alta Pro 283CT (or any good tripod)

Arca-Swiss Monoball P0 (the version without the clamp, the one that comes with a clamp is not 'arca-swiss compatible' as you know it), with 3" Kirk clamp instead. It's specifically upside-down, so your panoramae are always perfectly in line (they don't have to be level if you don't want), solid as a rock, works like a dream, and worth every one of the $230 I paid.

First shot has my EF-s 15-85 on 7D, Kirk L-bracket to a Sunwayfoto DMP200L slider.
Second shot has my Samyang 35/1.4 on a cheap chinese ebay tripod ring for the 100L macro (fits perfectly), on a Wimberly P10 plate.