Thoughts on getting decent panoramas
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This is probably too late to help anyone for this week but I’ve been re-merging some old panoramas that I wasn’t originally very happy with (CS3 seems to do a much better job at this than earlier Photoshops), and got to thinking about which ones worked and which didn’t…
1. It really helps to lock WB and exposure between frames. I had to do a bunch of color/exposure correcting to get things more or less even across some of them.
2. Put lots of overlap between frames: This makes it easier for most automated merging programs to put things together.
3.Very loose framing of the subject is also good: Unless the photos are taken really accurately you’re likely to have to crop quite a bit to exclude blank areas where the edges don’t match. You can afford to crop a lot anyway as you’ve got a lot of information to work with.
Of course, you can get away with fewer frames and tighter framing if you have a decent panoramic setup on a tripod, but if you frame loose you can get away with a surprisingly well-merged result even shooting handheld from a moving boat:
I suppose I’m weird, but I like stitched images where the rectangles don’t merge perfectly. In other words, if it’s perfect and could just be a crop from a bigger picture that’s not as interesting to me. But I have a high tolerance for chaos and like abstract art too. So your mileage may vary…
sleeping, the other night I went through your entire farktography portfolio. Very very impressive work.
I suppose I’m weird, but I like stitched images where the rectangles don’t merge perfectly. In other words, if it’s perfect and could just be a crop from a bigger picture that’s not as interesting to me. But I have a high tolerance for chaos and like abstract art too. So your mileage may vary…
I absolutely agree with this. Some of my favorite panoramas, going way back to a National Geographic fold-out of hot air balloons in New Mexico when I was about 8, make me just about dizzy or disoriented in trying to figure them out.
Tonight’s skies are clear and there’s impressive fog floating around. I’m going to try to get up at 3:30 and get some night to dawn landscapes.
I suppose I’m weird, but I like stitched images where the rectangles don’t merge perfectly. In other words, if it’s perfect and could just be a crop from a bigger picture that’s not as interesting to me. But I have a high tolerance for chaos and like abstract art too. So your mileage may vary…
I’ve seen some done like that which work really well, but more often when I see these there doesn’t seem to be much thought put in to the overall layout and that doesn’t generally do much for me, personally.
sleeping, the other night I went through your entire farktography portfolio. Very very impressive work.
Wow, thanks!
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