On Fri, 4 May 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
<snip and agree with what everyone else said>
>
> ==========
> Will do. And thanks, William, Maris, and Mark.
>
> The scenes I showed, there was more, obviously. It would probably make a
> good 90 degree pano, and maybe I could have done that one handheld.
>
> However, Scott Valley, where my Dad grew up and where I visited last
> October, would make a great pano. And I could almost do a 360 degree one
> there, at
> least a 180 degree. It's a very simple scene, cattle ranches and alpha fields
> with a few scattered barns, but it is all flat and completely surrounded by
> mountains. So it is much more impressive than a single shot can show and it
> would be ideal for a pano.
>
> I tried last year (handheld), but didn't know what I was doing and there no
> way it can be stitched together.
>
> I didn't do the manual exposure thing, and now that you have all mentioned
> it, it makes perfect sense. One slight shift in color/exposure and the whole
> thing is shot. I also didn't overlap enough.
>
> But I am planning to visit again next August/Sept and would like to try to
> get it.
>
> Will visit Mark's site and print out your posts.
>
> Thanks, Marnie aka Doe :-)
>
I've been very successful doing panos with as little as 10-20%
overlap. The *biggest* thing IMO is what's been mentioned that holding
the exposure identical is really important. Getting different contrast
due to flare with varying light is also somewhat important if the sun's
anywhere near.
As far as software, I have no idea how the commerical offerings
for Winders/MacOS work, but I do know that a lot of the open-source stuff
I use is available for Winders. The main engine is PanoTools, of course,
but the GUI frontend I use is called 'hugin'. It has a built-in error
minimization optimization engine to automatically determine lens
correction factors, differences in camera tilt, etc. Way cool.
For me, here's the order ofoperations.
- Set camera to RAW... with the amount of fiddling required for panos, I
doubt ANYONE (with the exception of a few insane zealouts like Kenny-boy
Rockwell) could argue that the flexibility won't be worth it.
- Tripod (relatively level) is a good idea.
- Do test shots for exposure at all prospective angles about the intended
pano. Make sure the highlights don't blow out anywhere, and set the
exposure to manual.
- Shoot all frames, with at least 10-20% overlap.
- Convert RAW to deep-color TIFF with identical WB and EV comp settings.
- Use 'autopano-sift' to try to automatically generate the alignment
points.
- Review points with 'hugin' program... add horizontal and/or vertical
points to ensure straight horizon/vertical objects.
- Use the "optimization" to improve draft and iterate
modifying/adding/removing some of the alignment points if necessary
- Generate output "projection" images (or multilayer image)
- Blend together with 'enblend'
- Fine-tune final image (rubber-stamp dust, watermark, etc).
-Cory
--
*************************************************************************
* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
*************************************************************************
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