(Small Problems) with Stitching Panorama

ND
Posted By
Norm Dresner
Jul 5, 2005
Views
609
Replies
23
Status
Closed
Problem 1
While I was on the road from Leadville CO to Albuquerque NM, I stopped at a mountain lake and lacking a sufficiently wide angle lens (a lack which I’ve more-or-less just remedied on eBay), I stood in one spot and turned around slowly, taking several pictures at about 30 degrees apart. When I got home I installed the new Photoshop CS2 which had been sitting on the desk for 3 weeks because everything else I had to do was adequately taken care of with the ancient 5.5 version.

Anyway, when I went to stitch the pictures together, on the first try with all 6 images the program actually got the order wrong. I did it again, this time only using the first three to make one composite and the last three to make a second, intending to then join these. Before I did, however, I noticed that there’s are two diagonal bands where — presumably — the images were joined and there’s a very (to my eye anyway but not to most other people) definite discontinuity in the image brightness.
1. What’s causing this?
2. What’s the best fix now that I have the images and can’t retake the pictures?
3. Is there anything I could have done while taking the pictures to avoid this?

Problem 2
I also took, panorama-style, 6 photographs of an old steam locomotive. But I was fairly close, maybe 20′ away, and using a very wide angle lens (19mm on a 35mm DSLR) and the resulting image is distorted because the center section — the one closest to me — is much larger than the ones on either side. Am I correct in thinking that this is definitely not the way a close-up panorama should have been taken, i.e. rotating around a single point, and rather that I should have walked side to side with the camera at the same distance and same angle to the subject for each shot?

Thanks in advance for all hints, links, URL’s suggestions, and even constructive flames.

Norm

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

LI
Lorem Ipsum
Jul 5, 2005
"Norm Dresner" wrote in message

Anyway, when I went to stitch the pictures together, on the first try with all 6 images the program actually got the order wrong. I did it again, this time only using the first three to make one composite and the last three to make a second, intending to then join these. Before I did, however, I noticed that there’s are two diagonal bands where — presumably — the images were joined and there’s a very (to my eye anyway but not to most other people) definite discontinuity in the image brightness.
1. What’s causing this?

Norm, we would have to see the pictures, but my tentative guess is that the individual pictures are not perfectly horizontally aligned, and you may also have let the camera auto-expose so that each frame is slightly different, especially in the skies, and the stitching algorithm simply did its best.

2. What’s the best fix now that I have the images and can’t retake the pictures?
3. Is there anything I could have done while taking the pictures to avoid this?

Take an average reading and lock the camera’s exposure to it for all exposures. Use a leveling tripod head. Increment evenly.

Problem 2
I also took, panorama-style, 6 photographs of an old steam locomotive. But
I was fairly close, maybe 20′ away, and using a very wide angle lens (19mm on a 35mm DSLR) and the resulting image is distorted because the center section — the one closest to me — is much larger than the ones on either side. Am I correct in thinking that this is definitely not the way a close-up panorama should have been taken, i.e. rotating around a single point, and rather that I should have walked side to side with the camera at
the same distance and same angle to the subject for each shot?

That’s the way it works: the closer image is larger, the more distant (the ends) is farther away. I had a client who thought a 12-mile wide panoramic shot from 600 feet up should look like one was driving by so that all images were unified in perspective. A sweeping pan doesn’t work that way.
N
noone
Jul 5, 2005
In article <JOAye.1086094$>,
says…
Problem 1
While I was on the road from Leadville CO to Albuquerque NM, I stopped at a mountain lake and lacking a sufficiently wide angle lens (a lack which I’ve more-or-less just remedied on eBay), I stood in one spot and turned around slowly, taking several pictures at about 30 degrees apart. When I got home I installed the new Photoshop CS2 which had been sitting on the desk for 3 weeks because everything else I had to do was adequately taken care of with the ancient 5.5 version.

Anyway, when I went to stitch the pictures together, on the first try with all 6 images the program actually got the order wrong. I did it again, this time only using the first three to make one composite and the last three to make a second, intending to then join these. Before I did, however, I noticed that there’s are two diagonal bands where — presumably — the images were joined and there’s a very (to my eye anyway but not to most other people) definite discontinuity in the image brightness.
1. What’s causing this?
2. What’s the best fix now that I have the images and can’t retake the pictures?
3. Is there anything I could have done while taking the pictures to avoid this?

There is probably a bit of edge fall-off in your lens, and the lighting most likely is different, as you panned. A couple of suggestions:

1. PS CS2/Panorama (not its offical name), will allow you to do a pano two ways – where it flattens the image, and does the blending, or as Layers. If all is very good with the images, the flattened version will do a good bit of the blending. If not, then the Layers Option is the way to go. You can also move the individual parts around (or at least you could in CS) to get the order right. Now, for the Layers Option: Create Layer Masks so you can "paint" in, and out the overlap. Use Adjustment Layers (maybe with a gradient mask) to get your Layers looking exactly the same. I start at one end and correct it until I am satisfied, then move on to piece two, matching everything, and so on.
Problem 2
I also took, panorama-style, 6 photographs of an old steam locomotive. But I was fairly close, maybe 20′ away, and using a very wide angle lens (19mm on a 35mm DSLR) and the resulting image is distorted because the center section — the one closest to me — is much larger than the ones on either side. Am I correct in thinking that this is definitely not the way a close-up panorama should have been taken, i.e. rotating around a single point, and rather that I should have walked side to side with the camera at the same distance and same angle to the subject for each shot?

In this case, you should have positioned yourself at one end of the train, looking down the length of it to find a spot that you could set up for all the other shots, which would all be parallel and close to equidistant from the subject. Try for a one-point perspective, i.e. perpendicular to the subject. Shoot frame 1. Move parallel to the subject, and frame up, creating some overlap – shoot frame two. Repeat as often as is necessary to capture all of the train. Try to keep camera the same height and distance from the train for all, focal length the exact same for all, and don’t forget the overlap.

You might be able to use Layers, and then distort the center images to match the perspective of the ends, though you will have to work (and a bunch of work it will be) with each image to get the exact distortion. Set up two horizontal grid lines (top of train at the smallest point, and bottom of train at smallest point) and then begin distorting the Layers to follow those guides. You might well surprise yourself with the results. Don’t give up, until you have it. One problem will be that you are going to have a VERY horizontal image, and it will be small, because the ends of the train were farther from your camera.

Thanks in advance for all hints, links, URL’s suggestions, and even constructive flames.

Norm

Good luck,
Hunt
NS
Nicholas Sherlock
Jul 5, 2005
Norm Dresner wrote:
Problem 1
While I was on the road from Leadville CO to Albuquerque NM, I stopped at a mountain lake and lacking a sufficiently wide angle lens (a lack which I’ve more-or-less just remedied on eBay), I stood in one spot and turned around slowly, taking several pictures at about 30 degrees apart. When I got home I installed the new Photoshop CS2 which had been sitting on the desk for 3 weeks because everything else I had to do was adequately taken care of with the ancient 5.5 version.

Use a dedicated panorama stitching program, it’s likely to do a far better job than Photoshop CS2. Panorama Tools + PTGUI + Enblend + AutoPano (2 programs, 2 plugins, PTGUI controls it all) does an absolutely incredible job of merging and blending, and uses *lots* of CPU time. You get excellent control over the merging process.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock
U
usenet
Jul 5, 2005
Norm Dresner wrote:

Problem 1
While I was on the road from Leadville CO to Albuquerque NM, I stopped at a mountain lake and lacking a sufficiently wide angle lens (a lack which I’ve more-or-less just remedied on eBay), I stood in one spot and turned around slowly, taking several pictures at about 30 degrees apart. When I got home I installed the new Photoshop CS2 which had been sitting on the desk for 3 weeks because everything else I had to do was adequately taken care of with the ancient 5.5 version.

Anyway, when I went to stitch the pictures together, on the first try with all 6 images the program actually got the order wrong. I did it again, this time only using the first three to make one composite and the last three to make a second, intending to then join these. Before I did, however, I noticed that there’s are two diagonal bands where — presumably — the images were joined and there’s a very (to my eye anyway but not to most other people) definite discontinuity in the image brightness.
1. What’s causing this?

Differences in exposure between pictures, vignetting of the lens, or about a zillion other different things.

2. What’s the best fix now that I have the images and can’t retake the pictures?

Don’t use Photoshop. Use hugin with enblend. Get it here: <http://hugin.sourceforge.net/>

Also, IIRC, PS masks the different layers for each image, so you can fine-tune the masks to minimize the diagonal line effect.

3. Is there anything I could have done while taking the pictures to avoid this?

The best solution is to have a tripod and a special panoramic head. The head will let you mount the camera so that there are no parallax errors between the different images. Minus the special head, however, a stable tripod really helps.

You also want all the pictures to be the exact same exposure (zoom, focus, shutter speed and f-stop, and for digital, ISO setting). This way you have the best chance of a good stitch.

Problem 2
I also took, panorama-style, 6 photographs of an old steam locomotive. But I was fairly close, maybe 20′ away, and using a very wide angle lens (19mm on a 35mm DSLR) and the resulting image is distorted because the center section — the one closest to me — is much larger than the ones on either side. Am I correct in thinking that this is definitely not the way a close-up panorama should have been taken, i.e. rotating around a single point, and rather that I should have walked side to side with the camera at the same distance and same angle to the subject for each shot?

Again, you want hugin, or any of the PanoTools plugins for PS. They let you correct the fisheye effect.
LI
Lorem Ipsum
Jul 5, 2005
"Paul Mitchum" wrote in message

The best solution is to have a tripod and a special panoramic head. The head will let you mount the camera so that there are no parallax errors between the different images. Minus the special head, however, a stable tripod really helps.

In addition, the tripod should pivot about the nodal point of the lens, not from the tripod mount in the camera.
S
Stephan
Jul 5, 2005
Norm Dresner wrote:
Problem 1
While I was on the road from Leadville CO to Albuquerque NM, I stopped at a mountain lake and lacking a sufficiently wide angle lens (a lack which I’ve more-or-less just remedied on eBay), I stood in one spot and turned around slowly, taking several pictures at about 30 degrees apart. When I got home I installed the new Photoshop CS2 which had been sitting on the desk for 3 weeks because everything else I had to do was adequately taken care of with the ancient 5.5 version.

Anyway, when I went to stitch the pictures together, on the first try with all 6 images the program actually got the order wrong. I did it again, this time only using the first three to make one composite and the last three to make a second, intending to then join these. Before I did, however, I noticed that there’s are two diagonal bands where — presumably — the images were joined and there’s a very (to my eye anyway but not to most other people) definite discontinuity in the image brightness.
1. What’s causing this?
2. What’s the best fix now that I have the images and can’t retake the pictures?
3. Is there anything I could have done while taking the pictures to avoid this?

Problem 2
I also took, panorama-style, 6 photographs of an old steam locomotive. But I was fairly close, maybe 20′ away, and using a very wide angle lens (19mm on a 35mm DSLR) and the resulting image is distorted because the center section — the one closest to me — is much larger than the ones on either side. Am I correct in thinking that this is definitely not the way a close-up panorama should have been taken, i.e. rotating around a single point, and rather that I should have walked side to side with the camera at the same distance and same angle to the subject for each shot?
PS can be used to assemble panoramas but not using the panorama function. First you need to determine the nodal point of your lens. ttp://www.kaidan.com/nodalpoint.html
http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/photo /nodal.html Second you need a precisely leveled tripod if you want strait horizons. Third you need to shoot manual and with a good lens and, very important, you need to correct your lens distortions, use something like the lensdoc plugin or panotool if you have time to learn.
Then make a large canvas, import you picture in it. Place the pictures using the difference layer mode and when done create a layer mask for each layer.
Use the Color Match function to equalize your skies, they will always need work, especially on sunny days.
Now use black and white brushes and paint along on your masks to erase ghosts and objects that moved during your shoot, like cars, people waves or birds.
It takes a bit of practice but you’ll get perfect panos while all the automated solutions out there will produce crap. Now if you can afford it get Stitcher from Realviz and see the magic but you will still have to work a bit on your masks.

Stephan
U
usenet
Jul 6, 2005
Lorem Ipsum wrote:

"Paul Mitchum" wrote in message

The best solution is to have a tripod and a special panoramic head. The head will let you mount the camera so that there are no parallax errors between the different images. Minus the special head, however, a stable tripod really helps.

In addition, the tripod should pivot about the nodal point of the lens, not from the tripod mount in the camera.

Hence the special panoramic head.
PZ
Pat Ziegler
Jul 6, 2005
"Lorem Ipsum" wrote in message
"Norm Dresner" wrote in message

Anyway, when I went to stitch the pictures together, on the first try with
all 6 images the program actually got the order wrong. I did it again, this time only using the first three to make one composite and the last three to make a second, intending to then join these. Before I did, however, I noticed that there’s are two diagonal bands where — presumably — the images were joined and there’s a very (to my eye anyway but not to most other people) definite discontinuity in the image brightness.
1. What’s causing this?

Norm, we would have to see the pictures, but my tentative guess is that the individual pictures are not perfectly horizontally aligned, and you may also have let the camera auto-expose so that each frame is slightly different, especially in the skies, and the stitching algorithm simply did its best.

2. What’s the best fix now that I have the images and can’t retake the
pictures?
3. Is there anything I could have done while taking the pictures to avoid this?

Take an average reading and lock the camera’s exposure to it for all exposures. Use a leveling tripod head. Increment evenly.
Problem 2
I also took, panorama-style, 6 photographs of an old steam locomotive. But
I was fairly close, maybe 20′ away, and using a very wide angle lens (19mm
on a 35mm DSLR) and the resulting image is distorted because the center section — the one closest to me — is much larger than the ones on either
side. Am I correct in thinking that this is definitely not the way a close-up panorama should have been taken, i.e. rotating around a single point, and rather that I should have walked side to side with the camera at
the same distance and same angle to the subject for each shot?

That’s the way it works: the closer image is larger, the more distant (the ends) is farther away. I had a client who thought a 12-mile wide panoramic shot from 600 feet up should look like one was driving by so that all images were unified in perspective. A sweeping pan doesn’t work that way.

Allot of good suggestions, I would add, Do not use any type of auto exposure setting while taking the photographs. Look at the whole scene and choose a good manual setting that will work for the entire scene. This will lessen the need to tweak you levels in post.

I do mine totally manually is PS CS2..

Ziegler

R
Rick
Jul 6, 2005
In message , Lorem Ipsum
writes
Norm, we would have to see the pictures, but my tentative guess is that the individual pictures are not perfectly horizontally aligned, and you may also have let the camera auto-expose so that each frame is slightly different, especially in the skies, and the stitching algorithm simply did its best.

I have always down this manually but I invariably get a difference in the colour, mostly sky as it changes from almost white getting close to the sun to a blue colour as we move away from it. Personally this doesn’t really bother me as I haven’t used mine for anything where it mattered, all I did before sticking them together was fiddle with the gamma, brightness and contrast a bit to get them vaguely similar.


Timothy
R
Rick
Jul 6, 2005
In message , ""
writes
In message , Lorem Ipsum
writes
Norm, we would have to see the pictures, but my tentative guess is that the individual pictures are not perfectly horizontally aligned, and you may also have let the camera auto-expose so that each frame is slightly different, especially in the skies, and the stitching algorithm simply did its best.

I have always down
Down? Fool, mea culpa.


Timothy
RF
Robert Feinman
Jul 6, 2005
In article <JOAye.1086094$
news.ops.worldnet.att.net>, says…
Problem 1
While I was on the road from Leadville CO to Albuquerque NM, I stopped at a mountain lake and lacking a sufficiently wide angle lens (a lack which I’ve more-or-less just remedied on eBay), I stood in one spot and turned around slowly, taking several pictures at about 30 degrees apart. When I got home I installed the new Photoshop CS2 which had been sitting on the desk for 3 weeks because everything else I had to do was adequately taken care of with the ancient 5.5 version.

Anyway, when I went to stitch the pictures together, on the first try with all 6 images the program actually got the order wrong. I did it again, this time only using the first three to make one composite and the last three to make a second, intending to then join these. Before I did, however, I noticed that there’s are two diagonal bands where — presumably — the images were joined and there’s a very (to my eye anyway but not to most other people) definite discontinuity in the image brightness.
1. What’s causing this?
2. What’s the best fix now that I have the images and can’t retake the pictures?
3. Is there anything I could have done while taking the pictures to avoid this?

Problem 2
I also took, panorama-style, 6 photographs of an old steam locomotive. But I was fairly close, maybe 20′ away, and using a very wide angle lens (19mm on a 35mm DSLR) and the resulting image is distorted because the center section — the one closest to me — is much larger than the ones on either side. Am I correct in thinking that this is definitely not the way a close-up panorama should have been taken, i.e. rotating around a single point, and rather that I should have walked side to side with the camera at the same distance and same angle to the subject for each shot?
Thanks in advance for all hints, links, URL’s suggestions, and even constructive flames.

Norm
Download a trial copy of the shareware program Panorama Factory and give it a try on your images. It automatically corrects for vignetting, exposure mismatches, camera misalignment and can even figure out the focal length of your lens if it has too.
Without paying you will get a watermark on the final image, but you can still evaluate the results.
You can see lots of examples of this program in use on my web site for the 360 degree panoramas.
The free panorama tools (even with the extra gui front end programs) is harder to use, especially for a beginner. Save it until you get really into panoramas.
A panorama head is not really needed if the subject is more than about 8 feet away. A levelled tripod helps a lot, but a bubble level on the camera can substitute in a pinch.


Robert D Feinman
Landscapes, Cityscapes and Panoramic Photographs
http://robertdfeinman.com
mail:
K
Kingdom
Jul 6, 2005
Nicholas Sherlock wrote in
news:daepgq$q5c$:

Norm Dresner wrote:
Problem 1
While I was on the road from Leadville CO to Albuquerque NM, I stopped at a mountain lake and lacking a sufficiently wide angle lens (a lack which I’ve more-or-less just remedied on eBay), I stood in one spot and turned around slowly, taking several pictures at about 30 degrees apart. When I got home I installed the new Photoshop CS2 which had been sitting on the desk for 3 weeks because everything else I had to do was adequately taken care of with the ancient 5.5 version.

Use a dedicated panorama stitching program, it’s likely to do a far better job than Photoshop CS2. Panorama Tools + PTGUI + Enblend + AutoPano (2 programs, 2 plugins, PTGUI controls it all) does an absolutely incredible job of merging and blending, and uses *lots* of CPU time. You get excellent control over the merging process.
Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

Yup the PS pan is very poor, I use Canon PhotoStitch, simple fast and very very good.


f=Ma well, nearly…
JM
John McWilliams
Jul 6, 2005
Paul Mitchum wrote:
Lorem Ipsum wrote:

"Paul Mitchum" wrote in message

The best solution is to have a tripod and a special panoramic head. The head will let you mount the camera so that there are no parallax errors between the different images. Minus the special head, however, a stable tripod really helps.

In addition, the tripod should pivot about the nodal point of the lens, not from the tripod mount in the camera.

Hence the special panoramic head.

Ah, fergeddaboutit. The special Pano head, worrying about the Nodal point. Yes, these are nice to know, and critical in some situations, but for an outdoor landscape Pano, not remotely necessary. It’s more than possible to get great outdoor Panos hand held, but not recommended.

Do set everything to manual, including white balance.


John McWilliams

"Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the East wall: ‘Andre creep … Andre creep … Andre creep’."
JM
John McWilliams
Jul 6, 2005
Stephan wrote:
Norm Dresner wrote:

Problem 1
While I was on the road from Leadville CO to Albuquerque NM, I stopped at a
mountain lake and lacking a sufficiently wide angle lens (a lack which I’ve
more-or-less just remedied on eBay), I stood in one spot and turned around
slowly, taking several pictures at about 30 degrees apart. When I got home
I installed the new Photoshop CS2 which had been sitting on the desk for 3
weeks because everything else I had to do was adequately taken care of with
the ancient 5.5 version.

Anyway, when I went to stitch the pictures together, on the first try with
all 6 images the program actually got the order wrong. I did it again, this time only using the first three to make one composite and the last three to make a second, intending to then join these. Before I did, however, I noticed that there’s are two diagonal bands where — presumably — the images were joined and there’s a very (to my eye anyway but not to most other people) definite discontinuity in the image brightness.
1. What’s causing this?
2. What’s the best fix now that I have the images and can’t retake the
pictures?
3. Is there anything I could have done while taking the pictures to avoid this?

Problem 2
I also took, panorama-style, 6 photographs of an old steam locomotive. But
I was fairly close, maybe 20′ away, and using a very wide angle lens (19mm
on a 35mm DSLR) and the resulting image is distorted because the center section — the one closest to me — is much larger than the ones on either
side. Am I correct in thinking that this is definitely not the way a close-up panorama should have been taken, i.e. rotating around a single point, and rather that I should have walked side to side with the camera at
the same distance and same angle to the subject for each shot?
PS can be used to assemble panoramas but not using the panorama function. First you need to determine the nodal point of your lens. ttp://www.kaidan.com/nodalpoint.html
http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/photo /nodal.html Second you need a precisely leveled tripod if you want strait horizons. Third you need to shoot manual and with a good lens and, very important, you need to correct your lens distortions, use something like the lensdoc plugin or panotool if you have time to learn.
Then make a large canvas, import you picture in it. Place the pictures using the difference layer mode and when done create a layer mask for each layer.
Use the Color Match function to equalize your skies, they will always need work, especially on sunny days.
Now use black and white brushes and paint along on your masks to erase ghosts and objects that moved during your shoot, like cars, people waves or birds.
It takes a bit of practice but you’ll get perfect panos while all the automated solutions out there will produce crap. Now if you can afford it get Stitcher from Realviz and see the magic but you will still have to work a bit on your masks.

Stephan
LI
Lorem Ipsum
Jul 6, 2005
"John McWilliams" wrote in message

Ah, fergeddaboutit. The special Pano head, worrying about the Nodal point. Yes, these are nice to know, and critical in some situations, but for an outdoor landscape Pano, not remotely necessary.

Therein is the difference between professional results and the rest. I will stick to my pano head and handbuilt nodal point offsets.
LI
Lorem Ipsum
Jul 6, 2005
"" wrote in message
[…] Personally this doesn’t really bother me as I haven’t used mine for anything where it mattered […]

In other words, your experience is irrelevant to someone who wants to make a pano that does matter.
LI
Lorem Ipsum
Jul 6, 2005
What ever became of Apple’s QTVR professional? Discontinued?
JM
John McWilliams
Jul 6, 2005
Apologies for the blank send…..

Stephan wrote:

Norm Dresner wrote:

Problem 1
While I was on the road from Leadville CO to Albuquerque NM, I …
<< Snipped bits out >>
PS can be used to assemble panoramas but not using the panorama function.

Huh?
First you need to determine the nodal point of your lens. ttp://www.kaidan.com/nodalpoint.html
http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/photo /nodal.html

No, you do not to know about the Nodal Point for this type of picture.

Second you need a precisely leveled tripod if you want strait horizons. Third you need to shoot manual and with a good lens and, very important, you need to correct your lens distortions, use something like the lensdoc plugin or panotool if you have time to learn.

Using good lenses you’ll not have much distortion to correct. For now, fergeddaboudit.

Then make a large canvas, import you picture in it. Place the pictures using the difference layer mode and when done create a layer mask for each layer.

Using Photomerge, check off "Keep layers intact" or something to that effect. "Preserve Layers" is closer to the actual language, IIRC.
Use the Color Match function to equalize your skies, they will always need work, especially on sunny days.
Now use black and white brushes and paint along on your masks to erase ghosts and objects that moved during your shoot, like cars, people waves or birds.

All good, but somewhat advanced techniques.

It takes a bit of practice but you’ll get perfect panos while all the automated solutions out there will produce crap.
Wildly inaccurate statement. Using PS in a semi-automated way can produce stunning results. I’ve even lucked out with fully auto merges.


John McWilliams
C
Clyde
Jul 6, 2005
Lorem Ipsum wrote:
What ever became of Apple’s QTVR professional? Discontinued?

Apple’s QTVR Authoring Studio is officially still in Apple’s catalog. However, you can’t find much about it. Also, it has had zero support for years now and is still on version 1.1. If you get the right Apple person they will recommend Stitcher.

If you want a legal copy of it, I have one to sell you. I wouldn’t recommend it. I ran into bugs that are never going to be fixed. The big one being that it does NOT work in the Classic box in OS X. Apple made a big deal about how all OS 9 apps run in OS X. They own and sell an OS 9 app that doesn’t.

Stitcher does work fine in OS X. So does PTMac and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper while doing the same thing. (OK, PTMac doesn’t do spherical.)

Clyde
S
Stephan
Jul 6, 2005
John McWilliams wrote:

PS can be used to assemble panoramas but not using the panorama function.

Huh?

What do you mean bu Huh?
First you need to determine the nodal point of your lens. ttp://www.kaidan.com/nodalpoint.html
http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/photo /nodal.html

No, you do not to know about the Nodal Point for this type of picture.

Are you kidding? You don’t need the nodal point for panorama photography?
Second you need a precisely leveled tripod if you want strait horizons. Third you need to shoot manual and with a good lens and, very important, you need to correct your lens distortions, use something like the lensdoc plugin or panotool if you have time to learn.

Using good lenses you’ll not have much distortion to correct. For now, fergeddaboudit.

Wrong, almost every lens produces some form of distortion. I meant good lens with no pronounced light fall on the edges, typical sign of cheap glass

Using Photomerge, check off "Keep layers intact" or something to that effect. "Preserve Layers" is closer to the actual language, IIRC.

Using Photomerge? You don’t use Photomerge as it is pure crap.

All good, but somewhat advanced techniques.

Precisely, there are no automated, simple ways to create a large, printable pano.

Wildly inaccurate statement. Using PS in a semi-automated way can produce stunning results. I’ve even lucked out with fully auto merges.

Once again, " Stunning" depends on who is the final judge. Show mw one of your stunning panos.

Stephan
S
Stephan
Jul 6, 2005
John McWilliams wrote:
Paul Mitchum wrote:

Ah, fergeddaboutit. The special Pano head, worrying about the Nodal point. Yes, these are nice to know, and critical in some situations, but for an outdoor landscape Pano, not remotely necessary. It’s more than possible to get great outdoor Panos hand held, but not recommended.
Do set everything to manual, including white balance.

Heck, you don’t even need a camera…

Stephan
JM
John McWilliams
Jul 6, 2005
Stephan wrote:
John McWilliams wrote:

Once again, " Stunning" depends on who is the final judge. Show mw one of your stunning panos.

You first, Pontiff.



John McWilliams
S
Sean
Jul 12, 2005
On 5 Jul 2005 19:59:24 GMT, (Hunt) reverently intoned
upon the aether:

1. PS CS2/Panorama (not its offical name), will allow you to do a pano two ways – where it flattens the image, and does the blending, or as Layers. If all is very good with the images, the flattened version will do a good bit of the blending. If not, then the Layers Option is the way to go. You can also move the individual parts around (or at least you could in CS) to get the order right. Now, for the Layers Option: Create Layer Masks so you can "paint" in, and out the overlap. Use Adjustment Layers (maybe with a gradient mask) to get your Layers looking exactly the same. I start at one end and correct it until I am satisfied, then move on to piece two, matching everything, and so on.

One additional step to try when aligning and stitching (darkening the layer mask) is to view the upper layer in difference mode. It requires a lot less mental effort to trace a line down the darkest possible path than it does to draw a stitch across the details.

enjoy,

Sean

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