First pano effort.

[JB80]

Just thought I'd have a try with photomerge in PS and see what would happen. I didn't set out to do a panorma but had a few images that I thought might make one.
Anyway it was more of a test run than anything.

I hope it's ok to upload with flickr as I couldn't get the picture manager to accept the images.
Just click on the images for a bigger version and if anyone wants to add me to their flickr then that's fine with me.
:)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7098/6940647592_0021156e23_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/55409962@N02/6940647592/)
Untitled_Panorama3s (http://www.flickr.com/photos/55409962@N02/6940647592/) by Jarrod Bennett (http://www.flickr.com/people/55409962@N02/), on Flickr



http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7056/6940648060_55319dfd92_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/55409962@N02/6940648060/)
Untitled_Panorama5 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/55409962@N02/6940648060/) by Jarrod Bennett (http://www.flickr.com/people/55409962@N02/), on Flickr

[DavidTrap]

Stitching looks good Jarrod.

I can see some JPEG artefact in the clouds of first one. There are two sets of parallel lines, which I guess are from two different frames. Were these shot as JPEGs?

Your exposure looks pretty consistent across the images, so I'm guessing you shot these in manual with the same exposure for all shots?? That's what you need to do to avoid big lines through the sky when you stitch.

I often turn the camera to portrait orientation and shoot lots of images, overlapping at least 50% per frame. The detail can be incredible - as can be the file sizes!. Remember to keep the camera level with the horizon to avoid weird perspective distortions.

DT

[JB80]

Thanks David.

They were shot as JPEGs, it was near the end of our trip and the card was too full to continue shooting in RAWs otherwise I would of shot in RAW mode. This one doesn't seem as bad though.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/6940648274_738d27b1ae_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/55409962@N02/6940648274/)

I guess pointing towards the sun doesn't help much either.

Just checking and I threw one pic in with a slightly different setting on the first one but the rest are all the same.

Next time I will definitely try and do this on purpose, I just picked a handful of shots that looked like it may work. I didn't use a tripod for them either.
I'll try the portrait thing too as I never really use that setting.

Thanks for the tips. :)

[DavidTrap]

I dont mean the Portrait mode on the dial, just turn the camera 90 degrees. It helps you to keep pointing level at the horizon, especially if you are shooting from an elevated position like a mountain or headland. YOu can get the lower areas of the scene in frame without pointing the camera down or using a wide zoom setting which lessens detail.

DT

[JB80]

Ahhh...
That would make more sense.
Thanks :)

[gregbradley]

Very nice Jarrod.

I am fond of panoramas.

Its my preferred terrestial imaging style these days.

A couple of tips:

As David said portrait orientation of the camera is good to keep you oriented but also to keep proportions right. You don't want a wide and thin pano.

Also areas of clear sky are hard to stitch later as there aren't many defining characteristics in them - they can be plain sky.

I take a photo of my hand to show the sequence is starting and then when done I take a photo of my hand again. That way later on I can tell where the pano starts and ends. This may not sound important but I took a pano 3 years ago and tried to put it together but the pano shots were with other single shots and it took me several attempts and a total of a year and a half before I solved the puzzle of which were the pano shots and which were the regular single shots. Like solving a jigsaw puzzle.

If you take several panos I rename the files when downloading them so I can tell which are which. You get lost easily otherwise.

Overlap images by at least 20%. Too narrow an overlap and you risk not overlapping at all and ruining the pano.

That is more important in dusk or low light panos as they are much harder to stitch.

Shot in manual mode and set exposure and aperture and keep it the same for all the shots. I sometimes leave autofocus on but I prefer to lock focus as well as I have one last piece be out of focus and it wrecks the pano.

I use PTGui Pro to stitch them.

Greg.