First attempt at a panorama

[zenith (Tim)]

Hi all,
I took 11 photos, using a Canon 6D, Sigma 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm, 15 seconds, ISO 3200, f4.
I am not proficient in stitching manually, and after the disappointment of Canon's PhotoStitch, I tried Microsoft's Image Composite Editor, which is free. It took a few goes and finally produced the attached image. I had to bump up the feature matching search radius to 100% before it would join more than 4 or 5 images.
I adjusted the final image in Digital Photo Professional for contrast/brightness/hue/sharpness.
I also attached a single original image.
This is the foreshore at Balnarring, Victoria.
Thanks for looking, any hints or suggestions most welcome.
Tim.

[Redshift13 (Rohan)]

Nice effort.

I'm just a beginner at these nightscape panoramas too, and also use Microsoft ICE to stictch photos together (got to say, for a free program, it really does do a good job).

One thing that may help here is to increase your exposures to around 20-30 seconds - this will bring more light into the scene and also make the compositing process easier for the ICE software. Ideally, a faster lens will also achieve this result.

One thing I've noticed with using the ICE program (it's probably the same with other stitching software) is that the manipulation/reshaping of the images that's required means there's often quite a lot of cropping required to finish up with square sides. So I'm learning to cater for that when taking the original images. But it looks like you've achieved that with your pano.

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Looks like you are on the right track Tim.

I can't comment on your software as I've only used the stitching features in Photoshop myself.

With your ISO & exposure I feel there may be more detail lurking in there that hasn't been brought out (despite being taken at f4) that might benefit from a "PS levels/curves" (or equivalent) adjustment if you haven't already done so.

Nice work anyway - panoramas are fun!

[leon]

Certainly a fine effort for a first attempt, well done Tim.

Leon

[zenith (Tim)]

Thanks guys,

My next purchase will be a wider and faster lens. I only have one lens at the moment, an all rounder zoom 24-105 f4. I see that Samyang lenses are popular in that they give good performance/sharpness per dollar.

I read a tutorial which gave some great tips such as allowing for 30% overlap (which I roughly did for these pictures), and also turning your camera sideways or 45 degrees to the align the long side of your ccd with the vertical to capture a higher image (not done in these pictures). The tutorial continued with stitching and blending the images in Photoshop, but I am only using Canon's Digital Photo Professional at the moment to do simple adjustments to individual pictures.

I think it is time to start learning Photoshop!

As a side note, I did have a quick play with DSS (and 8 pictures of Crux) that I took on the same night, but I need to read up on dark/light/bias frames.

Clear skies.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very nicely done. Great fov.

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

looks good to me Tim, nice work.
A lot of people use Microsoft Ice, I like Windows Live Photo Gallery which is also free.
I also reckon there is a bit more that can be brought out from the night sky (in the data).

cheers

russ