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Collin Stebbins
{K:1868} 2/13/2007
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Thats great to hear. I remember reading something you said about printing at 150 dpi - do you find that sufficient? The printer I go to always want me to give him 300dpi files which is a real pain! Often a lot of interpolation.
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Collin Stebbins
{K:1868} 2/13/2007
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Hi Michael - how do you get ptgui for free? I have 6.0.3 from ptgui.com. It is a steep learning curve and I know very little compared to friends of mine that use it and sell there panos. I find it far better than autostich mainly because i have control.
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 2/13/2007
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Thanks Sergio, I have not been able to post anything new in a while, but I just got a shipment of goodies today...
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Sergio Cárdenas
{K:25028} 2/13/2007
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Wow!!!!!!! wonderful work Michael! I like this panoramic shot...
Regards
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 2/13/2007
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Oh yeah, the exhibitions are going well. I've got another show up for three months at another company, taking a few orders here and there.
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 2/13/2007
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Collin:
Huh, was able to get HugIn to work without blending today. PTGui is open source and free - still seems overly complicated.
I did shoot something to stitch tonight.
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Collin Stebbins
{K:1868} 2/13/2007
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Hey Michael, I'm running it on XP with no problem. Before I bought a genuine copy I tried to use a mates dodgy copy and it would load images, generated control points etc but when I wanted to produce the pano it would crash. If your version is from the website you could probably email them requesting advice. I'm sorry I have no idea. How are the exhibitions going? How do you keep your panos looking good when you upload them? I uploaded a 7 shot stitch last night and the reduced file doesn't look anywhere near as good as the original!!!!
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 2/13/2007
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Collin:
I need serious help installing PTGui, tried it this week and it keeps bombing out on the point generation. Sigh.
Windows XP
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Collin Stebbins
{K:1868} 2/13/2007
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Impressive shot Michael. I am surprised that you are still using autostitch if you are doing large prints? As it only works with 8 bit jpegs - this means you've compressed your images and reduced quality before they're even stitched. I think the next biggest downside is that if there is movement during your sequence of shots it will result in ghosting that you can't fix. For example I recently shot a pano of an outback hospital (Dunedoo). There was an elderly man sitting outside wearing a 'cowboy' hat, he turned his head between 2 shots which resulted in his head being blurred in the pano. Simple, I selected the layer in which his head was down and erased it to reveal the layer where his head was up. I recommend you give ptgui a try if you're printing, it can be used auto or completely manually and best of all you can output your pano in separate layers beneath a blended pano and it allows you to use 16 bit uncompressed tiffs. Also I have found ND grads to be no problem, but polarisers a definate no no when the sun is up.
Regards,
Collin.
PS: When are we going to see more of your awesome landscapes and pano's? I do like the creative artworks you've been producing lately.
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 7/14/2006
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Doyle:
Overlap = Lazy
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 7/14/2006
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Morgan:
I have no luck with PS product on stitching - Autostitch is free on the web and incredible. PanoTools is the official and best product from what I have heard, but this seems to work for me.
64 bit AMD, 1 GB RAM, drives, drives, drives, and a really fast video card.
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Morgan Estill
{K:3786} 7/14/2006
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30 stitched together? Wow. I was wondering if you used an autostitch - I rembember you and some friends were using PS for better results and was wondering if you always do that. I would think that would become unmanageable with 30+ shots in PS just due to the visual size of the beastly image.
I used Photostitch (came with the EOS 350D) for my panoramic shots. What computer are you using? I've got an HP laptop with a 128M DDR Vid Card, 512MB DDR RAM, dual 80 GB HDD, and a lightning fast AMD 64bit in it.
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Doyle D. Chastain
{K:101119} 7/14/2006
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WOW! Way to go Michael! The overlap doesn't bother me at all but I am curious why you chose not to crop it. The view is stunning and the mastery of the stitching is quite evident too. Great colors and an amazing work!!!
Regards,
Doyle I <~~~~~
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Mark Wlaz
{K:4564} 7/14/2006
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Michael,
Thanks so much for taking the time to offer such a detailed response to my question. Its greatly appreciated. Continued best of luck to you,
Mark
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 7/14/2006
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Morgan:
New 64 bit processor and 1 GB RAM helps. Read the tutorial on Autostitch. I've done up to 30+ photos.
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 7/14/2006
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Part II:
- Use a grid system. My viewfinder projects a grid with lines on the quarter and one half as vertical lines and horizontal lines. I look at the cross-hatches where the lines intersect. For example, if I see that there is a tree at the intersection in the middle of my viewfinder, I remember that tree and then put it at the 1/4 intersection when I move the camera over. This makes sure that the perspective is forced to consistency as you turn the camera and everything will join smoothly. If you do not have grid lines you can use your autofoucs "dots" or eyeball it.
- Force everything manual. I look like an idiot by moving my camera around the whole scene, metering F-Stop and Exposure across the scene, and then choose the average and force the same: F-Stop, Exposure, White Balance, sharpening, etc across all the photos. This also means you have a lot less latitude to getting a really nice shot - in bright days the deep shadows and bright sky vary across the landscape. Sorry. Like most photos, the first and last hours of daylight are best. I do allow the autofocus to work, but with landscapes remember to use hyperfocal distance. Google "hyperfocal" if that just whizzed on by you. It just means using F-stop with where you focus to make sure everything winds up in focus. High depth of field (DOF).
- Lose the filters. Grad filters and polarizers will change the image as you move. IR, UV, ND, and other filters that are consistent are OK.
- Lastly, when you shoot leave room for cropping. Stitching programs love to stretch images, and you may find little blank spaces and gaps. The only way is to give a little buffer to your subjects and crop down later on. This is counter to the normal mode of cropping to the image you want in camera.
Have fun. You never know what will pop out until you are done stitching. I've noticed stitches of 20 images and discover that one of them was out of focus messing up the whole thing. Others that I thought would be boring wind up being absolutely great.
Another benefit is that if the image does not look a panorama, the end result is that you can get 18 - 24 megapixel images from a 6 megapixel camera. This means that you can get away with a wonderful 20" x 30" 150 dpi print for your wall.
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 7/14/2006
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Part I:
Quick manual for posterity under UF "articles":
If you want to start trying some for yourself:
Google on "Autostitch", it is a free program and is small. It just needs some RAM to go and runs on a PC. You open the preferences, set to 100% scale, 100 JPEG quality, and then open the files. It uses pattern recognition to match the shots, stretch, and blend. I've tried some other programs as well.
Arcsoft Panorama Maker is the next best in my experience. You are constrained by choosing one shot side to side, vertical, or matrix (4x4). You have to manually adjust the matching points. Does a great job.
Canon's Photostitch is neat - you enter in the mm of the lens (for digital users you have to convert to 35mm equivalent) and it merges and blends. Moderate results because if you do not line up the image plane you are in trouble.
Adobe Elements has Photomerge. Close to the Canon technology, but I just can't get this sucker to work for me. Probably user error.
To take a great stitch:
- Shoot digital. It's about matching pixels, and digital will get you the most consistent results (sharpness, tones, etc.)
- Use a tripod if you can. You want to match up on the nodal point (where the light flip flops internally in the lens) to get a perfect perspective match as you rotate. However, I find it easier just to use a normal tripod head and move across the image plane (your sensor in your camera or film) along the same fulcrum. This means if you have a mounting point in line with that senor or film the tripod will force you to swivel right down the middle if you shoot in landscape mode. The "flatter" your photo from perspective the less this will matter.
- Remember that wider is not better. No tripod? It's OK. Perspective is a problem with shooting stitches, the more shifting of near ground elements due to a wide angle means you will have to overlap more. The "flatter" your images, the more two dimensional they are, the less "stretching" the software will have to do, or you will have to do using something like PT lens later on, to flatten the image for merging. When I shoot, I at most go to 28 mm at the widest, and in those cases I will do at least 50% overlap. At 70 mm and beyond, 1/4 overlap is the way to go.
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Morgan Estill
{K:3786} 7/14/2006
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19 photo composite? You trying to show me up or what? :) Dude, you're freakin' crazy. A 365 degree shot? Dang. How long did that take to stitch together? Excellent shot. I don't think I would have cared for a regular shot of this area, but the panorama is quite neat. Great work.
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Mark Wlaz
{K:4564} 7/14/2006
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Michael,
Nicely done. The presentation (i.e. the border) is extremely effective in increasing the visual appeal. I'd love to hear the mechanical and technical aspects of how you did this. For example, do you need to trim the tops and bottoms of the images when stiching them together, in order to get each image to line up? (I had attempted something similar but simpler than what you have done here, using film, and hand held - no tripod. To get each piece to match its partner, required some trimming.) Also, whta software do you use to stitch them together?
Thanks, best regards, and after all the rain we just had - stay out of the swamp for awhile.
Mark
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