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![Nelson Moore [Kes] -](http://images.imageopolis.com/images/5/7/8/7/5787/1481659-micro.jpg)
Nelson Moore [Kes] -
{K:20241} 8/9/2008
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Fantastic image! Thanks for the tutorial on panos!
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 4/14/2008
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Hi Doyle:
Thanks - Haven't been taking that many photographs as I have been looking for and just bought my first house. Bear with me as I move in and do a lot of improvements. I'm pushing all of the home improvement work on Flickr.
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bill smith
{K:5416} 4/13/2008
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You did a great job Michel, This is a stunning landscape.
Bill
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Doyle D. Chastain
{K:101119} 4/12/2008
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Michael.
What can I say? You're the MASTER! :)
Regards,
Doyle I <~~~~~
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absynthius .
{K:20748} 12/12/2007
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Profi! masterfullness!
7
V.
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Dave Arnold
{K:55680} 7/28/2007
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What can I say about this except it is most excellent. Again, you inspire me to even try something like this. I'm going to have to hunt down your tutorials on the process. One of these days, I'll get brave.
Congratulations on the dual awards, well deserved for this piece.
Best to you,
Dave
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Mary Brown
{K:71879} 6/21/2007
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Fabulous! Awesome!
MAry
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jude .
{K:14625} 5/30/2007
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yep...definitely grand
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 5/21/2007
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nMK Joos - w00t!
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narabia
{K:9563} 5/20/2007
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oh, CONGRATULATIONS!!!
This is really spectacular view and the quality of the photo is great. I can not decide what I like the most here... the mountains... forest.
Good job. Well done.
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VarinVaree ...
{K:647} 5/18/2007
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Great!!!
There is no words else. but only Great!!
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 5/17/2007
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Sal:
Oh, yeah, wanted to mention that Autostitch is not by Google, you can just find it through any search engine and it is free.
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 5/17/2007
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Sal:
I agree the first versions did require a PhD, but after looking at Panorama Factory both PT GUI and Panaorama Factory are comparable products. PT GUI performs blending and auto-point lineup as well with multiple projections. I also like that PT GUI does allow for PhD-type work like selecting an alternate render/stitcher, but also has simple and easy defaults.
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Salvatore Rossignolo
{K:13559} 5/17/2007
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Wow I just read your comment about Google's photo stitcher and others, you've never tried Smoky City Designs Panorama Factory. Michael, I've tried the others that you mentioned and I must tell you, I have not tried any software that can hold a candle to PF. It does the stitching job: auto, semi-auto, or manually. But where it is truly spectacular is in precision exposure matching. You don't have to use your manual exposure setting when shooting your original shots, the software matches the color and exposure from frame to frame.
Regarding PT GUI, its great, but I found that using it requires a doctorate in computer science and a lab notebook on the side!
Try Panorama Factory, I think it will win you over......let me know.
Sal
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Salvatore Rossignolo
{K:13559} 5/17/2007
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Congrats on the double banger Mike! You should try a PS plugin called 'Focus Magic'. It analyzes your picture and recommends the pixel depth for sharpening and allows you to choose a "strength" form 25% to 200%. I find it more intuitive and straight forward than PSs' built-in sharpening filters.
Sal
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 5/17/2007
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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.
The best package you can buy (IMOO) is PT GUI. It’s an extension of some free packages and is fantastic. I tried Arcsoft Panorama (good), Canon's (OK), Adobe Photomerge (Eh…)
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.
- 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} 5/17/2007
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Hi Tim:
This is 7 or 8 shots, and the file is saved right now as a 16 bit PSD file. I got it down from 1GB to about 300 MB. I think it's roughly 15,000 pixels wide.
Since I took these shots I've learned quite a bit about shooting panos, and I've taken more detailed and refined shots.
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Tim Bowman
{K:1481} 5/17/2007
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Inspiration photo and subject.
How many shots to begin with?
How big is the file now?
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jacques brisebois
{K:73883} 5/17/2007
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real nice panoramic, great shot.
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AJ Miller
{K:49168} 5/17/2007
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This is a fabulous pano that looks wonderful in full pano mode. Pretty impressive considering the UF limitations on filesize. Congrats on the awards!
AJ
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alessandro reggiani
{K:4791} 5/16/2007
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beautiful landscape..wonderful
alessandro
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 5/16/2007
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A polarizer does help. I know this - but the linear and circular both do add a bit of complexity to shooting for panos and I definitely do not recommend it.
Since I live in Kansas I just took what I got and was pretty happy.
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Patrick Ziegler
{K:21797} 5/16/2007
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Sure, but you would sacrifice some of that lovely detail. I am curious, since haze is a result of light reflecting of particles in the air, would a polarizer help? However, polarizing filters add other difficulties to a multi-shot panoramic.
All my lenses have UV or Haze filters attached, they might help some but I think very little.
I guess one could just keep going back until you find a day when the haze in the air is low, perhaps a cool, dry day.
Never the less, the haze was part of the landscape that day and you captured it well.
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 5/16/2007
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Hey Pat:
Taking out the haze is fairly easy with adjusting colors and levels in photoshop, provided you can use quick mask. I just did not spend the time to go over this gigantic image in detail. I'd expect a much better image if I took the time to really knuckle down and go through this in detail to clean it up.
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Patrick Ziegler
{K:21797} 5/16/2007
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Nice Pano Michael. A little hazy but what can you do. very well done!
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 5/16/2007
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Sheryl:
Hey thanks. I'm sure you'd be able to find the same thing in Denver... I'd move there if I could to be closer to the mountains!
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 5/16/2007
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Sal:
Yes, I had to sharpen it after resizing it down, and I also had to save it in lower quality to make it fit. I think I overdid the sharpening a bit, but better to get the details across than be to soft I guess.
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Steve Aronoff
{K:18393} 5/16/2007
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A really nice panorama, Michael. You've done really well to keep the tones consistent across the horizontal plane.
Steve
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Mattia L.
{K:7625} 5/16/2007
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Great landscape, Tetons are amazing!
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Sheryl Phillips
{K:2728} 5/16/2007
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Very nice shot Michael. What a wonderful sky you captured, overcast enough to add details & depth to the mountains, but not too much to "flatten" the picture. Great job!
~Sheryl
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Pranab Sarkar
{K:919} 5/16/2007
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Excellent work... i really like d Composition...
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Salvatore Rossignolo
{K:13559} 5/16/2007
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Gorgeous vista Mike, color, balance, and, composition, but I think it's a bit over sharpened or at least appears so on my browser.
Sal
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Sergio Cárdenas
{K:25028} 5/16/2007
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Amazing stich work! beautiful view of this great landscape!
Congrats
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Michael Kanemoto
{K:22115} 5/16/2007
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Here's the full scale - donate today and you could see these as a member.
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Tetons |
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