Exploring a new technique.

[North Light]

I have been meaning to have a go at a Panoramic Photography for some time now, I think laziness is the only reason I had not really tried this before!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3007/2781177189_dafc55a3f4_o.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/north_light/2781177189/

Scrabster Harbour and Thurso Bay

24 to 70mm at 50mm, six overlapping images with the camera in landscape format.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2792812187_47c5354990_o.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/north_light/2792812187/

View from above Holborn Head Lighthouse.

24 to 70mm at 50mm, fifteen overlapping images with the camera in portrait format. This number of images produced a Tiff file of over 1.5 gb in 16 bit format, my desktop disappeared off into the blue yonder for at least 20 minutes while creating this!


For the technically minded, the camera was tripod mounted, exposure in manual and fixed for all the images in the scene, Raw files converted to Tiff files then Photoshop Photomerge used to create the panoramas, tweaked in photoshop and converted to Jpeg files for uploading.

Both have come out quite well, the image size here does not allow you see the detail in the files.

Tripod not level enough which has caused some distortion in the horizon, need to improve my technique!

[wicker05]

Fantastic North Light, really love No.1.
Excuse my ignorance but don't understand what 24 to 70mm at 50mm means :confused

[Deemac]

Fantastic North Light, really love No.1.
Excuse my ignorance but don't understand what 24 to 70mm at 50mm means :confused

A 24 to 70mm zoom lens set at the 50mm focal length setting on the zoom range of the lens.

[Deemac]

Nice shots Northlight.

Something I've also had a go at in the past but other than printing out on very large format printers (1000mm plus sizes for exhibition work) or for a deliberate semi 360° type effect never saw the point (as you say the impact is totally lost on a forum based image/on screen viewing.

Id rather just crop a very wide lens single shot instead!!;)

[North Light]

wicker05,
Sorry, yes Deemac is totally correct, zoom lens set at 50mm.

Deemac,
You are correct that you only see the real quality if the images are printed to a large size, but it's an interesting technique to learn, and we are very fortunate in living in a landscape that is well suited to panoramas.

If I was going to get serious about producing panoramas I would get a tripod head designed for shooting panoramas, my B & S head is not really suited, it's not easy to get the tripod and head perfectly level.

[Deemac]

I have a Manfrotto tripod and got the usual ball type camera head for photography. I also produce video and found that a video type head with panning arm very good for this type of image stitching work.

See: http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1001831

[North Light]

Mmm, thanks for the suggestion Deemac, but I'm not sure herself would understand, I'm running out of convincing arguments!

Now where did I put that spirit level.......

[wifie]

Like you say Northlight maybe not best suited to viewing on here but lovely shots none the less! Thanks!

[Sporran]

Those are excellent, North Light! :cool: I was hoping to see larger versions on the Flickr site, though.

I hope you'll be taking more panoramic pics and sharing them with us here! :)

[Deemac]

Here are a few of my early efforts. First - Skarfskerry (the original is 14500pixels wide!!), Second - Brough, Third - Looking towards Thurso from Murkle.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh116/deemac1965/SkarfskerryPanoV1Sm.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh116/deemac1965/BroughBeachPano2Sm.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh116/deemac1965/SkyWinterPanoV2Sm.jpg

[Sporran]

Yours are fabulous too, Deemac! :) I especially like the one of Brough, and the way the rock is right in the middle of the photo. And what a gorgeous sky in the last! :cool:

[Bobinovich]

Anyone wanting to create and/or show a panorama as a wee movie should visit Clevr.com. It will assist with creating/stitching panoramas and/or take a panorama and pan across from one side to the other. No real control options but nice for inclusion in websites, etc.

[Kenn]

It may not be the ideal format for this forem but still some stunning images.

[wifie]

Loved the sky Deemac!

[Raven]

@ Northlight
Its always good fun to jum into the deep and of the pool and discover something new isnt it? You started quite brave here with so many pics to stich up, but as "newbie" images I would say they are rather good!
I found it always very tricky to get it right when straight lines were involved, but now after nearly 3 years of doing panos I know my way round it :-)
I started to do panos because I wanted to show my folks the beauty up here and one single shot was truly not enough to capture it the way I saw it and doing justice to it.I have over 200 of them ready to print and countless not even touched slumbering on my drives.
Beware though! Panos are addictive and dangreous :-) the more you shoot the more you want and subsequently the drives on your desk mount up too :-)

@Deemac,
great shots (but watch your horizon :-)) Superb sky in shot 3!!

[North Light]

Raven,
Thanks for the comments, I am very impressed how easy Photomerge in Photoshop makes panoramas, I did read a few articles before I made any serious attempts so had the basic mechanics sorted. I am guessing the problem with the horizon will be resolved by getting the camera rotating in a level plane.
I am also aware that there are special head setups that allow you to get the "nodal point" correct, I suspect in these sorts of landscape panoramas this is not a significant problem.
With regards to disk space, I already have that problem, it's not going to be long before I need a couple more hard drives!

Deemac, thats an absolutley cracking sky in the third image, I think I would be tempted to crop out the bottom of the photograph and allow the sky to speak for itself.

[North Light]

Had another go at a panorama this evening, lens at 24mm and a less ambitious merge of 5 images.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2822480524_60c8946658_o.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/north_light/2822480524/

[Deemac]

I do like that one Northlight but think there is a serious wave glitch just to the left of the second rock clump from the right of the image.

[North Light]

Deemac,
Thanks, I will look at the original files when I get home.

[grumpyhippo]

I've really enjoyed all the panoramas but have you thought of doing vertical panos. This is only three one above the other.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k57/grumpyhippo/verticalb.jpg

[North Light]

Deemac,
You are quite correct, timing problem with waves!