UKC

On a clear day from the top of Mont Ventoux the views are stunning. From the north west you can see right round from the Monts d'Ardeche, The Vercors, Mont Blanc, The Oisans, Devoluy, The Ecrins and right down to the Mercantour.
At the moment with all the snow the view really is amazing.

So, how do I take a panorama shot? What's the procedure for taking a series of shots from west to east then puting them together?

Cheers

The Ent

In reply to Enty:

You could try using this free download

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

I've used it before with some pleasing results.

In reply to doogie:

That looks good but I was hoping to be able to teach myself the technicalities using Photoshop.

Cheers anyway

The Ent

(thanks for the e mail Bob!)

In reply to Enty:

If he doesn't see this and reply, try emailing Inca. He uses a Mac for phot manipulation, but may be able to help anyway. http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/profile.php?id=60989

Cat

In reply to Enty:

It isn't hugely complicated though it can be time consuming. If you arte doing a 360 that could be a lot of shots which = big files and a 'thin' panorama!
The tricky bit is the fact that you eye sees a complete gradient but the camera exposes differently for every shot - covering the hard edges is the tricky bit!

Chris

half a dozen shots stitched to give a Bowden Doors panorama

http://www.pbase.com/chris_craggs/image/86624370

In reply to Enty:

Another good piece of software for doing this that is completely free (i.e. not a restricted version like the 'free' version of autostitch) is http://hugin.sourceforge.net/ There are some examples in my flickr stream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/slackline/sets/72157600013425309/

The exposure is as Chris says the tricky part. I've recently started experimenting with using exposure lock on my camera when taking pictures that I will want to stitch. Meter in the middle of the area I want to stitch seems to give the best results.

Probably fairly obvious, but a tripod is invaluable for taking even shots too, and if your using an SLR with a zoom lens I've found that not using the widest angle gives slightly better results as you have less 'warping' around the edges when your then stitching things together.

In reply to slacky:
Another vote for hugin - used in partnership with autopano-sift and enblend (links on the hugin page), it's particularly successful, and exposure (unless higely different on each picture) is rarely a problem.
There's a small learning curve to grasp the basics, but after that it's quick and simple. And much better than the paid-for tools I've tried.

In reply to Enty:

another vote for Hugin - does a great job!

In reply to Enty: Ye dont bother with photoshop for getting the photos in the right place and exposed properly. Hugin (with smartblend for blending the edges into one another) does this MUCH better (not to mention faster)than you can. You can output Hugin into a layered tiff so you can play with it after in photoshop, it just saves you stetching around 10 photos, gets the exposures spot on, and blends em nicely too (Smartblend plugin works well)

So ye another vote for Hugin here too. Oh and its free

In reply to Enty:

I've found that CS3 wipes the floor with other stitching software I've used (mainly PTGUI). And its so fast!

In reply to Dr Avid: I've been trying to stitch a series of photos with hugin but it keeps assuming the horizon should be flat. Most of the horizon is but one part on the right hand side should be higher than the rest. Any idea how I can fix this?

Cheers,

B.

In reply to Bob Hughes:

Check to see if its automagically added horizon lines to the pictures that form the area that is higher. If so remove these and leave the remaining ones in, although it would be worth checking that they actually correspond to the horizons 'true' position, if not remove these too and then define your own horizon lines.

In reply to ChrisJD:

I'd hope so for the ~£550 its listed as costing on Amazon!!

A bit of lag for something thats free (i.e. Hugin) is acceptable to me.

All depends on other factors as well though, like RAM, CPU speed, bus speed, other apps running, blah, blah, blah.

In reply to slacky:


With 8GB of RAM in XP-64 bit, I don't seem to have many RAM problems

<though each app can only address up to 3 GB>

Programms like PTGUI don't even use the RAM to stitch - use hard disk space. (PTGUI & Hugin use the same underlying Panorama Tools).

In reply to slacky: thanks for the tip. I'll have a look.

In reply to jimkeeley:

Select the brightest and darkest points, then delete the whole sky and replace with a gradient - make sense?


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Would that not get rid of the cool spindift on the right?

Jim

In reply to jimkeeley:

Ha! I had only seen the left-hand side!
There is no line in the right-hand sky so you could leave that untouched.

Chris

In reply to jimkeeley:
Jim, what did you stitch it with? Restitching with Hugin would certainly get rid of them.

In reply to jimkeeley:

I'll run the original images through CS3 if you want.

Zip them up and yousendit.com to me

In reply to Enty:

Thanks for the replies.

We have 4-5 days crystal clear weather forecast so I'll head off up the mountain and have a play.

The Ent

In reply to Enty:
Good luck!

Something no-one has mentioned yet is to try taking your shots in portrait rather than the more obvious landscape mode. SHould help to avoid long skinny panoramas.

In reply to Mike_Watson_99:

Not sure that will help - just more shots to stitch with acres of sky?



Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Aye but it means you cover more vertical which is useful if not using a tripod and having a consistent level.

In reply to Mike_Watson_99:

I used CS2 and the Canon software that came with the g9 found the CS2 gave the best image.

Jim

In reply to Enty:

Its interesting to see how stitching & stitching software has developed the same deveoted brand loyalty as makes of cameras!

In reply to Martyn Maltby:


Very impressive!


Chris

In reply to Martyn Maltby:
Obviously a popular place to do a panorama! I took something similar last summer.

http://www.prog99.com/Summer%20Holidays/Vallercine%20-%20July%202007/Planpr...

In reply to Mike_Watson_99:

Clouds defanantly make the process a bit easyer than just blue skys - dont they..

Jim

In reply to ChrisJD:

I guess like cameras, its got a bit to do with getting used to your tools, but for me, my choice is mainly influenced by my choice of using open-source software (and operating systems) so many of those suggested aren't viable options.

I'd imagine they're all fairly similar to use (to a greater or lesser extent), and there would probably be some brand loyalty if you've shelled out a money for the software in the first place.