panorama problems: I photograph 'virtual tours' for my wife, a realtor. I sometimes do panoramas of large rooms consisting of a series of 3 to 5 overlapping shots which are then 'sewn'...

roadapplemax Loc: Browns Valley Ca

I photograph 'virtual tours' for my wife, a realtor. I sometimes do panoramas of large rooms consisting of a
series of 3 to 5 overlapping shots which are then 'sewn' together. In some of these rooms there are very dark areas leading to very bright door/window areas. The bright areas give me fits. Any help other than very expensive camera? Thanks

ebaribeault Loc: Baltimore

Set your exposure for the birght areas. It is easier to bring detail out of the dark areas

donrent Loc: Punta Gorda , Fl

Dosen't sound like a camera problem rather than a "lighting" problem...

Perhaps a couple "slave" remote flash units would help... They are not expensive at all and take upp very little room...

I've used them for years and they work out really well...The main thing is to locate them so its flash isn't too obious....

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

donrent wrote:

Dosen't sound like a camera problem rather than a "lighting" problem...

Perhaps a couple "slave" remote flash units would help... They are not expensive at all and take upp very little room...

I've used them for years and they work out really well...The main thing is to locate them so its flash isn't too obious....

Agreed...get yourself some remote flashes and fill the area with light...

For this shot (shot 1), I hid two flashes, one next to the entry door, and one behind the column...If I didn't do this this, then entry would have been totally dark (shot 2).

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Also, what software are you using...you might be able to pull the details out of the shadows in the post processing as a way to cheat.

thegrimreeper Loc: England U.K.

Try using the camera in portrait mode and 50% overlap, avoid any background and use the camera in aperture mode opening up to about f4. It's worth a try. Barry

bobby shaftoe

Have a camera that can shoot in RAW mode. Then shadow areas can easily be lightened using the "fill light" slider of the RAW editing app.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

What I do in preparation is to take a reading for the brightest area (apeture priority, set at f8) and then the darkest area. I then use manual to set what might be an average then take test shots at varoius places around the room choosing what gives me the best of the worst. I use the Nikon 10.5 fisheye, taking 6 shots around

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I would shoot raw because you will get more shadow detail. You will need a program that will mask the shadow areas so you can lighten them up selectively.

I shoot paroramas with a tripod. I place a bubble level on top to make sure it is truly level. My tripod has panning marks that help you rotate the camera properly. Once you determine you exposure and distance, turn off the auto focus and exposure. Shoot, pan, shoot.... Stop down to at least f/11 for depth of field. Do not use a polarizer.

I use Photoshop CS5 for stitching the pictures together. It does an excellent job with very little white space left over. The content-aware fill feature is great for those white spots. Otherwise, crop them out. Check for any hairline seams and clone them out.

Happy shooting.

MIKE GALLAGHER Loc: New Zealand

roadapplemax wrote:

I photograph 'virtual tours' for my wife, a realtor. I sometimes do panoramas of large rooms consisting of a
series of 3 to 5 overlapping shots which are then 'sewn' together. In some of these rooms there are very dark areas leading to very bright door/window areas. The bright areas give me fits. Any help other than very expensive camera? Thanks

Look up "HDR". Wildspirit (aka Jim Pankney) is brilliant at it . Might be just what you're looking for.
Mike

Dudley Loc: Roseburg, Oregon

bobby shaftoe wrote:

Have a camera that can shoot in RAW mode. Then shadow areas can easily be lightened using the "fill light" slider of the RAW editing app.

Try reading (and following directions) from your camera manual. This should include instruction in shooting in manual mode, overlapping around 20-30% for each image. and USE A TRIPOD! It will not make a difference if the camera is set to RAW or .jpg. :)

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Dudley wrote:

It will not make a difference if the camera is set to RAW or .jpg. :)

It will for bringing detail out of those shadows. And the tripod must be level.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

The "rules" for panoramas are:
1. shoot manual
2. set white balance - DO NOT use auto
3. set ISO - DO NOT use auto
4. manual focus - DO NOT use auto foccus
5. as has been said - level your camera
6. overlap each image at least 25%
7. whether tripod or hand held - find the optical center of the lens and rotate around that - much written about finding the "NPP" of a lens
8. stitching - I use PTGui (which has a world wide following of panoramists)

Dudley Loc: Roseburg, Oregon

abc1234 wrote:

Dudley wrote:

It will not make a difference if the camera is set to RAW or .jpg. :)

It will for bringing detail out of those shadows. And the tripod must be level.

Are you talking about .jpg or RAW?
The advice BboH gives is about as good as it gets, IMHO.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Dudley wrote:

abc1234 wrote:

Dudley wrote:

It will not make a difference if the camera is set to RAW or .jpg. :)

It will for bringing detail out of those shadows. And the tripod must be level.

Are you talking about .jpg or RAW?
The advice Bbo

I usually shoot JPEG but the settings I noted apply equally to either format. Many of the "professisonal panoramists" shoot RAW convert to TIFF then stitch; same workflow when doing HDR panoramas.