Panorama Shots - In Camera or Stitching in Post? (Page 2): Your "job" as a great photographer is to get the very best shot you can and that starts at the tripod head. It actually...

K52

Your "job" as a great photographer is to get the very best shot you can and that starts at the tripod head. It actually starts before that by getting a camera you can fully control and learning how to do just that. (But that is a discussion for another topic.) Start a panorama shot with a head designed to keep the camera on the right plain and in the correct alignment. Use a head that provides for sequential constant-angle shots around a nodal point. That solves a whole host of problems and that is what you are supposed to do,.........get great shots in the camera first. It's our job. AND I agree that there are panoramic shots everywhere when you get used to seeing them.

K52

Your "job" as a great photographer is to get the very best shot you can and that starts at the tripod head. It actually starts before that by getting a camera you can fully control and learning how to do just that. (But that is a discussion for another topic.) Start a panorama shot with a head designed to keep the camera on the right plain and in the correct alignment. Use a head that provides for sequential constant-angle shots around a nodal point. That solves a whole host of problems and that is what you are supposed to do,.........get great shots in the camera first. It's our job. AND I agree that there are panoramic shots everywhere when you get used to seeing them.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

qualtalk wrote:

I've been watching some of the threads about selecting a wide-angle lens to use with an APS-C camera.

One suggestion I've seen is to take several overlapping images and then stitch them together in post.

I'm shooting with a Nikon D3300 which has a built-in Panorama mode, and my question is whether capturing the image in this mode would produce a better image than stitching together several images in post.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

I've never found a camera that does a good in-camera panorama. Most results have smeared joins and poor detail. Also, they're all JPG format; a show stopper for me.

I shoot a set of overlappping RAW images and stitching them together with Autopano Giga. This gives me flexibility, high image quality and various options that I don't have in-camera. Plus, I can use any of the images captured for a single shot.

Panorama vs. wide-angle lens? I'll take a panorama or mosaic any day! Result gives higher image quality and higher resolution.

I've tested in-camera panoramas on the Sony A7S, A7 II and A7R II, and the Panasonic FZ70 and FZ200; didn't like any of them!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58664881@N02/33805699032/ is an example what one can accomplish with a long camera lens and Autopano Giga, and this image is only about 20% of full scale.

bwa

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Gene51 wrote:

If I am not mistaken, the D3300 records panoramas ... (show quote)

Gene, I know you are a proponent of stitching. Hope I'm not hijacking, bit I think I'm on topic. My question is, how do you print effectively? What size? I have a Milky Way shot I want to print, but not sure how to size it for a print and frame.

Big Bend Night
Big Bend Night...

(Download)

Bigbeartom44

I am an engineer so always try to use the best way to do something so I have been stitching my photos manually. I recently got a Sony a6000 and on a lark I tried the panorama setting. I knew that it wouldn't be as good, boy was I wrong. It was perfect and very easy to use. BTW, I recently bought extra memory for my computer to stitch my photos as 8GB was not adequate. No problem with the camera panorama setting.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Bigbeartom44 wrote:

I am an engineer so always try to use the best way to do something so I have been stitching my photos manually. I recently got a Sony a6000 and on a lark I tried the panorama setting. I knew that it wouldn't be as good, boy was I wrong. It was perfect and very easy to use. BTW, I recently bought extra memory for my computer to stitch my photos as 8GB was not adequate. No problem with the camera panorama setting.

Were you shooting off a tripod or handheld?

bwa

Bigbeartom44

Handheld. I am 72 and not particularly steady so I use a high speed. For a 180 degree pan, it is easier hand held as the camera has a time feature. I just received a tilthead for my monopod, so in the future I will try that.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Bigbeartom44 wrote:

I am an engineer so always try to use the best way to do something so I have been stitching my photos manually. I recently got a Sony a6000 and on a lark I tried the panorama setting. I knew that it wouldn't be as good, boy was I wrong. It was perfect and very easy to use. BTW, I recently bought extra memory for my computer to stitch my photos as 8GB was not adequate. No problem with the camera panorama setting.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I prefer to stitch in post especially with the fill available in Lightroom

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Stitch in post gives me the most control.

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

Usually in-camera pano shots wind up being MUCH lower resolution than if you had stitched together several shots taken in series !
As long as you hold the camera reasonably level from shot to shot, the stitching program will match them up.
I recommend looking at AutoPanoGiga as a post-processing Pano program.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

qualtalk wrote:

I've been watching some of the threads about selecting a wide-angle lens to use with an APS-C camera.

One suggestion I've seen is to take several overlapping images and then stitch them together in post.

I'm shooting with a Nikon D3300 which has a built-in Panorama mode, and my question is whether capturing the image in this mode would produce a better image than stitching together several images in post.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Try both methods and report back here what you learn.

TheDman Loc: USA

bwana wrote:

I've never found a camera that does a good in-came... (show quote)

I think Autopano Giga is hands down the best stitching software.

K52

Some of these answers depend on how "serious" you are about your photography. If you are going to stand in the cold and shoot the milky way at 2 in the morning and you want to print them large then you will shoot with a telephoto and take numerous pictures and end up with a file size that is 400MB or larger. You will ideally shoot with a digital that captures large raw digital files, (Like my D800e), and you will use a panoramic head. IMHO

To get a quality image (large and sharp and well exposed) every step needs to be the best it can be from steady capture to processing and printing. Decide what size print you want and work backwards to determine how to shoot. i almost always shot 2 1/4 or 4x5 if I was serious. Now I shoot multiple images and stitch them to get the resolution I want.
K

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

When I got my Lumix DMC-ZS60 I tried the panorama mode. It looked fine. However, in my computer it showed less data than a stitched one would have. So I would say it depends on what quality you want the image to have.