Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Gene or Ron,

Is a Nodal Rail necessary to shoot Pano's? Do you use a rail, or a leveling base under your ball head, or just make sure your tripod is leveled before shooting?

Thanks, Vince

Rongnongno Loc: FL

The answer is.... Yes and no.

I use handheld when I am a tourist. I use a self made gizmo when I am still a tourist but carry only a small table tripod that I can set anywhere (6 inches) - horizontal shooting only with this weird stuff -.

Now when I get serious - which is rare now a day - I use a tripod, a rail or L bracket plus rail depending if I am shooting horizontal or vertical. I have a tendency to shoot vertical with a longer lens in order to capture more details.

Horizon level and nodal point are set in this case. The tripod is horizontal, the rail or L also is verified for level and so is the camera. The weight of the camera/lens is a factor if the rail is not as steady as it should be...

The nodal point is really easy to set at the moment. You align the lens surface axis to the axis of the tripod. It is not more complex than that.

I have seen some folks use a leveling plate but I really do not understand why. If the tripod ax is vertical and the head set horizontal there is no need.

This type of setup is mainly used for multiple rows and columns. Gene posted a sample of multiple row today or yesterday.

Note that I am a weird specimen when it comes to 'horizontal lines'. I pay more attention to having at least one major vertical line as a visual point of reference when I post process.

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Thanks for the quick reply. I have been wanting to try some pano's and reading up on it. I saw some people say they do it hand held, some tutorials that say you have to use a tripod, some that say you need a tripod and rail, so I was just wondering. I figured I would ask here now that we have the Panorama section. I would think if I use the bubble level on the tripod that a leveling base would not be necessary. I'll probably start out using the tripod. Thanks again.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I don't even own a nodal head, though I've used them in the past - the RRS version. I no longer do real estate photography or architectural photography, where you are more likely to run into parallax errors, particularly when there is "stuff" in the foreground, which is what the nodal head eliminates.

My tripods have either a leveling base with a bubble level, or a small plate (image below) that fits between my ball head and the threaded base at the top of the tripod. Getting the tripod level is easy enough, though a bit easier with the leveling base. I then use the in-camera horizon and azimuth indicators to ensure the camera is level, or whatever I need it to be, as in the case of a multi-row panorama.

The bridge image was taken without a nodal head, and to my surprise, there were no detectable parallax problems.

Leveling Plate - $16 at B&H

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Bridge at Branch Brook Park, Newark, NJ

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Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

The more experimenting I do the more I'm convinced that for the majority of images the answer to your first question is, no. It seems that parallax is just a boogie man unless there are subjects very close to the lens with other subjects between them and the farthest objects. If you use stitching and a moderate telephoto, its narrow angle can sometimes isolate those parts to a frame, or a part of a frame, that won't be overlapped. That's a bit tricky though.
I currently use a leveling base with a panning clamp when using a tripod but 98% of the time, hand held gets the job done.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

You are correct with one caveat:

Paralax problems while not noticeable on an average panorama are a serious issue if you do commercial work or intend to print for sale. It is especially so when dealing with cityscape or anything that has numerous sharp angles and differently angled planes or aligned poles like in a fence going from the foreground to the background. A rare occurrence but it does happen.

The result is that knowing how to set the lens nodal point on a tripod is important. I recall seeing a video of a guy using a string, a stone attached to the front of his lens to be able to turn around a specific point on the ground.

One user* already mentioned that using his iphone he had much better results turning the phone onto itself than shooting using his shoulder/body position.

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* Sorry I do not recall the thread.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

You are correct and I should have noted that. For what it's worth, in my bag there is a rail (w/clamp) that has two stops on it. One position is for an 85mm lens and the other for a 50mm. This rail fits the panning clamp on the tripod. A person should know the nodal points for their lens for those occasions when they are necessary.

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Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Thanks Gene. One of my ballheads is an Acratech GV2 and on their website it says a leveling base should be used for pano's. I also had read on some websites a nodal rail should be used also, and others didn't mention the rail at all, hence the reason for my question. Plus those that say they shoot a pano handheld had me wondering. Thanks again, Vince.

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Thanks for the reply Rich. So you rarely use a tripod, you do mostly handheld pano's? Doing them handheld how much overlap do you do, do you do more when doing them handheld then when on a tripod or the same amount of overlap?

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Vince I use 50% because it is easy to work with and quick. From the first frame just move what is in the center to the edge, repeat as needed. This is handy under changing light conditions, like sunrise or set. Old eyes and slow reaction times mess me up when trying to use a tripod and a pan head with degree marks at those times of day. Gene however is "Speed Racer" His 3 bridges shot was done in a little over 1 min.

On a tripod with say an 85 mm 20 percent overlap is plenty since that lens has negligible distortion

Experiment, try different things. Image cost is zero!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Yes, I shoot a lot of panos hand held. You end up taking many more shots than you really need, but as you will discover, having the camera level is not as important as shooting enough above and below the area of interest so that you can level the image in post processing and still get as much foreground and sky as you need to make the image look the way you want.

This link has a nice illustration of hand-held with longer lens technique.

https://petapixel.com/2016/10/27/stitching-panorama-forget-wide-angle-lens-home/

Rongnongno Loc: FL

It is an interesting article but it raises a question....

I always use longer lenses when I do a panorama because I get more details than with a wide angle, which, to me, is the whole point.

Many will disagree with that but.... Is carrying a wide angle while traveling all that necessary?

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Gene, Thanks for the link to the Petapixel article on shooting pano's hand held. I will try out both techniques to see how they work. Right now I am a little pressed for time due to some family obligations at home that take up more than a fair amount of my time, so it probably won't be right away.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

As somebody said, yes and no. I used to use it religiously all the time, but found unless there are vertical structures, like railings, in the foreground, a nodal rail was not necessary. The key to a successful panorama is extra careful leveling of the tripod. And I have found that it is not enough to use the internal virtual horizon in the camera, but to level the tripod platform below the ball head. I have a leveling head on my tripod that the ball head mounts to, with a bubble level for confirmation.

I know several Cinematographers, who have told me to shoot left to right, and overlap by 25 to 50% just to be safe.

Once you get it down on the tripod, practice doing a pano hand held. There are some places where you cannot take a tripod or monopod, and hand held is the only way to go.

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Thanks for the reply and info Robert. Nice website and photos by the way.

Vince