copladocus

A few threads lately discussed getting a new wide angle lens and a response opined about stitched panos (my thought actually to the new lens). So just go with the idea that a person knows how to create a panoramic photo in PS or whatever... So lets, as a group, create the ultimate landscape photo. Lets incorporate all our tools. So what is the work flow? how do we do it? think about doing HDR photos from raw images, photos incorporating various depth of field settings to get both the horizon and foreground crisp. Now do that for a wide-angle pano of say, a mountain range or cityscape. How do you pull it off? For the sake of this thread lets just say the pano will use only two lateral views. I can see this requiring many photos and a lot of post processing. What is your workflow to provide the most "high tech" photo?

Quixdraw Loc: x

Fascinating...but maybe better under Panorama or Post Processing Digital Images?

Bill_de Loc: US

Here's a link to the Panorama section.

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-128-1.html

Some of what OP is looking for may already be there.

---

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

You don't want to use the camera in landscape orientation if at all possible for a landscape pano. Landscape orientation is ok for vertical panos.

For a horizontal pano you'll want to have your camera in portrait mode, manual focus, manual exposure settings, a set white balance (not auto wb) manual ISO, and if hand holding a shutter speed appropriate to your focal length and stabilization setting, preferably a prime lens longer than 28mm but a zoom lens that does not creep is fine - then take as many raw images as necessary to encompass the view - overlapping them 33% to 50%. Open Lightroom or Photosho ACR, select Photomerge, then merge to pano, and the resulting raw (dng) file will be a stitched pano.

You can do this hand held, the camera does not have to be level, you don't need a zero parallax head - as long as all the images overlap at least 33%.

If you are shooting panos of closer subjects where there are objects in the foreground that partially block the view, then you need a tripod, zero parallax head and you'll need to be a bit more organized with your shooting.

This does not require anymore processing than a standard single photo. The only extra step is selecting and merging your images. Once that is done, the workflow is exactly the same as for a single image. I would not recommend focus stacking for depth of field at least at first. You'd be better off just using a slightly shorter focal length and F16, using the hyperfocal distance as your guide. If you are shooting a mountain trange you are not likely going to bother with focus stacking.

I suggest you try a pano or two - you'll discover that the answers to most of your questions will become evident as you go through the process.

You have the outline, now it's up to you to fill in the blanks - google is an excellnt source, and you will find a lot of material on youtube. Or even in the pano section on UHH that Bill De posted a link to.

mikegreenwald Loc: Illinois

Excellent, common sense reply, by an experienced photographer!

Vienna74 Loc: Bountiful, Utah now Panama

I shoot a fair number of panos in much the same way Gene51 described. Almost all are hand held. I shoot raw, so WB is irrelevant, but one must always shoot in manual mode. I prefer using a 50mm lens (or at least a 35mm) so as to avoid distortion from a wider lens. I even shot a massive two-row and about 10 shot wide pano of the interior of a church. PS is wonderful at stitching them together. The result is a truly large file, which makes processing slow, but the number of pixels in the finished photo is incredible.

Photocraig

ALWAYS listen to Gene51. The first thing I tried with my first DSLR was not only a panoramic landscape. BUT, I also bracketed and blended each exposure to be sure to get the mid tones.

It was so easy even I did it well. Honest, it looks like a post card. There are many tutorials available on YouTube. Granted I'm a many years experienced film photographer, so the capture mechanics were straight forward. Go for it.

Don't underestimate the Vertical view, 33% overlap and manual settings to keep all exposures the same. I use a tripod--CUS teh Damn thing + the head cost me $600, and I'll be darned if I'll leave it home.

Blending exposures AKA hdr (lower case intentional) is just as easy ad similar process without moving the camera, just adjusting exposures and blending them.

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

This was a four frame pano, each component image was a three exposure bracketed HDR. Resulting image is 13689x7525 px or 103 mp. The camera was on a tripod using a Feisol CT3472 and an Arca-Swiss Z1 ball head and I used an 85mm lens @F16. The longest exposure was .8 sec. I level the tripod at the apex, then use the camera level indicator to give me a ballpark level horizon for the pano. This method has proven reliable for me in the past . These days, when it is critical I also have a no-parallax head that I assembled from a box of parts.

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

Dr.Nikon Loc: Honolulu Hawaii

A lot of work .., yields an exquisite shot ... just about as good as it gets ...!

NikonGal Loc: Central Oregon

I enjoyed everything about this image Gene. I don't work a lot with stitching panos and bracketing, but your image indicates it works beautifully. I may give it a try again. Thanks, Bev

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

Thanks, Doc!

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

I do a lot of stitched panos. Usually with a 45mm or an 85mm lens.

You can see some here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gene_lugo/albums/72157687713807602

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Is this "ultimate" or extreme enough?



This was shot was "spur of the moment" (pun intended), done hand held and is a composite of about 30 individual images. It wasn't really successful, partly because there were still riders and horses entering at the extreme right of the frame. This is only about half the participants at the event. But, hey, it was fun to try!

Images were shot RAW, then converted to 16 bit TIFFs for compositing. It was composited in Photoshop and was a bit tricky to balance exposure across the all the images, with some dust kicked up in some and all the backlit subjects. Once I got things lined up as best I could, I set Photoshop to work and went to get a cup of coffee. After it was assembled, I cropped and converted to 8-bit JPEGs in a few different sizes (the above is one of the smallest, sized for online sharing.

For some much more expertly assembled panos, check out some of the beautiful work at http://www.gigapixel.com/galleries/
Note: above is not the same as Topaz Gigapixel AI, which is an image enlargement app.

George Lepp has done some interesting things, including macro panos, verticals and multi-pass panos. I know one of his images was done with a 70-200mm telephoto and is assembled from some 200 images. I found some of his work here: http://gigapan.com/profiles/GeorgeOP

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

When I first started taking panos I bought some special equipment and read up on parallax, etc. After a while I realized that for landscapes none of it was necessary. Here is a 3 vertical shot pano overlapped about 25%, handheld sitting on my porch. I used a Nikon D7000, a Nikkor 28mm manual lens, f5, iso-100, 1/200 sec. I used photoshop to merge the three shots into a single pano. I used the road and fenceline as a rough guide for keeping my camera level and aligned for the three shots.

(Download)