Panorama, move camera instead of panning...
Feb 14, 2021 12:16:15 #
As the title says I want to make a panorama of a unique 200 foot long building front by moving the camera instead of panning from a central spot. The building is on a narrow street so the farthest away I can get is about 40 feet. It's also an hour drive from home.
I did the usual panning type panorama on this last year. The fish eye distortion is what I want to eliminate.
If I had a slider 200 feet long it'd be easy (I think).
Trying this at home on a close-by building gave mixed results. I moved the tripod enough to get overlap, but not being able to keep the camera axis exactly perpendicular to the building face caused some discontinuities in stitching. I'm using ICE, Microsoft's free stitching program.
My current thought is to mount the camera in my car, mark stop points on the street and move down the length of the building taking many shots ( I think I can drive straight for 200 feet). I thought my 50mm lens might be good, but maybe 70mm might be a better choice?
Any thoughts, recommendations, lens, etc?
I did the usual panning type panorama on this last year. The fish eye distortion is what I want to eliminate.
If I had a slider 200 feet long it'd be easy (I think).
Trying this at home on a close-by building gave mixed results. I moved the tripod enough to get overlap, but not being able to keep the camera axis exactly perpendicular to the building face caused some discontinuities in stitching. I'm using ICE, Microsoft's free stitching program.
My current thought is to mount the camera in my car, mark stop points on the street and move down the length of the building taking many shots ( I think I can drive straight for 200 feet). I thought my 50mm lens might be good, but maybe 70mm might be a better choice?
Any thoughts, recommendations, lens, etc?
Feb 14, 2021 12:35:50 #
dougbev3
Loc: Pueblo, Colorado
I am not an expert in any way, too many on here who will answer your question better. I was wondering how tall the building was. I guess if it is one level, you might achieve what you want.
Feb 14, 2021 12:43:04 #
I haven’t tried panoramas yet, but here are a few thoughts about alignment. The street is already narrow and the car mount would reduce it further. You already have something faintly resembling a rail with the curb or edge of the sidewalk. Place two legs of your tripod on the curb/edge for each shot, hopefully this will maintain a fairly constant distance from your subject. For the first shot carefully align the camera/lens axis perpendicular to the building and tightly lock down all of the tripod adjustments. I think a prime lens is a good idea eliminating chances of a zoom lens shifting. I think this will allow you to just move the tripod taking sequential exposures. I hope this helps.
Bill
Bill
Feb 14, 2021 12:58:49 #
bamfordr
Loc: Campbell CA
Interesting idea. I’ve used Lightroom with my Canon 7D and my iPhone to stitch. Satisfactory (for me) elimination of fish eye in both cases.
Feb 14, 2021 13:15:10 #
Leitz
Loc: Solms
SonyDoug wrote:
As the title says I want to make a panorama of a u... (show quote)
Why not post this in the Panorama section?
Feb 14, 2021 13:50:48 #
wjones', thanks, good idea about the curb, except this is a semi-rural, unpaved, pot holed street. No straight reference surfaces.
Feb 14, 2021 13:58:11 #
Leitz wrote:
Why not post this in the Panorama section?
Thanks for the idea..... where do I find the Panorama section? I don't see that as an option.
Feb 14, 2021 14:00:04 #
SonyDoug wrote:
wsjones', thanks, good idea about the curb, except this is a semi-rural, unpaved, pot holed street. No straight reference surfaces.
Can you stretch out a string or rope for reference?
Feb 14, 2021 14:11:31 #
Feb 14, 2021 14:19:43 #
SonyDoug wrote:
Thanks for the idea..... where do I find the Panorama section? I don't see that as an option.
Once you subscribe to a section it will appear.
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/all-section-list
Feb 14, 2021 14:24:30 #
larryepage
Loc: North Texas area
SonyDoug wrote:
As the title says I want to make a panorama of a u... (show quote)
I have tried this. It should work. But I've not had success yet. I think what happens is that changes in the foreground confuse the software and prevent it from stitching the images properly. The algorithms are built for a stationary camera on a tripod and can't handle a mailbox or sidewalk which changes drastically in apparent location. I've tried changing projection choices and just about everything else I can think of with no success. Hopefully someone will come along and show us how easy it really is...I've been using LightRoom for several years to do my panoramas.
Feb 14, 2021 20:15:39 #
I've had some minor luck. I have a Fotodiox tilt shift adapter on my Sony a6000 which uses Canon FD lenses.
Using a 50mm FD, two shots, full shift left and right about 3/8" offset from center on each side. Stitched perfectly. A single image should be about 6000 wide by 4000 high for approx 24mp. My stitched image came out 9777 wide by 4034 height. So the stitched image is roughly 1.62 times wider or 3777 pixels wider. Hardly a great panorama, better than nothing though.
Tried my 28mm Vivitar FD mount and got a much wider view stitched image with less height. That lens is no where near the quality of the 50mm so not a great image.
What this tells me is the images need be very accurately aligned prior to importing to stitching software. At lest that's my theory at this point.
Using a 50mm FD, two shots, full shift left and right about 3/8" offset from center on each side. Stitched perfectly. A single image should be about 6000 wide by 4000 high for approx 24mp. My stitched image came out 9777 wide by 4034 height. So the stitched image is roughly 1.62 times wider or 3777 pixels wider. Hardly a great panorama, better than nothing though.
Tried my 28mm Vivitar FD mount and got a much wider view stitched image with less height. That lens is no where near the quality of the 50mm so not a great image.
What this tells me is the images need be very accurately aligned prior to importing to stitching software. At lest that's my theory at this point.
Feb 15, 2021 05:59:16 #
Photoshop is very good at stitching images even if they are somewhat out of alignment. The better you level the images the more even the border will be, but if you have some space top and bottom you should be able to crop top and bottom and get a good result. Most important would be, I think, to make sure the camera is always parallel to the wall and at the same distance from the wall. That being said, I have never tried moving the camera and there may be something I'm missing, but you should try with PS, which I'm sure is light tears ahead of a Microsoft free program.
It seems to me that if you set up the camera on tripod so that the lens was exactly in line with the front leg, you could use a long straightedge like a tape measure placed against the back legs to see if the camera was parallel to the wall. If there is a road with a curb you could use that for alignment. Make sure not to use too wide a lens, which stretches straight lines in the corners!
It seems to me that if you set up the camera on tripod so that the lens was exactly in line with the front leg, you could use a long straightedge like a tape measure placed against the back legs to see if the camera was parallel to the wall. If there is a road with a curb you could use that for alignment. Make sure not to use too wide a lens, which stretches straight lines in the corners!
Feb 15, 2021 06:03:01 #
Ive tried using panorama on the sony rx100m3 and the rx10m4 with no success at all.....it tells me im not moving the camera correctly. My huawei p30 pro phone does it brilliantly ever single time
Feb 15, 2021 06:26:17 #
I don't have a clue how one does it with Photoshop, but back in the days of film we did quite a few panoramas with good results. If I remember correctly, the technique was to overlap each shot by 50%, then use just the center one third of each print to make the panorama. Everything would line up quite well, with minimal distortion.
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