cheineck Loc: Hobe Sound, FL

I shoot a lot of panoramas... auto exposure, 24mm, HAND HELD, and use PS CS5 Photomerge. Fabulous results. One is shown here.

Golf course panorama

Bigdaver

No offense, but you don't have much visible detail or foreground. I know that works for you, but add any more demanding variable and it won't work with no technique and all automatic, at least if you have to have it right. For a wide pano with no foreground, you can do most anything. If you want detail from foreground to infinity, you have to do it right.
48 shot mosaic, this is reduced size. You can read billboards up front and count sections in the tower on the horizon.

littlebug Loc: woburn ma

I'm a novice also, and was wondering about the camera that shoots in panoramic.I saw this woman take a photo of the downtown with this type camera I don't have a clue how they print it would like to hear from members about this subject thanks

littlebug Loc: woburn ma

I'm a novice also, and was wondering about the camera that shoots in panoramic.I saw this woman take a photo of the downtown with this type camera I don't have a clue how they print it would like to hear from members about this subject thanks

cheineck Loc: Hobe Sound, FL

I was going for the clouds as part of a "Florida Mountains" project. Here's another with more foreground.

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

What you describe is what I use. Also look at Nodal Ninja's forum. Lens - with the Nikon D300 use the 10mm fisheye, with a full frame use the 16mm fisheye. Also check out to set up for for the NPP (no parallex point).

cheineck Loc: Hobe Sound, FL

I went to a panorama site on the web and saw some striking images. Unlike mine (see 2 of them above) they seemed to be taken from separate vantage points rather than standing in one spot and turning. The effect was great, not distorted as some of mine are. Anyone know how this is done? Or if "Panoramic" cameras and lenses are used???
Thanks.

gmcase Loc: Galt's Gulch

Check out Max Lyons' pano site. Not as active as it once was but excellent info and some incredibly large panos, over 1 gigapixel in some cases. My largest to to date is 160 images - 8 rows x 20 columns at 12 mp each. I did a much larger one at 280 images but the exposure in the brightest area was blown out a little too much so had to scrap it. I have heard of well over 1 thousand images being used where exposure and focus bracketing were used. Interesting work flows required.

You can shoot more than 1 row to get a larger to height to width ratio in landscape orientation. Some of the free or less robust stitching programs only handle single rows so it won't work on those.

cheineck Loc: Hobe Sound, FL

Thanks very much!!!

beverett Loc: los angeles

Bigdaver has it right. Nothing on auto, not even white balance. Make sure the tripod is level and use generous overlap. Three panels is probably not enough, especially if you are shooting verticals.

Tom H Loc: St. Louis, MO

I guess I'm kind of hogging into this. I too, want to try my hand at panoramas.

I want to try it with my Sigma 8-16mm lens set at 8mm (12mm as 35 equiv.) on my Pentax K-5 in a portrait (vertical) orientation. I haven't played with this at all yet. I had planned on at least a 1/3 overlap. Not sure what the horizon would do if I did't keep it centered, so plan to do some cropping to get a good composition. Haven't decided on a location or subject but hope to find something begging for this treatment while on vacation next month. Perhaps their is a mountain top just waiting for me.

I only have a ball head on my tripod so can't pivot around the nodal point. How much of a problem is that with this superwide lens? In case I really get caught up in doing panoramas, what do you suggest for a tripod head in the moderate to low price range.

I'm concerned about avoiding the sun with such a wide lens and no way to use filters. What problems I'm I overlooking that haven't been covered in the discussion already?

Other suggestions and thoughts would be welcome. Considering the distortion involved at 8mm (12mm), it is OK to just say I'm nuts to waste time trying this with a superwide lens.

djmagicflorida, please excuse the intrusion into your discussion. Hope we might both learn something else. I've found the above discussion to give me confidence that I might just get a good shot or two.

Tom Hudson

beverett Loc: los angeles

Don't worry about the nodal point. Just try to keep the camera level as you pan.

cheineck Loc: Hobe Sound, FL

I use 40 percent overlap... it seems to work fine in PS.

gmcase Loc: Galt's Gulch

I agree with this when you are getting your feet wet. Don't fret too much. You will soon learn what you can getaway with and what you can't. I have shot two row panos x several columns and still obtained reasonable results hand held. If you don't have objects close by in the foreground you reduce the effects of parallax errors greatly.

djmagicflorida

Guess what???? I got my Canon 30D boxes from my storage unit and the CD with PhotoStitch 3.1 is in there. I can't wait to try it. Thanks for all your suggestions and reminding me that I still had the Canon boxes........St Pete Linda