Somehow I missed Oben's original post.
I've got a real fondness for panoramas. I've been playing around a bit for
quite some time doing them. Here's one guy's 'take':
1. Much harder to do on a film camera, IMHO. Although I'd much prefer to
shoot them on film, the scanning/sizing process has to be very tightly
controlled in order to get reasonable results.
2. Fairly easily taken hand-held, if one holds one's feet still and then
rotates at the waist to take the shots. Some sort of exposure memory as on
the OM-4(T(i)) is a real time-saver.
3. Unless you want to try and slice-and-dice them yourself in PhotoShop, a
lengthy and aggravating endeavor, get hold of some GOOD software
purpose-made for panoramas. I've tried 3 different products: QuickStitch
(now discontinued, and not very good anyway), PhotoVista (came with my
digital camera, and not bad, but nothing to write home about) and Panorama
Factory. PF is by far the best of the bunch. Version 1.6 is Freeware.
Versions above that are shareware, at USD35. Both can be found here:
http://www.panoramafactory.com/
One thing I've found is that PF does a very good job of blending the color
differences between adjacent frames.
4. The toughest part of taking decent panoramas (in my experience) is in
finding the correct amount of overlap to allow, frame to frame, so the
software (or the Mark I Eyeball) can do its job in stitching and blending
the images.
5. A tripod can easily make things *worse*. Unless you get the tripod dead
level, the variation in "apparent elevation" between the beginning, center
and end shots of the series will describe an arc. It's the very regular
nature of that arc that seems to give most stitching software fits. The
software is actually more tolerant of the slight variations in position from
hand-held shots.
6. There's all sorts of information around the web about the ideal number of
shots to take to cover a given distance using a given lens. I've found it
best to just allow about 25 0.000000rame overlap, as seen through the
viewfinder,
based on your memory of the previous shot in the series.
Some examples (digital, not OM) are on my site, here:
http://petroglyph.crestline.ca.us/Photography/gallery.htm
All the panoramas on the page, save the one at the bottom, were stitched and
corrected with Panorama Factory. The last was done by hand in PhotoShop.
---
Scott Gomez
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Gullick [mailto:Steve.Gullick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Subject: Re: [OM] Panoramas
i honestly don't think that it can be done. The problem is, is that although
you may mount the camera on a panning tripod, use the same exposure etc, the
light entering the camera will be at a different angle each time you pan and
will show up mostly in the exposure of the sky.
Steve Gullick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Oben Candemir" <dunya.nospam@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [OM] Panoramas
>
> Could someone explain how best to shoot a multiple shot panorama and
stitch
> them together for the most seamless effect. I know the shift lens
technique
> but am really asking how to get large multi-shot panoramas using a single
> prime lens. Which focal length to use, ideal location to shoot from... how
> far one must move laterally for sequential shots etc. I know exposure
value
> due to changed lighting, cloud coverage and position, are always a
> confounders but assume that lighting and all else are constant.
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