Trying to manually lining things up in PS layers vs. using photomerge ... any thoughts @ approach, so that I can make skew/scale/horizon adjustments to the individual layers
It seems that rectilinear wide angle architecture isn't going to be for the faint of heart.
Maybe a reshoot using longer focal length, portrait orientation and a different overlap strategy.
I tried to 'center' each building (or group). I'm thinking I might want to "center" each building joint also.
Rusty -- You've got yourself an interesting challenge! Looks pretty good, except he details like the power lines. I'm no PS whiz, but maybe someone can offer advice on this sort of stitching.
Here is something from my new 28-300L IS. I find it more difficult avoiding parallax errors with a long lens body at the wider angles (28-60mm). Anyone else find the same? Probably has to do with the nodal point being so far forward doing hand held shots. More practice needed. This one came out okay.
RustyBug wrote:
1) What/how could/should I have approached it differently?
2) What recommendations for proceeding with stitching in PS?
3) Recommendations for "user friendly" (budget & technique) approach outside PS?
That's a great pic! Reminds me of a similar (in technique, not content) shot I took a few years ago. Mine was a total of 9 pictures (one centered on each dragon face) taken handheld. I used a line on the pavement to ensure I was equidistant from the mural at all times.
1) Not sure what else you could do. Seems like you did basically the same as me.
2) I don't remember 100% anymore, but I believe I put mine together using one of 2 methods. I do remember this being a special challenge that I had to try a few different approaches before I got something that worked.
First was using CS3. I loaded all the pictures into one document with layers, and aligned the layers. Then I went through and manually masked them according to where I could best hide transitions. Using some feathered masks I was able to blend in some of the "unclean" transitions using visually "busy" areas to hide the discontinuities. Finally I am pretty sure I put my picture in to Hugin, and told it to warp the image such that XYZ lines were horizontal, so there was no distortion.
Either that or I did all the stitching in hugin, but told the program to export each image as a layered TIFF, which I then hand-assembled in photoshop, so I could do manual masking and blending of the images. Now that I think about it I think I did it this way.
3) See above, but a pretty powerful stitcher that is also free and open source is Hugin. It may take a little getting used to and some learning to extract maximum results, but I think it is much more capable in terms of versatility and output quality.
Here is my pic. Ridiculously wide ~10:1 aspect ratio . I have to say, in terms of "image success" encompassing the whole process from "looking at a scene and envisioning a finished picture in my mind" to "correctly taking the necessary captures to realize that vision" and finally, "putting everything together on the computer", this is one of the images I am most proud of, particularly since it required such novel technique (first and only time I have done a pano like this) and the outcome was great, pretty much exactly as I envisioned it to be. It now sits proudly on my wall, printed and framed over 4 feet wide.
Thanks guys ... will look into Hugin and maybe a few others that don't "break the bank" ... mostly I think I would like to have a program that I can assign stitch points fairliy easily for when the "auto" aspect of PS isn't up to the task.
Thanks a lot Gunzorro! Looking through more pics in this thread I have bcome inspired to share some of my favorite panos.
Looking through my archives there are a number of panos I took but never assembled. I think in the past I was reluctant to assemble them because I was always using old computer hardware. Now I have a more modern computer, I should get back in the habit of stitching. I think I have some potentially good ones that have thus far lain dormant on my hard drive .
For those who say you need nodal rails, I disagree (to a point) . These two were taken without the use of a nodal rail. what I did instead was to tie a string with a weight onto the lens in roughly the position of the nodal point. Then I marked on the floor with a coin where the weight hung. That way, as I turned the camera I readjusted the position of the tripod to keep the weight over the coin. Not as fast, easy, or elegant as a nodal rail, but works in a pinch! http://www.umich.edu/~nakm/pics/200905300001.jpg
Ruahrc wrote:
Thanks a lot Gunzorro! Looking through more pics in this thread I have bcome inspired to share some of my favorite panos.
Looking through my archives there are a number of panos I took but never assembled. I think in the past I was reluctant to assemble them because I was always using old computer hardware. Now I have a more modern computer, I should get back in the habit of stitching. I think I have some potentially good ones that have thus far lain dormant on my hard drive .
Norman
fantastic stuff! really love the windmills and the teatons panos.
Here is one of those "lost panos" that I Never got around to stitching.
Unfortunately my thesis doesn't write itself so I can only do this on short breaks
I notice that if you make the picture too large, you get some kind of magnifying glass that lets you zoom in the picture. Is it possible to get around this? What's the maximum size or dimension that you can use without the zooming function taking over?
You guys kill me ... and inspire me both at the same time.
I've got to upgrade my pc/laptop SOON ... so I can speed up my learning curve. Maybe this week ... I'm getting honed in on an i7 2640M configuration on a Dell E6520.
Marvelous stuff. I've got a trip to Utah coming in May ... gotta get my skills ready.
UPDATE ... I pulled the trigger on a DELL Precision M4600 Mobile Workstation. Those 4 SLOTS for memory just kept calling my name.
. I have to say, in terms of "image success" encompassing the whole process from "looking at a scene and envisioning a finished picture in my mind" to "correctly taking the necessary captures to realize that vision" and finally, "putting everything together on the computer", this is one of the images I am most proud of, particularly since it required such novel technique (first and only time I have done a pano like this) and the outcome was great, pretty much exactly as I envisioned it to be. It now sits proudly on my wall, printed and framed over 4 feet wide.
