Doug,
I just use Photoshop's "photo merge". I usually access it through Lightroom, and just right click > edit in > merge to panorama. To get to it in Photoshop just go file > automate > photo merge. I leave it in auto mode and tic all three boxes blend together, vignette removal, and correct geometric distortion. I never use a tripod. I get in a sugar-foot stance (wrestling term about your feet being directly under your shoulders splayed 90 degrees.) I rotate my torso only as far to the right as i can go, and begin shooting steady shots watching for only two things.
1-that the horizon remains at the same position within each frame, and
2-that I overlap each frame 20-25% as I uncoil turning left.
I can cover a bit over 180 degrees doing this. The only time I ever see blurring is either the lens shoots soft on the edges, one frame wasn't sharp due to focus or shutter speed, or there wasn't enough overlap to each frame. When Photoshop merges all the images it will increase the canvas size to accommodate the entire field of view captured.
As for moving things like leaves (in my case I was wondering about the waves traveling upstream) I think Photoshop adds in a bit of it's focus stacking abilities picking only the sharpest bits.
When I use to stitch photos manually back in the mid 1990s with Photoshop v4.01 and creating a layer for each frame - distorting that layer - aligning - feathering corners for vignettes etc - I could spend half a day on one photo. When that British Columbia student invented "Autostitch" I was ecstatic. Now, a bunch of programs do it automatically - many, I believe have Autostitch code at their core.
OVERLAP IS CRITICAL
Jim
Oct 24, 2021 at 10:48 AM
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