Update: Fixed some bad HTML markup.
In Part 1, we’ll look at how to set your camera up to get a good series of pictures to make a panorama.
I really like creating panoramic images with my camera. A Panoramic image is a series of pictures taken with your regular camera, then stitched together using software on your computer to make one complete image.
Unfortunately, when I have tried to create them before, I have ended up with long pictures that look like they have been just kinda stuck together. The result are pictures with seams, or portions of the picture that just sort of dissolve away into thin air. Something like this detail from a larger Panorama.
< Thankfully there is a free software package that will greatly assist in creating panoramic images.
But first, I'll also share a couple few techniques I have found that make the final result a little better.
1a. If your camera has Panorama Assist, use it.
Many point and shoot digital cameras have a setting that will help you create you panoramas. For example, when using the Panorama Assist on my Nikon point and shoot after each shot, the LCD will display the left third of the image in the right third of the window. The idea being that as you rotate the camera, you simply overlap that bit in the next photo and the stitching will go much easier.
1b. If you don’t have Pano assist, Overlap your images by half a frame.
This may seem like overkill, but it will give the stitching software a better change to match the images up properly.
2. If you have a tripod, use it. Using a tripod to set up your shot and rotate camera will make lining up the shots much easier. If you try and hand hold the camera as you take pictures, you’ll want to overlap the images quite a bit so that the stitching software has a better chance of success. If you don’t, just try your best to keep the camera level and overlap the shots the best you can. Just plant your feet in one spot and put the camera up to you face and swivel your shoulders.
3a. If you can, set the Aperture, shutter speed, and focus ONCE (i.e. use the manual mode on your camera) for ALL the shots in the Panorama.
This may result in some too-dark areas, ans some too-light areas — but it will more closely resemble what you actually saw. If you don’t do this your panorama will probably come out with stripes for each photo where the exposure settings are a little different. So how do you know what to set? Look for the brightest area in your panorama — say towards the sun if you are outside, and set the camera to the Auto setting. Press the shutter button halfway down and see what the readings are — say for example it is Shutter of 200, Aperture of 5.6. . Switch back to Manual mode and dial those settings in.
3b. If you can’t change all those settings you can try the following:
- Using the “A” or aperture Priority mode, and setting the Aperture for all the pictures to be the same. At least the depth of field will stay the same. Also set the Focus at one spot (infinity is a good choice for landscapes)
- Using the “Landscape” auto setting in your camera. This will be a little icon or dial setting that looks like a mountain. That will try to set the focus at infinity and use a small aperture.
4. Shoot the Panorama Multiple Times.
If you are just not sure how to set the camera, then try shooting the panorama a few times using different settings. Use the “Exposure Compensation” feature of your camera. This is a little +/- gauge somewhere on your readout. If you set the camera to always use a -1, for example, then all of your pictures will come out a little under exposed. This is OK because you can use Picasa or another program to make it look better. Try taking the panorama with different amount of overlap.
So lets look at an example, call this the “Worst Case Scenario:
Click the picture to see a larger version on Flickr
In this picture, I just set the camera on “P” and did not use a tripod, I did try to overlap the pictures by about 1/3 of a frame. You can see a bit of striping in the picture where the exposure of the different frames were a little bit different.
See how the top border is not level, that’s because I did not use a tripod and did not keep the camera moving on one plane. With some cropping, you can get rid of those curvy borders.
Here is how a panorama will look if you use the Panorama Assist feature of your Camera, and a tripod.
Click the picture to see a larger version on Flickr
You can see all the pictures used to create this Panorama in my Web Album:
A Panorama does not Have to be a full circle. You can stitch together just a few pictures to simulate a wider angle lens than your camera has.
Here are the individual shots for this Panorama:
Next, we’ll look at how to assemble these pictures into one great looking Panorama.
Please comment if you have any other techniques for getting better photographs to use in a panorama.
[tags]Autostitch, Panorama, Picasa, tutorial[/tags]
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Technique: Create a panorama, with less hassle. Part 2 | Mike DelGaudio // Feb 1, 2007 at 2:31 pm
[…] Technique: Create a panorama, with less hassle. Part 11.31 […]
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