Panoramic photography on the cheap! - Photography Help Blog by Pixelpix

My most recent blog entry.....

Tip 7: Panoramic photography on the cheap!
http://russellspixelpix.blogspot.com...-on-cheap.html

Here I show how I made a cheap and effective pano head and offer some
tips for shooting panoramic images.

I hope you will find it useful.

Cheers

Russell Stewart
http://blog.pixelpix.com.au
http://www.pixelpix.com.au/gallery
http://www.potd.com.au

On Jun 6, 6:15 pm, PixelPix wrote:
My most recent blog entry.....

Tip 7: Panoramic photography on the cheap!http://russellspixelpix.blogspot.com...ramas-on-cheap...

Here I show how I made a cheap and effective pano head and offer some
tips for shooting panoramic images.

I hope you will find it useful.

Cheers

Russell Stewarthttp://blog.pixelpix.com.auhttp://www.pixelpix.com.au/galleryhttp://www.potd.com.au

Very nice write up, well worth a read.

thanks,

Scott

PixelPix wrote:

My most recent blog entry.....

Tip 7: Panoramic photography on the cheap!
http://russellspixelpix.blogspot.com...-on-cheap.html

Here I show how I made a cheap and effective pano head and offer some
tips for shooting panoramic images.

I hope you will find it useful.

Yes, thanks, that's a good explanation & a clever device. I was just
discussing this with fellow photographers and your page made it more
clear to me.

BTW, my discussion was with a film shooter who wanted to make multiple
prints & simply lay them side by side. I think I was correct in saying
this simply will not work. For accurate results, software is needed to
undistort the geometry of each shot.


--
Paul Furman Photography
http://www.edgehill.net/1
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

Paul Furman wrote:
PixelPix wrote:

My most recent blog entry.....

Tip 7: Panoramic photography on the cheap!
http://russellspixelpix.blogspot.com...-on-cheap.html


Here I show how I made a cheap and effective pano head and offer some
tips for shooting panoramic images.

I hope you will find it useful.

Yes, thanks, that's a good explanation & a clever device. I was just
discussing this with fellow photographers and your page made it more
clear to me.

BTW, my discussion was with a film shooter who wanted to make multiple
prints & simply lay them side by side. I think I was correct in saying
this simply will not work. For accurate results, software is needed to
undistort the geometry of each shot.


I have done many such film 'panos'. Yes, the geometry is better using a
good digital and panorama software, but the pictures laid side by side,
with careful overlapping can give a pretty good impression of a wide
scene. Much more dramatic than a single picture at a time.

"Paul Furman" wrote

BTW, my discussion was with a film shooter who wanted to make multiple
prints & simply lay them side by side. I think I was correct in saying
this simply will not work.

It would work if he would paste them to the inside of a sphere.

If pasted to the outside of a sphere it might look like a
'fish-eye panorama' where the undistorted center moves with
the orientation of the sphere...

Internet rule #1: The answer to the question "Am I the only one?"
is always "No".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUKs87Dj2tc
http://www.termespheres.com/store.html

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters
http://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

PixelPix wrote:
My most recent blog entry.....

Tip 7: Panoramic photography on the cheap!
http://russellspixelpix.blogspot.com...-on-cheap.html

Here I show how I made a cheap and effective pano head and offer some
tips for shooting panoramic images.

I hope you will find it useful.

Cheers

Russell Stewart
http://blog.pixelpix.com.au
http://www.pixelpix.com.au/gallery
http://www.potd.com.au

An interesting method you have there. For my purposes though, I need
vertical as well as horizontal panning, and while your setup rotates
around the nodal point in a lateral pan, it does not allow this in a
vertical pan.

Colin D.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"Colin_D" wrote in message
.. .
PixelPix wrote:
My most recent blog entry.....

Tip 7: Panoramic photography on the cheap!
http://russellspixelpix.blogspot.com...-on-cheap.html

Here I show how I made a cheap and effective pano head and offer some
tips for shooting panoramic images.

I hope you will find it useful.

An interesting method you have there. For my purposes though, I need
vertical as well as horizontal panning, and while your setup rotates
around the nodal point in a lateral pan, it does not allow this in a
vertical pan.

Colin D.



What do you use, Colin?

--
www.mattclara.com

On Jun 8, 7:54 am, Colin_D wrote:
PixelPix wrote:
My most recent blog entry.....

Tip 7: Panoramic photography on the cheap!
http://russellspixelpix.blogspot.com...ramas-on-cheap...

Here I show how I made a cheap and effective pano head and offer some
tips for shooting panoramic images.

I hope you will find it useful.

Cheers

Russell Stewart
http://blog.pixelpix.com.au
http://www.pixelpix.com.au/gallery
http://www.potd.com.au

An interesting method you have there. For my purposes though, I need
vertical as well as horizontal panning, and while your setup rotates
around the nodal point in a lateral pan, it does not allow this in a
vertical pan.

Colin D.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com

A vertical pan is not a problem if using a tripod that allows the
middle shaft to be removed and replaced in the horizontal position.
One of the Manfrotto 055 tripods does this.... my 055 is the model
under and does not, so I put a second tripod head on top of the other
and this gives me vertical pans around the nodal.

It also allows for severe off-level nodal rotation and with that some
wacko effects can be created... http://www.potd.com.au/gallery/album...WackoPano2.jpg

Cheers

Rusty

Matt Clara wrote:
"Colin_D" wrote in message
.. .
PixelPix wrote:
My most recent blog entry.....

Tip 7: Panoramic photography on the cheap!
http://russellspixelpix.blogspot.com...-on-cheap.html

Here I show how I made a cheap and effective pano head and offer some
tips for shooting panoramic images.

I hope you will find it useful.

An interesting method you have there. For my purposes though, I need
vertical as well as horizontal panning, and while your setup rotates
around the nodal point in a lateral pan, it does not allow this in a
vertical pan.

Colin D.



What do you use, Colin?

--
www.mattclara.com

Hi Matt,
I manufactured a pano head from 12mm - about ½-inch - plywood, basically
along the lines of the Panosaurus, with a bubble level fixed to the
bottom piece of wood, a vertical piece fitted into a routered groove
spaced from the point of rotation to position the lens over the rotate
point of the tripod, and a plywood arm extending backwards from the
vertical panel to carry the camera in portrait orientation. This arm is
pivoted at the nodal point so the camera can swing vertically as well as
horizontally about the nodal point. The camera mounting screw is in an
adjustable slot so the camera can be moved forward or back a limited
amount to set the NP depending on the zoom setting. Not that there's a
lot of difference, since most of the time I am zoomed to about 60mm or
so. But lately I have photographed the front foyer and the lounge of a
large house, from ceiling to floor, three rows of six shots at 17mm,
which is why I need the vertical swing.

Imagine the Panosaurus made of plywood and you've got the idea. Cost of
manufacture about $5 for a bubble level and suitable bolts and wing
nuts, scrap plywood, $0. Time to make, about two to three hours.
Painted matt black, looks ok.

The first trap was not setting the tripod head level before leveling the
pan-tilt head, so I have to fit another bubble level to the tripod.

Colin D.

Colin D.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Wed, 06 Jun 2007 21:15:10 -0700, PixelPix
wrote:
My most recent blog entry.....
Tip 7: Panoramic photography on the cheap!
http://russellspixelpix.blogspot.com...-on-cheap.html

Here I show how I made a cheap and effective pano head and offer some
tips for shooting panoramic images.

I hope you will find it useful.

Good article Russell, thanks for that. Others like me who are starting
to develop an interest in this might also be interested in an article
on the subject that I stumbled upon last night on the Manfrotto site:

http://www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/manfrotto/pid/3491

Though I suspect that the equipment used in the latter article would
be... rather more wallet-shattering.