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#1
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Another Brisbane at night pano..
More work in progress..
http://www.marktphoto.com/examples/pano_night1_test.jpg Fuji S9000, fl~35mm, 3s f5.6, 5 images, PTGUI, adjusted levels/sat, lightly denoised, reduced to about 1/3 size and USM. (Need any of this explained or elaborated? just ask..) Two conflicting thoughts struck me while taking the source images: 1. Why doesn't Brisbane City Council light up the botanical gardens a bit, so it doesn't look like a huge black slug in the middle of my image..? (O: and then, hypocritically 2. Do all of those building lights really need to be on, wasting energy like it doesn't matter? (OK, it *was* only about 6pm on a weekday, so I guess it just reflects the long hours we Qlder's work.) In regard to the image - yes, I'm aware of the stitching errors in the foreground handrails, due to me shooting this without a pano head. Maybe I'll go back and fiddle with the control points, maybe not - consider it a copyright message to prevent misuse...! And in hindsight, I should probably have used HDR to get more detail in the sky. But the sunset wasn't a winner, so I couldn't be bothered. Another for the maybe-next-time bin. Constructive criticism welcome. |
#2
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Another Brisbane at night pano..
* Mark Thomas wrote :
More work in progress.. http://www.marktphoto.com/examples/pano_night1_test.jpg Fuji S9000, fl~35mm, 3s f5.6, 5 images, PTGUI, adjusted levels/sat, lightly denoised, reduced to about 1/3 size and USM. (Need any of this explained or elaborated? just ask..) snip / G'day Mark. I've been thinking about panos lately. I don't have a pano head, so trying them handheld. Having trouble I think because the lens I'm using is too wide and getting like a fisheye effect in each frame which is not condusive to the stitching. What lens/focal length should you use? And to minimise the effects of that, should you shoot with horizon dead centre, as opposed to rule of thirds? -- Troy Piggins I always appreciate critique. |
#3
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Another Brisbane at night pano..
Troy Piggins wrote:
* Mark Thomas wrote : More work in progress.. http://www.marktphoto.com/examples/pano_night1_test.jpg Fuji S9000, fl~35mm, 3s f5.6, 5 images, PTGUI, adjusted levels/sat, lightly denoised, reduced to about 1/3 size and USM. (Need any of this explained or elaborated? just ask..) snip / G'day Mark. Cheers, mate - nice to see you still pop by occasionally! I've been thinking about panos lately. Try to resist, even though the Force is strong!! I think they are starting to take over my hobby completely... aaargh.. I don't have a pano head, so trying them handheld. Having trouble I think because the lens I'm using is too wide and getting like a fisheye effect in each frame which is not condusive to the stitching. A lot depends on the software you are using.. ? I don't *normally* hesitate to use mine right down to 28mm with PTGUI, but.. read on.. What lens/focal length should you use? It depends.. If most/all of the subject matter is a reasonable distance away from you, then you will probably find you are ok down to 28mm, and handheld will suffice in most cases as long as you watch what you are doing. But if there is stuff up close to you, it will all get very tricky without that pano head - and longer f-l's will help. The image above is a case in point - I didn't shoot it very carefully, and it was at about 35mm f-l. The handrails and foliage were all quite close to my location.. When I gave the images to PTGUI, it did a fine job with the background stuff, but obviously had a problem with the handrail area. What you see is exactly what PTGUI gave me with no intervention on my part. I *did* briefly try adding a few control points to bring the handrail into line, but PTGUI basically told me I was asking the impossible. I told it to go ahead and try anyway - but when it tried to reconcile my inputs it had to change focal length assumptions and re-align (and misalign) stuff. In other words, it all went badly wrong because the parallax issues were too great for *automatic* stitching. It's a bit like the linear/stepped out issues that were beaten to death some time back. Too much parallax = no panorama! However... In this rather mild case, what I would do is simply go back to PTGUI's original default effort and ask for a PSD file - which has all the source images (deformed and aligned appropriately) as layers. Then I can use Photoshop to fiddle with it - a bit of erasing and stretching will have those rails sorted in a reasonably short time. I've done that sort of thing before, notably on this one: http://www.marktphoto.com/examples/brisbane_pano_bw.jpg which had some similar problems. So it's horses for courses.. it really depends on the original scene and the software you are using. In summary, yes a pano head will help a lot if your pano's have a lot of deopth or close up stuff. So will using longer focal lengths, but of course the penalty is the extra time and effort. And to minimise the effects of that, should you shoot with horizon dead centre, as opposed to rule of thirds? Again, it depends somewhat on the capabilities of the program you stitch with. The less the program has to stretch/distort images the better, so I guess yes is the answer. Plus panoramas by their nature tend to be 'what-you-would-see-if-you-turn-your-head-around', so a level-ish and centred horizon seems to work better, for me anyways.. And you can always crop high or low - increasingly I am shooting the source images portrait-ways, so I have a fair bit of head- and foot-room .. Hope that helps, sorry I waffled on.. mt |
#4
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Another Brisbane at night pano..
"Mark Thomas" wrote in message ... Troy Piggins wrote: * Mark Thomas wrote : More work in progress.. http://www.marktphoto.com/examples/pano_night1_test.jpg Fuji S9000, fl~35mm, 3s f5.6, 5 images, PTGUI, adjusted levels/sat, lightly denoised, reduced to about 1/3 size and USM. (Need any of this explained or elaborated? just ask..) snip / G'day Mark. Cheers, mate - nice to see you still pop by occasionally! I've been thinking about panos lately. Try to resist, even though the Force is strong!! I think they are starting to take over my hobby completely... aaargh.. I don't have a pano head, so trying them handheld. Having trouble I think because the lens I'm using is too wide and getting like a fisheye effect in each frame which is not condusive to the stitching. A lot depends on the software you are using.. ? I don't *normally* hesitate to use mine right down to 28mm with PTGUI, but.. read on.. What lens/focal length should you use? It depends.. If most/all of the subject matter is a reasonable distance away from you, then you will probably find you are ok down to 28mm, and handheld will suffice in most cases as long as you watch what you are doing. But if there is stuff up close to you, it will all get very tricky without that pano head - and longer f-l's will help. The image above is a case in point - I didn't shoot it very carefully, and it was at about 35mm f-l. The handrails and foliage were all quite close to my location.. When I gave the images to PTGUI, it did a fine job with the background stuff, but obviously had a problem with the handrail area. What you see is exactly what PTGUI gave me with no intervention on my part. I *did* briefly try adding a few control points to bring the handrail into line, but PTGUI basically told me I was asking the impossible. I told it to go ahead and try anyway - but when it tried to reconcile my inputs it had to change focal length assumptions and re-align (and misalign) stuff. In other words, it all went badly wrong because the parallax issues were too great for *automatic* stitching. It's a bit like the linear/stepped out issues that were beaten to death some time back. Too much parallax = no panorama! However... In this rather mild case, what I would do is simply go back to PTGUI's original default effort and ask for a PSD file - which has all the source images (deformed and aligned appropriately) as layers. Then I can use Photoshop to fiddle with it - a bit of erasing and stretching will have those rails sorted in a reasonably short time. I've done that sort of thing before, notably on this one: http://www.marktphoto.com/examples/brisbane_pano_bw.jpg which had some similar problems. So it's horses for courses.. it really depends on the original scene and the software you are using. In summary, yes a pano head will help a lot if your pano's have a lot of deopth or close up stuff. So will using longer focal lengths, but of course the penalty is the extra time and effort. And to minimise the effects of that, should you shoot with horizon dead centre, as opposed to rule of thirds? Again, it depends somewhat on the capabilities of the program you stitch with. The less the program has to stretch/distort images the better, so I guess yes is the answer. Plus panoramas by their nature tend to be 'what-you-would-see-if-you-turn-your-head-around', so a level-ish and centred horizon seems to work better, for me anyways.. And you can always crop high or low - increasingly I am shooting the source images portrait-ways, so I have a fair bit of head- and foot-room .. Hope that helps, sorry I waffled on.. mt Hey neat pic.. Maybe your onto something in your stitching.. Escher's illusions and your handrails are on the right track for an Escher.. http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/t...hers-waterfall -- 73 Hank WD5JFR |
#5
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Another Brisbane at night pano..
* Mark Thomas wrote :
Troy Piggins wrote: * Mark Thomas wrote : More work in progress.. http://www.marktphoto.com/examples/pano_night1_test.jpg Fuji S9000, fl~35mm, 3s f5.6, 5 images, PTGUI, adjusted levels/sat, lightly denoised, reduced to about 1/3 size and USM. (Need any of this explained or elaborated? just ask..) snip / G'day Mark. Cheers, mate - nice to see you still pop by occasionally! Let's just say your post piqued my interest. I didn't say I was going altogether, just not posting as much. I've been thinking about panos lately. Try to resist, even though the Force is strong!! I think they are starting to take over my hobby completely... aaargh.. I have a trip planned in a couple of months, and think that panos will work very nicely there. Santorini/Greek Islands, thankyou very much I don't have a pano head, so trying them handheld. Having trouble I think because the lens I'm using is too wide and getting like a fisheye effect in each frame which is not condusive to the stitching. A lot depends on the software you are using.. ? I don't *normally* hesitate to use mine right down to 28mm with PTGUI, but.. read on.. I'm very green to the software. I've heard of PTGUI. I've had a go with the Canon software that came with the camera - Photostitch or something like that. I've heard good things about hugin and enblend but haven't played with it yet. What lens/focal length should you use? It depends.. If most/all of the subject matter is a reasonable distance away from you, then you will probably find you are ok down to 28mm, and handheld will suffice in most cases as long as you watch what you are doing. But if there is stuff up close to you, it will all get very tricky without that pano head - and longer f-l's will help. snip / In summary, yes a pano head will help a lot if your pano's have a lot of deopth or close up stuff. So will using longer focal lengths, but of course the penalty is the extra time and effort. And to minimise the effects of that, should you shoot with horizon dead centre, as opposed to rule of thirds? Again, it depends somewhat on the capabilities of the program you stitch with. The less the program has to stretch/distort images the better, so I guess yes is the answer. Plus panoramas by their nature tend to be 'what-you-would-see-if-you-turn-your-head-around', so a level-ish and centred horizon seems to work better, for me anyways.. And you can always crop high or low - increasingly I am shooting the source images portrait-ways, so I have a fair bit of head- and foot-room .. Yeah, in my few recent attempts I have been trying portrait orientation. Hope that helps, sorry I waffled on.. Thanks mate. -- Troy Piggins I always appreciate critique. |
#6
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Another Brisbane at night pano..
* Troy Piggins wrote :
* Mark Thomas wrote : Troy Piggins wrote: * Mark Thomas wrote : More work in progress.. http://www.marktphoto.com/examples/pano_night1_test.jpg Fuji S9000, fl~35mm, 3s f5.6, 5 images, PTGUI, adjusted levels/sat, lightly denoised, reduced to about 1/3 size and USM. (Need any of this explained or elaborated? just ask..) snip / A lot depends on the software you are using.. ? I don't *normally* hesitate to use mine right down to 28mm with PTGUI, but.. read on.. I'm very green to the software. I've heard of PTGUI. I've had a go with the Canon software that came with the camera - Photostitch or something like that. I've heard good things about hugin and enblend but haven't played with it yet. Just played with some pano shots I took in Townsville on Monday. Not the best pano, but that hugin worked a treat using all the fully automatic settings. Photostich left some wobbly horizons and blurry bits etc. A comparison: Canon's Photostitch: http://piggo.com/~troy/photos/2008_0...tv-pano-ps.jpg Hugin: http://piggo.com/~troy/photos/2008_0...80/tv-pano.jpg For no particular reason, I had a bit of a play with creating a fake model/tiltshift shot for fun. Nothing at all to do with panos, sorry http://piggo.com/~troy/photos/2008/2...9088-model.jpg -- Troy Piggins I always appreciate critique. |
#7
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Another Brisbane at night pano..
Troy Piggins wrote:
snipped Troy, could you drop me an e-mail please? alan daht browne & videotron daht ca Thanks, Alan. -- -- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm -- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm -- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin -- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch. -- usenet posts from gmail.com and googlemail.com are filtered out. |
#8
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Another Brisbane at night pano..
Henry Kolesnik wrote:
Hey neat pic.. Thanks. Maybe your onto something in your stitching.. Escher's illusions and your handrails are on the right track for an Escher.. http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/t...hers-waterfall Yes, when I saw the second handrail neatly misaligned with the lower edge of itself, Escher-esque images came to mind.. |
#9
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Another Brisbane at night pano..
Troy Piggins wrote:
I have a trip planned in a couple of months, and think that panos will work very nicely there. Santorini/Greek Islands, thankyou very much You lucky, lucky *******! Coincidentally, I was in a fish and chip shop yesterday and saw two Santorini pictures upon their wall. But the genius who produced them didn't think the lovely colours of the houses and landscape was enough, so s/he had pasted in a (completely mismatched) sunset from another shot. The lighting was all wrong, and the images had simply been destroyed. Sigh. I'm very green to the software. I've heard of PTGUI. I've had a go with the Canon software that came with the camera - Photostitch or something like that. I just saw the comparison you did - I'm sure I've seen folk recommending the Canon software, but the only examples I've seen have been similar to yours... Needless to say, I prefer PTGUI! Obviously Hugin seems to do well too. As for the focus-challenged tilt-shift shot.. Well, it made me chuckle! Good luck with the santorini trip. May the light be good! Look forward to seeing any you care to share. |
#10
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Another Brisbane at night pano..
Mark Thomas wrote:
More work in progress.. http://www.marktphoto.com/examples/pano_night1_test.jpg Fuji S9000, fl~35mm, 3s f5.6, 5 images, PTGUI, adjusted levels/sat, lightly denoised, reduced to about 1/3 size and USM. (Need any of this explained or elaborated? just ask..) Two conflicting thoughts struck me while taking the source images: 1. Why doesn't Brisbane City Council light up the botanical gardens a bit, so it doesn't look like a huge black slug in the middle of my image..? (O: and then, hypocritically 2. Do all of those building lights really need to be on, wasting energy like it doesn't matter? (OK, it *was* only about 6pm on a weekday, so I guess it just reflects the long hours we Qlder's work.) In regard to the image - yes, I'm aware of the stitching errors in the foreground handrails, due to me shooting this without a pano head. Maybe I'll go back and fiddle with the control points, maybe not - consider it a copyright message to prevent misuse...! And in hindsight, I should probably have used HDR to get more detail in the sky. But the sunset wasn't a winner, so I couldn't be bothered. Another for the maybe-next-time bin. Constructive criticism welcome. A couple I have done this week with PTGui (40d and 28-135 KIT lens) 8 stitch http://www.pbase.com/temuchin/image/101666935 6 stitch http://www.pbase.com/temuchin/image/101666933 The centre horizon is very blown but 1/2 hour after sunset it is hard to get perfect light. |
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