Cool, for some odd reason I didn't even think to look there.

The icon above is for the hour it took me to research and compile this post.

A smattering of info on page 32 of the FAQ thread

This was an interesting suggestion:
Nodal Ninja

...and this seems to be a popular industry suggestion:
Manfrotto 303SPH QTVR Spherical Panoramic Head Kit

I tend to agree that hand-holding, especially for landscapes is not difficult. Sharpness is hard to obtain after the fact, so regardless of shutter speed, I would try to use at least a simple tripod if possible.

I produced the one below with a Quantary tripod and did 9 images across and 4 images up (total of 36 "scenes" ). I also was doing HDR, so I took three shots of each "scene" for a total of 108 photos.



There were a few alignment issues, especially with straight lines and edges, but they were easily taken care of in Photoshop. I am experimenting a lot with complex scenes (i.e. more foreground elements) so I may be in the market for a new tripod/head combo. I think a monopod is more likely since I have taken a shine to wildlife photography again, something I put off to the side a few years ago.

This one was before I learned to shoot portrait. I could have had much more grass and sky and made the proportions a lot better, but shooting landscape means this will always be a skinny picture.



When I shot the 10 year anniversary, I shot portrait in the same place with the same tripod and got a lot more usable image.



In summary, if you were in the field asking me for tips I would suggest the following (listed by my priority):

• Choose your aperture for your subject. Most panos will like f/8 and above, but I shoot in the f/5.6-f/11 range
• Keep your ISO as low as possible
• Set an appropriate shutter speed: i.e. 1/focal length if you are handholding or faster unless you have good hand-holding technique; otherwise, the "bulb" is the limit with a tripod (assuming steady ground and low winds)
  
  At this point, if you are being constrained by any of the settings, give priority to getting a steady, crisp image. Noise from high ISO will become less obvious as the pano size increases, but poor IQ is more obvious, especially if it is just one frame.
• Determine how far left/right/up/down you want to capture and try to shoot at least one frame more than you need, especially on the left/right sides, not as critical top/bottom
• Balance your tripod so the axis of rotation is parallel to the horizon
  
  or
  
  
• use a pair of AF dots to maintain alignment
• orient your camera to portrait format (it is easier to pan horizontally than vertically)
• Determine the amount of overlap you are comfortable with: hand-holding and numerous foreground objects are both notorious for causing alignment issues, but hand-holding is by far the main culprit. Experience will tell you what your computer and Photoshop can handle. I often overdo it because Photoshop will mask out entire images when I auto-blend them.
• If you have shot a rifle (think back to MilSci), practice the "breath in-->breath out-->squeeze technique": This is mainly for hand-holding. I use a remote for longer shutter speeds on a tripod.
• Have fun. Be creative. See below.

My wife's uncle wanted to get rid of $4500 worth of Nikon equipment and he unloaded it all on me a few Christmases ago. I love the wide angle lens and tried a hand-held diagonal track. It wasn't easy and I never finished processing the photo, but it opened up a lot of ideas for me.



Lastly, it sounds like your main concern is post-processing. I won't bother with workflow or file-management, but I do the following:

• open PS, click File>Automate>Photomerge
• select your photos
• Choose a processing mode. Auto works great most of the time, but when it gets tricky, I have resorted to cylindrical alignment.

  quote:

  ---

  According to PS online help:
  Auto Photoshop analyzes the source images and applies either a Perspective or Cylindrical layout, depending on which produces a better photomerge.
  Perspective Creates a consistent composition by designating one of the source images (by default, the middle image) as the reference image. The other images are then transformed (repositioned, stretched or skewed as necessary) so that overlapping content across layers is matched.
  Cylindrical Reduces the “bow‑tie” distortion that can occur with the Perspective layout by displaying individual images as on an unfolded cylinder. Overlapping content across layers is still matched. The reference image is placed at the center. Best suited for creating wide panoramas.

  ---

  
  
• At this point, I uncheck "Blend Layers." This can save time if there is a problem with alignment, but more often, it allows me to save, purge, and/or restart PS to free up some memory. I do this for EXTREMELY large files.
• Run the automation
• Select all layers and click Edit>Auto-Blend Layers
• Once complete, I hide/unhide each layer to see the border and check for any alignment issues. At this point I edit the layer masks to improve the alignment, but Auto-Blend also auto adjusts colors between layers which can leave a nasty geometric line which can be taken care of later
• Flatten
• Retouch

It took me as much time to type that as it would for me to crank out a few panos from a weekend's worth of shooting. I was overly descriptive on purpose to hopefully answer your (or others') questions before they need to be asked. Don't be intimidated. Always keep the originals and as technology advances, you may find better ways to produce your panos. It can be as easy or as difficult as you choose, I just tend to choose difficult.

EDIT: URLS

[This message has been edited by B2Ag05 (edited 4/7/2010 9:59p).]

Alright, my take for tonight is uploading. I thought I had written more. I am sure it is in a panorama-specific thread.

Anyway, if you are hand holding, you are going to want to eliminate any foreground objects. Hand holding distant landscapes is pretty easy.

I think BQ only has PS2 - which does not have photomerge.

Check out AutoPano Pro or PTGUI for panorama software. For difficult ones, I sometimes like to use photomerge instead, because it is easier to mask and overlay photos.


This is a courtyard near the Taj Mahal.
110 inches by 12.5inches at 300 dpi.
Handheld, 360 degrees.
The sky needs a hell of a lot of touching up.


This is Miami. 75 in by 13 in at 300 dpi.


NYC from Hoboken. I have sold a number of prints of this. I cropped it down to 5' by 6".


Old Yankee Stadium
48" by 12"
You can see some parallax in the bars right near me. I think I shot this at 28mm on a Canon 40D.


CitiField (new Mets stadium)
80in by 16in.


Honolua Bay, Maui. This is cropped in from 132" by 12" I am going back there in June to reshoot this and for a few other shoots.


A boardwalk in Delaware. 48" by 6". Ten 30 second exposures with my camera balancing on my wallet and cellphone on a trash can.


Dolphin Stadium
48" by 12"

Eventually, I am going to do all the ball parks. Someday. A long time from now. But it will get done. And I will have a ****ing awesome mancave with a panorama of every ball park in the nation.



So to do it without a tripod:

Settings:
You want a pretty narrow aperture. Set it to ~8ish
Set your white balance to anything but AWB. I am a big fan of cloudy. In pretty much every situation except Tungsten.
Shoot RAW.
Flip your camera vertically. A grip helps a lot.
Dig your elbow into your stomach and lean slightly back. Position your feet so you are as steady as possible.
Start as far left or as far right as you want to be in your picture, and then go a little bit farther.
Take each image slowly and deliberately.

Your AF squares make a little diamond shape. Use the three middle ones to line up your horizon and stay level throughout your series. Many people tend to drift up or down. But use your AF points to stay level.
Try to overlap your images 30-50%. Start at 50%. The more overlap, the easier to stitch. Again, you can use your AF points to measure this. Find a point and lineup the side AF point, then move your camera enough so that that point is on the other side.

Say these are your three center spots, which are on the horizon so you stay level:
{}___{}___{X}
That X in the right AF point is a building that you are using to mark how far to move. Now rotate your camera right for the next shot.
{X}___{}___{Y}
Now the building is on the left side. But building (or whatever marker) Y is on the right. Rotate again.
{Y}___{}___{Z}
And so on.

For those that don't have the full version of Photoshop and don't want to pony up for it, I can confirm that PS Elements 7 has Photomerge.

I used Elements 7 to do this panorama. 3 rows for a total of 17 frames.



Seadragon High Res Version is here:

http://seadragon.com/view/6a6

[This message has been edited by Jethro95 (edited 4/7/2010 11:02p).]

Ya'll are frickin awesome! I owe you both drinks.
I'll be at The Southfork Ranch (the TV show Dallas) this weekend and will try it out.

Thanks again!

[This message has been edited by MW03 (edited 4/22/2010 12:23p).]

Here's a few from the road to Hana about a week ago. The first photo is on the Keanae Peninsula.



This is a waterfall that is one of many along the road side...



This is the Makahiku Falls, the first of two major waterfalls that you see on the hike in Kipahulu.



This is the view standing at the top of the 200 ft tall Makahiku falls...



Here is part of the roughly 2 mile long Pipiwai trail...



This is the 400 ft tall Waimoku Falls at the end of the Pipiwai trail...





[This message has been edited by aero96 (edited 4/16/2010 7:24p).]

Awesome, Aero. Do you know yet if you will be in Maui still in late June when we come out there?

Yeah I'll be here (at least through Sept). I've changed my plans and I'm trying to stay on Maui now...

I want to play too. Just started shooting underwater this year (or topside for that matter)..... Comments welcome.

A quick few from our overcast day yesterday. I really had to push the ISO late in the evening, but I am getting more and more comfortable trading grain for faster shutter speed, but my 2x and consequent 2 stop light loss is keeping me at f/2.8 (nominal) and under 1/100sec, so everything is still pretty soft.

I really want to upgrade to the 7D or 5D Mark II. My hot shoe is seating my 580exII very well and I could really use an ISO bump and noise reduction. The video doesn't hurt either.

This is all fairly standard quarry, but I have been able to work out some kinks in my technique before I get outfitted and spend a day shooting more valuable subjects.


Yeah it's a cat shot, but I have been trying to get this look for a long time.




This mockingbird had some serious attitude. I was about 10' away at full zoom - 200mm + 2x tele.




Marsh Wren




Mallard - f/2.8; 200mm + 2x + 1.6x FOVCF = 640mm; 1/25s
I wanted to get some movement to the water but freeze the duck. I shot about 40 frames and had 2 keepers. I was balancing the lens mount on a cypress knee.




She had a lot of washing off to do after getting triple teamed during a spring-time romp. Quite entertaining.




Normally, I would have tried to shoot at ISO 400-800 until I packed it in, but I forced myself earlier in the day to shoot Av at 2.8 and let the camera do the work with a little exposure bias from me. ISO 1600 on an XTi leaves a lot to be desired, but the luminance slider in Lightroom 3 Beta 2 has been a godsend. If you crank it all the way up it start to look like a cheap painting.



-----

Flickr

I took this of David West last Wednesday.

Coach: "DIG DEEP, BOYS!"

Here are a few of my first flower shots so I'm not sure of the technique/angle to use. Tips welcome.




Better like this



Or this?



These little bugs ruined some of my shots IMO. Seems like they'd be more appropriate for an entomologist study than eye-pleasing flower shots.






For some reason, the pinkish flowers (no horticulturist here) and some red flowers earlier in my shoot were coming out really faded in color and not good at all. Underexposing them didn't help much either. I just couldn't do the actual color justice. I could have bumped up the saturation, but they just didn't seem right for some reason. I thought maybe the direct sunlight was causing it, but even in the shade they looked off. Thoughts?


My first pano attempt, thanks for the tips guys!




And held vertically-

bq,

Nice panos and macros. I couldn't see any registry errors in the panorama. I also really appreciate that you shot both vertically and horizontally. I never tried this, so I never knew how different one was from the other.

I have found that when I can't get colors to be true, I will play with the white balance settings, increase contrast in my dark- and mid-tones, and give a small bump to the saturation. White balance usually ends up being the culprit.

Apricot bloom in Afghanistan.



[This message has been edited by CT'97 (edited 4/22/2010 5:35a).]

[This message has been edited by CT'97 (edited 4/22/2010 5:37a).]

I really like the composition on Jaghori024. The DOF is nice, but I like that there's a little extra context.

Use these URLs in your image tags

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Y2SKsezJmms/S7XLISEkQ6I/AAAAAAAAASM/vzOLazCXmlE/Jaghori%20029.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Y2SKsezJmms/S7XKhz129WI/AAAAAAAAASM/g70TUpj6AmM/Jaghori024.jpg

Thanks, any idea why the Picassa links work?

The original URLs you posted were for the web page. Using Google Chrome, I right-click and select "copy URL." In Firefox, right-click and you can select "copy image location."


Internet Explorer doesn't make it that easy, but you can right-click the picture, select "properties" and copy the URL that comes up in the dialog.

The img tag works with direct links to the pictures, not the web page that they are rendered in.



On a side note, I really like Google Chrome because you can also right-click and select "open in new tab" which allows me to grab a bunch of urls with fewer clicks.

[This message has been edited by B2Ag05 (edited 4/22/2010 10:34a).]

Continuing the flower theme, these are from last year at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. First one is with 40D + Tamron 17-55:



The rest are shot with 40D + Canon 100mm USM Macro:

Thanks for the tips B2, I'll try adjusting the WB next time or maybe I should just start shooting in RAW and post-process.

On these next two panos I was admittedly a r-tard and didn't lock my exposure prior to shooting. I was having a tricky time adjusting from shade to direct sunlight with various pictures that day so I switched to aperture priority and forgot to take it off for my panos. As a result, some of the seams are very obvious in the sky and grass. I'm a PS noob, which tools should I use to blend these seams? Thanks!

EDIT: OK, I used a combination of clone stamp, healing brush, smudge, and blur to fix up a good bit of it. I'm sure it can be blended better, but it was a definite improvement. First pic is the original, then the edited.









[This message has been edited by bq06 (edited 4/22/2010 11:13p).]

Sunset in Lahaina...

Some pics from around town in Austin







[This message has been edited by MPython43 (edited 4/23/2010 1:49p).]

MPython43:

I like the HDR on your last pic. I can't quite say it is subtle, but I think it was implemented well; no clown vomit.

Is it from a single frame or multiple?


bq:

Nice job touching up the panos. Which PS do you use? In CS3 I can edit the layer masks before flattening which saves me a lot of cloning time. Though it makes photomerging more difficult, letting the exposure change a little in each picture actually provides a pseudo-HDR because you are getting an average scene every time you move the camera. If you ever do it intentionally, you might be able to take advantage of the little quirks it provides.

Seven:

Your blue petaled flower with the yellow center has some nice character, especially that petal that is kinked near the top. I think pollen is to flowers what eyes are to people in pictures, so I really like the tack sharp center.

Your last picture is nice to see because I tend to overdo my contrast. Seeing your interpretation reinforces my attempt to try moving the contrast down first and seeing certain pictures a little differently.


aero:

I was looking at the sunset/boat picture on your website and had a few questions. Did you filter in post? Why were you shooting at ISO 1600?

I ask because I like the look, but I feel like I would have taken a very different approach. It actually is part of the reason I am trying to set up photo shoots with 4-5 photogs to shoot at the same time and place, process individually and discuss the different approaches to the same subject.

[This message has been edited by B2Ag05 (edited 4/24/2010 11:14a).]

B2 -

3 exposures and the Topaz treatment for detail

Can you elaborate on editing the layer masks pre-flattening? I was mistaken earlier - I'm using CS4. You can't really tell in the low-res sample I posted, but I had fun in the 2nd pic editing my reflection out of one of the windows.

B2Ag05,
Thanks for your comments. I too like to use a little extra contrast for most photos, but in this picture I felt like adding contrast would cause the image to lose its character. I wanted to emphasize the flare and the back-lighting, and composed it intentionally this way. A similar situation would be in a landscape photo with a lot of depth & atmospheric haze. Adding contrast will compress the image, lowering it will emphasize the depth & distance. Both can be right depending on the photog's intentions.

hot damn, python. i love that first pic from the Austin sequence. can't place my finger on why, but I do.

Thanks MW... That's definitely my favorite pic that I've taken that doesn't have my daughter in it. Saw them doing construction on the side of the road, and it was a crazy foggy day so I figured I'd ask if I could take some pics.

These were my other 2 faves from that set

quote:

---

aero:

I was looking at the sunset/boat picture on your website and had a few questions. Did you filter in post? Why were you shooting at ISO 1600?

---

That photo actually had no post processing whatsoever. I messed around a bit with the brightness/exposure settings but ended up liking the way it was originally.

I would like to say I planned that photo exactly but I was really shooting at 1600 ISO because I was at a luau. I was mainly planning on taking pictures of the dancers and the show was going to start after dinner (dark:30). I had configured my camera for taking pictures of people lit by large area lights and various colored spot lights. The luau grounds happened to be right on the water and we saw a gorgeous sunset and I just started taking pictures. I've seen a million sunsets here so I was kinda bored with the idea of taking sunset photos. Then I started to really like the results I was seeing on the back of the camera and kept shooting. When I got home that photo in particular really spoke to me.

quote:

---

Can you elaborate on editing the layer masks pre-flattening?

---

Over the past week I kept my eyes out for a good layers tutorial, but most were pretty pedestrian. The main tip I remember is "White reveals. Black conceals." Beyond that, I have a tablet so I can "paint" on my masks, but even without one I use a few tricks, if you want to call them that.

• "D" sets the default colors; foreground=white/background=black
• "X" swaps between the foreground and background so you can quickly add/subtract to/from the mask
• "B" is the brush tool. It seems like a useless shortcut, but when swapping between cloning on a layer ("S" and editing the layer mask, it is a HUGE timesaver
• Change the opacity. To start with, I usually use a large brush set to Hardness=0 (large soft brush) at 100%. To fine tune, I reduce the brush size and lower the opacity to 10-30%. You gradually paint in (or out) the layer. This is where I use "X" a lot to fine tune edges, etc.
• Get a tablet. Seriously. I probably overdid it when I bought mine, but if you can go at least one step above the Wacom Bamboo, you will be in good shape. I understand the Intuos4 is pretty kick ass, especially now that CS5 has advanced brush settings. But don't let that discourage you; mice work just fine for masks, even if they are a little less fluid

Don't forget about vector masks either, but that usually involves the pen tool, and that is a whole other bag of tricks. The man who finally convinced me I needed to learn how to use the pen tool was Joe Glyda, who shoots for, among others, Kraft. When you see Kraft Mac and Cheese, that is his shot on the box. He still shoots Fuji digital because they kept the CCD instead of going to CMOS. To each their own.

He told us that in his market, he can get $30 for basic outlines and $60-75 for more complex ones. I don't ever expect anyone to need my pen tool skills, but they have helped my Photoshop productivity and Illustrator skills immensely.

MPython,

I also agree with MW03, that first Austin shot is captivating. I thought it was dust, but knowing that it is fog makes it all the more interesting to me.


Here are a few shots from Duck Jam this past weekend.


Box Head




Pano from the perimeter track




Pano from above the moat




Kryoman (don't ask me, I just reacted to the blinking lights)




Willie and Trigger




Making the ladies swoon




Finally put on the bandanna

Snapped this on Saturday in Fort Worth on the roof of Reata. Taken at F11, ISO 200, shutter 1/200, and in "Cloudy" setting. I've obviously tweaked it some to get the effect, but only by adjusting the contrast and light/dark levels in RAW. I didn't convert the image color-wise whatsoever.

The story behind it goes that there is a topiary on the roof of Reata in Fort Worth. It looks a little like a cross between the Blair Witch and Picasso's rendition of Don Quixote. Anyway, I was struck by how sinister it looked up close. It was pretty dang overcast, and we had just eaten lunch so the light was really intense coming through the clouds. I snuck right up underneath it and shot this pic with my 50mm.

I know it's not for most people, but this is going to be my first large art print. I love it.

Another ho-hum Maui sunset...

Went out to Brazos Bend yesterday evening. I love that place.









[This message has been edited by Jethro95 (edited 5/9/2010 9:11p).]