Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/13

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] reducing panorama stitching time
From: "Duane Birkey" <duanebirkey@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 17:45:25 -0500

I've been working on some stitched panoramas as of late....  my suggestion
for reducing stitching time....  use a tripod head that allows you to put
the camera and lens over the axis of the tripod.

If it is not over the axis.... you will notice a big difference in change
between foreground and distant
objects and you will never get stuff to line up right...  My test for this
is to put the camera on a tripod pick out the edge of a near object and find
something in the distance as a reference point....  Then rotate the camera
from side to side while looking through the viewfinder and see whether the
alignment of the two images changes..... if it changes..... then you are in
for a lot of not so fun stitching... If you can re-adjust the camera to
improve on this....  You also want to make sure the camera is LEVEL....
I've done a couple with great success....  I'm reshooting several as after 4
or 5 hours of frustration, I wrote them off as hopeless.

There are tripod head especially designed for VR's etc that allow you to
align things.... and they aren't the "panorama" heads often seen.... But
some are pricey....   I've been mentally working on a design that I can have
our machine shop make for me locally.

The other trick is to not include anything of detail in the foreground.....
or shoot a lot of images and hope you can put something together in PS....

I've done some hand held and even off of a ladders with decent results.  So
it can be done too.... it's just not as easy to stitch together....

Duane Birkey
HCJB World Radio, Quito Ecuador
Duane's Photographs of Ecuador:
http://ecuadorphotos.tripod.com




_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com