[Leica] Panoramics

["SonC (Sonny Carter)" <SonC@sonc.com>]

This Pano thread is one I love.  I've been fascinated by
them for years, especially some of the ones of Army camps. I
have one in our collection of Havana Harbor.  I do a lot of
document stitching with Photoshop in my job, and the some of
the following descriptions come from that.  I have discarded
the stitching programs for documents because I think we get
a higher quality output doing it by hand with Photoshop.

There are some problems using stitching programs, but some
of the suggestions I've read will help your success either
with stitching programs or straight Photoshop stitching.

Some ideas:

Use an indexing pan head on your tripod.  Some have degrees
marked at the base. Rollei has a device that has click stops
just for this, and I think there's also a Leitz gadget with
indicators for a couple of focal lengths.

Shoot wide angle lenses on the vertical.  It will take more
shots to make the pano, but there will be less distortion in
the overlaps.  My Hong Kong pano (Leica M6, 28mm Elmarit, on
topic) has a number of leaning buildings because I went too
far to the edge of the print to get my overlap.
http://www.sonc.com/HK.htm

Moving boats are a real headache; likewise, moving clouds.
Try to pick calm days when you are shooting either.

If you are scanning prints on a flatbed, keep them in the
middle of the glass.  Some light tubes darken with age, and
can give you uneven scans on the edges.

I've found it easiest to feather the new layer's overlapping
edge, and drop the opacity of the layer by about 60% as I
guide the layer into registration.  I make a different saved
version after each successful layer, so I don't use up all
my memory, or run out of history levels before I am
finished.

The results of a successful stitching can be striking.
While it is amazing to see the stitching programs do their
work, (several are available as free trial software) I think
that hand doing it in Photoshop offers higher quality, and
feels a lot more gratifying.

For those of you who disdain digital, the same principles
apply in the darkroom.   You just need long developing
trays.

Regards,

SonC
http://www.SonC.com



- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Zeissler, Mitch" <mzeissle@gcipoa.gannett.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 8:02 AM
Subject: RE: [Leica] Panoramics using Leica.


> I echo much of what Dave has posted.
>
> For the initial film-based images taken with the Noctilux,
I shot on
> tripod, but I kept the same exposure throughout the
series.  I did not
> level it, as I was not initially thinking of a panorama or
digital
> manipulation later; I just wanted to record it for
memories sake.
>
> I scanned the images on my HP PhotoSmart s20xi with all
the auto
> features turned off and at highest resolution.  This
resulted in
> enormous file sizes of 160MB per image; too big for me to
work with.  I
> re-scanned the images with a more manageable 80MB per
image, 320MB for
> all four of them together.
>
> I then used Photoshop to remove all the dust and defects,
but made no
> cropping, color or contrast adjustments.  I then used
Ulead Cool 360 to
> stitch the images together.  I will likely use a different
stitch
> program in the future, as Cool 360 was overwhelmed with
the size of the
> files.  After stitching, I then made all of the color and
contrast
> adjustments to the entire panorama in Photoshop.  The
final 320MB
> uncropped image I saved in TIF form, then made cropped and
JPG versions
> from the big file.
>
> Frankly, this project was too much for my machine [Pentium
Pro 200MHz,
> 128MB RAM, 4GB HD, 8MB 3D accelerated video card, Win9x,
Photoshop 5.0]
> and I have since replaced it [Pentium III 1GHz, 512MB RAM,
30GB HD, 32MB
> Invidia video card, Win2K, Photoshop 5.5].
>
> /Mitch
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rodgers, David [mailto:david.rodgers@xo.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 10:32 PM
> To: 'leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us'
> Subject: RE: [Leica] Panoramics using Leica.
>
> Thanks much for the reply. It took me a couple of hours
from beginning
> to
> end. I was really tired toward the end, obvious from the
poor job I did
> at
> one stitch. I started late and I ran out of gas, or
patience, or
> eyesight,
> or all the above. Getting the contrasts right was more
difficult than
> I'd
> imagined it would be. Light really changes in a panorama.
The negs
> looked
> very similar, but they scanned differently. I may have
scanned at an
> auto
> setting. Probably should have scanned each at the same
fixed setting.
> Everything has to match up; the blacks, whites and middle
tones or
> you'll
> notice the seam.
>
> <<snip>>