Photo Stitching

**lefteyewilly** · 12-04-2005, 10:26 PM

I've been very interested in this techique of PHoto stitching to create a panoramic photo. I've seen some people here do some amazing ones, but i've tried a few times and can't quite get what i want. It seemed very easy to to a vertical one (which is posted below), but a horizontal one did not do what i wanted it to do.

I'd like to see what some of you do to get amazing results with this technique, both in taking the photos and what you do in post production. Did you use a tripod? Did you just start from the center of the image and pan horizontally? Did you move the camera? What extra things did you have to do in photoshop to get the pieces to match up?

**robbmcaulay** · 12-05-2005, 01:56 PM

This is a hard one! I'm not concious of doing anything too specific when shooting panos, I stick my Canon into 'Stitch Assist' mode which devotes half the screen to the previous shot and the other half to the current view, allowing you to line them up the best you can. Remember that the more you zoom in, the more shots you'll have to stich, but the easier they will line up.

In Photoshop I just get them all into position roughly, adjust the levels and use the Distort tool to manipulate them into place... nothing too fancy!

**nordberg** · 12-05-2005, 02:29 PM

i like to shoot at or above 35mm so that i don't get any wide angle distortion.
too many warped straight edges make the puzzle harder to put back together.

**WannaBe_80z** · 12-05-2005, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by robbmcaulay

This is a hard one! I'm not concious of doing anything too specific when shooting panos, I stick my Canon into 'Stitch Assist' mode which devotes half the screen to the previous shot and the other half to the current view, allowing you to line them up the best you can. Remember that the more you zoom in, the more shots you'll have to stich, but the easier they will line up.

In Photoshop I just get them all into position roughly, adjust the levels and use the Distort tool to manipulate them into place... nothing too fancy!

That is a nice feature, never heard of it...

**ctranter** · 12-05-2005, 08:02 PM

I just sort of stand there and rotate the camera giving lots of overlay betwn photos, making sure the camera settings are all set to 'manual'. Then I just join them in photoshop.

**admedia** · 12-07-2005, 08:15 AM

Yea, like ctranter said... get a few in-between overlapping shots and make sure you lock your exposure.
I paste all of the shots into a big photoshop canvas.
Then rotate and adjust each shot roughly into place...
then I crop the maximim image area.
then with each photo on its layer I begin by getting the best match I can by lowering the above layer opacity and matching pixels or tiny scene elements.
once I am happy with the match, I start erasing overlapping areas with a big feathered eraser.

I forgot to lock it when I made this one... but it's grainy too but it's an example.

Here's a better one.

**EVPohovich** · 12-07-2005, 02:22 PM

Try to get them during the daylight also, even with your settings the same (locked?) the exposure can do odd things the longer then shutter is open. I shot this large pano with all the same settings and overlapped each photo by at least half and you can still see where the exposure was off. Also the sun was still going down, if you look at the first section and the last section (same spot) you can see that the lighting is different. A lot can happen in 35 minutes.....

**lefteyewilly** · 12-07-2005, 02:32 PM

awesome example e. With the difference in exposure, i can tell where you're overlapping points are, which helps me. I don't think i've been overlapping my consecutive photos enough.

**mrkvavle** · 12-12-2005, 04:13 AM

has anyone tried the photomerge in photoshop? i havent i was just wondering if it is accurate or a waste of time.

**lefteyewilly** · 12-12-2005, 08:19 AM

it's pretty much a waste of time, unless i haven't been using it right.

**ctranter** · 12-13-2005, 07:19 AM

don't know if you can view this without logging in, but it might be useful.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/323271

**WannaBe_80z** · 12-13-2005, 11:32 AM

You can see it without logging in, nice link!

**robbmcaulay** · 12-13-2005, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by ctranter

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/323271

Someone there has a 5D

**phil-ray** · 12-13-2005, 06:13 PM

not to sure if this is what your after but it might be of some help

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

the way i take panaramic photos, is to put my camera on a tripod and make sure i over lap every photo a good bit, just so theres no errors

heres 2 of my latest

sorry there a bit wide

**ctranter** · 12-13-2005, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by robbmcaulay

Someone there has a 5D

Lots of people have 5d's there.. and more expensive models....

**WannaBe_80z** · 12-13-2005, 08:03 PM

More professional forum. Not a new photo forum on a flash site

I think I would rather have a 20D and a bunch of stuff for it then a 5D

**robbmcaulay** · 12-13-2005, 11:33 PM

Just made my first panoramic in a long time...

Take all the comments made here seriously, don't skimp on anything and you'll do fine

**lefteyewilly** · 12-13-2005, 11:56 PM

here's my first 'successful' attempt. IT's pretty wide so i kept it as an attachment.

**WannaBe_80z** · 12-14-2005, 01:07 AM

Not too bad there lefteye. Not too bad at all.

**robbmcaulay** · 12-14-2005, 09:47 AM

Pimping Lefteye, pimping

It's amazingly good fun making panoramics once you get the technique down...

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