My dear friends,

Some panorama fun.

It has been my opinion for quite some time that the most significant progress in photography these past few years have been made in software.

Although PTgui is not perfect, I have been a major fan of the application thanks to the steady release of valuable features we have seen.

The priority for me when taking panos is to minimize the number of frames required to get a given result, often a very high resolution image with a lot of DoF and enough natural looking DR.

Assuming you shoot for a 3 row pano with 7 images per row, assuming also that you need 3 different points of focus to get enough DoF, and assuming that you need to take images at 2 different speeds to get enough DR, you would end up with having to shoot 126 images to capture the following high res pano:




Even for someone as slow minded as I am, this is getting a bit boring.

This is where PTgui comes into play. It was able to stitch a 4.5 GB layered output of this image using only 35 images... one row on top with infinity focus, and 2 rows with adequate focus for the medium and bottom parts of the image, each of those 2 at 2 exposure settings...

These is of course still a need to pick carefully the focus point of each of the rows and to spend a few hours on the layered file to make sure that the full potential is tapped into, but this is very manageable.

Cheers,
Bernard

Nice shot. I also have been experimenting with varying the focus on each row of the panoramic. When it works, it works well, when it doesn't....

Most people seem to reserve panoramics for images that occur out on the horizon. My preference, like the image you show here, is to use stitching to make more intimate panoramics. In these closeup panoramics, the multiple focus point is more challenging because the depth of field is so much more shallow.

What approach are you taking? I generally focus somewhere in the middle row around the middle of the image's depth of field. Then as I move from one row to another I manually back off a bit on the focus ring, only slightly. How do you approach this problem?

I haven't been as happy with panoramic HDR images out of PTGui. I find that I have a hard time making a curve that takes the really flat output image and renders a pleasing dynamic range with good contrast. I have had better luck with manually blending two separate panoramics together. What I have done is to bracket the image and then stitch a light version and then a dark version--with exactly the same parameters in the stitching script (including registration points). Then I layer the two images in photoshop and manually blend them with a layer mask and a large soft brush on the mask. The image below was done with that technique and multiple focus points.


Larger version of image

More description of the shot can be found here: http://www.trailpixie.net/general/rocky_point_wat.htm

This is a very nice shot. I am also looking into Ptgui lately and I will purchase it soon. Are you using any particular pano head?
George

I use the Really Right Stuff Spherical Panoramic head, although I also have used the Nodal Ninja which is much cheaper and lighter. The Nodal Ninja isn't sturdy enough to mount my 100-400 lens although it is definitely a good fit for my 24-70.

Really nice, I have been doing stitching with some success. Where I run into problems is with focus stacking,

what lens?

I have been using CS3, does PTgui do something different (better).

I haven't even attempted HDR as the complication seems overwhelming, can you advise.

again, really, really nice,

bob

Gorgeous, Bernard! I have thoroughly enjoyed watching you continue to master the panorama techniques.

Best regards,
Bruce

Gorgeous, as usual, thanks!

Two questions :
- about focus, is it compulsory to keep focus constant in a single row? I'd rather think to have a closer focus on the parts with the lower left rock, and a middle one in the lower right parts, in the lower row of your image, eg. Does PTGui allow that?
- about HDR (very natural-looking indeed), did you achieve it by masking the different output layers, or did you let it all to PTGui?

Thanks for the kind words.

It should work. PTgui doesn't care about focus, it just tries to match relevant areas within a given exposure bracketing.

In the current image I decided to keep the lower left rock a bit out of focus to convey a sense of depth, with the rest of the image where the main "action" occurs in focus.



PTgui has 2 HDR modes. A real high bit HR that doesn't work for me, and then their own implementation of the infuse algo, that is an automated version of the masking idea.

Then using the layered output, you have total freedome to modify the masks that PTgui tried to generate automatically.

Cheers,
Bernard

Same thing here.

Cheers,
Bernard

I have been focussing on their version of Enfuse, works great for me.

Cheers,
Bernard

Thanks.

This was shot with a 60 mm f2.8 AF-S. Very sharp lens with virtually no distorsion. 60 mm is IMHO the perfect focal lenght for wide panos on a FF body like the D3.

I have never bothered spending too much time with PS CS3's stitching application, but PTgui is clearly one step ahead. Great features, fast, very stable with images in the multi-GB range and very good image quality.

Focus stacking can be easy with multi-row panos, just change the focus point when changing row. As far as HDR is concerned, I like the Enfuse implementation of PTgui.

Cheers,
Bernard

I've gotten mixed results with the Enfuse implementation in PTGui. It works fine for some images, and not so much for others. The controls are much more limited than in Tufuse Pro.

Changing focus point can be a little tricky, you need to make sure you don't change so much between rows that they rows can't stitch up cleanly.

I often take an approach similar to Fike, stitching light and dark versions which then gives me the flexibility to combine the exposures however I want (sometimes using different approaches for different parts of the image).

The only downside to all this is that even though the tools are getting much better, it's still a lot of work when you come home with dozens of these shots that have to be stitched up.

Bernard is this the new one? I'm still using the earlier generation AF micro, and its a killer up close, just average at infinity. Was thinking of trading up.

regarding software, I may have been asking too much as I found artifacts in the overlap. I'm not familiar with PTGui and was really pleased with CS3 in simple stitches. I think I'll download it tonight and give it a pin.

bob

Any tricks on DOF between rows other than insuring an adequate amount?

Sorry, if I'm asking too many questions, but you've walked on the trail i just started. Good to have a pathfinder.

I'm close to retiring the Linhof. My film lab just tripled his prices.

thanks bro,

bob

Bernard, this is an exceptionally beautiful image. It's a pity that you are posting only thumbnails :-)

When using a decent stitcher, like PTGui, you can not only change the focus, but change the lens if you need to; or use different cameras for the frames.

Changing the focus means changing the focal length, which results in different field of view, and the stitcher can handle that easily.

Thanks Gabor,

I can sell you a much larger print if you'd like.

Cheers,
Bernard

Is this the same as the "Ultimate Omni Pivot Package on the RRS site???


steve

I believe that it is, yes.

Cheers,
Bernard