h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi zoomer,

there is no rush to reply.

But I'm planning to take horizontal panoramas in a particular place in the summer. It is undulating and has many good places for looking across landscape. There are other places..but I'm starting there. Could try vertical ones as well I suppose..but horizontal is my thinking and 180 degrees.

I have basic camera equipment with tripod...but not the full gear. I could hire something to try out...What's the point of messed up second rate panoramas?

I want to enlarge. I saw a good one at Guys hospital in a waiting room...very limited resolution...but even so it was fantastic in that setting and cheered me up immensly.

Its looking into it at present and is a good aim for me given present situation.

I found this excellent 'tutorial'

What do you think of his advice?

http://mansurovs.com/panoramic-photography-howto

As I say no big rush...but its good to plan and have aims for myself at present that are positive, creative and optimistic. Art always has a very beneficial effect on me.

Hey Eff!

That tutorial looks very good, I would agree with everything they talk about. I have had good luck with a good quality tripod and a few free programs that 'stitch' the pictures together. I'm at work right now so I can't tell you which programs they are but they all boil down to a few things (I'll add to this from home later). Basically the first thing is to make sure your tripod is dead level (with the levelling bubble) and the tilt (up and down) is well locked down. Then start at one end, marking in your head where the next picture needs to start. Overlap the pictures just a little, the software needs to orient the intersections (trees moving in the wind can cause some problems). Then you just drag and drop or load the pictures into whatever software you use and it does it's magic.

One thing I've tried is to take the pictures vertically (with the camera on the tripod on it's side) so the final picture has more resolution- but that can be tricky if the camera isn't perfectly verticle.

I'll find the software I used later but here is one I shot in the Yukon years ago-

http://public.fotki.com/clzoomer/whitehorse/whitehorse/panorama.html

If you enlarge it you can see where some of the brush doesn't match up- it was windy!

Cheers!

Okay done a load more research. This looks maybe even more helpful.

http://landscapephotographyguide.net/panoramic-photography.html

(It's okay I'm not expecting you to check everything out...but it helps me to have this thread as a reference rather than just a collection of links on my desk top).

I'm thinking of just using a 50mm lens or a 35mm...I don't the distortion effects you get with wide angles. More images I know but that's not a problem as I have a lot of storage on my Mac...and I think 180 degrees is a bit too much...but I'll play around with my little non DSLR Nikon first.

I reckon Photoshop looks good for the stitching software..Light room which is part of it..apparently its good for corrections as well.

I used Arcsoft Panorama maker-

http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=arcsoft+panorama+maker&searchtype=downloads

and HP Panorama Stitching-

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&softwareitem=mp-82172-1

I forgot to mention to turn auto iris off so the pictures match, mentioned here-

http://artmeetstechnology.blogspot.ca/2008/02/panorama-stitching.html

I haven't used Photoshop, too pricey for me!!

>too pricey for me!!<

Depends who you know

But I realised if I'm serious about this..the things have to be absolutely perfect. You're competing with Pros. But they might not have the imagination to choose the kind of images I have in mind. I haven't seen much good stuff on the web other than technically good, but lacking imagination.

I've never gone in before for making art in order to pander to buyers..hence my lack of salability. But this thing might be both. I fell in love with the image in the waiting room..it was fairly poor as I said but a brilliant scene of English countryside and in that context looked great.

Surely companies and institutions might want this kind of thing? Plus in an ideal world it would be great to donate something to the intensive care ward.

You can't measure the power of art to aid health. I hallucinated the whole place as an installation in any case..hence the shock when I saw the bland reality.

Such stuff can life the spirits.

I pray my health will be up to it..I'm not good with tolerating tiredness...but its something I have to learn..the body isn't immortal or superwoman. My youth and vigour was always a big thing in the past.

Hi zoom.

Played around with the Nikon coolpix..had parallex problems, which I now understand much better..but I downloaded Hugin for Macs which seems a really good basic stitching program..and it smoothed it out.

Saved a jpg for Mac gallery...obviously lower quality than the tiff.

Here it is taken in nearby street.

http://bit.ly/HKyxeP

The Nikon has a Nikor 6.7 - 24mm lens. It did the panorama at 6.7..I'm surprised it's not more distorted.

It's good learning about the technical stuff through the reality of the little dig camera..brings all the theory I studied to life. I love that little camera.

But for big enlargements like I want to do..I'll need to hire top class stuff with all fussy pro stuff to get perfect results. I won't just do panoramas though, and its about location and mood..more like dreamscapes of landscapes. Australian aboriginals know all about this..I learnt a lot from them.

Digital photography is so good though..you can make endless mistakes to learn..with no cost of development...and also give samples to people you might want to sell to..so the big cost of enlargement is known in advance and paid for by them.

But I'm getting ahead of myself

Saw some brilliant panoramas at Guys hospital today. In the main entrance they have a city scape of London looking across the Thames. Stretching right across the main part of the print is the footbridge linking the St. Paul's area with Tate Modern. It's about 30 foot long and 8 foot high. Stunning in the context.

Also became aware of more English countryside landscapes.

I'm unsubbing from that equipment thread. I'm fed up with people suggesting it's said a DSLR is essential. I wish they'd quote.

I certainly didn't say that in my post, as I pointed out it's entirely to do with what you want to do with the end product.

Exactly.

I take picture for me, not for gaggles of people online.

Keep up the good work and I'd love to see some more examples (although the last one doesn't seem to want to open for me now).

How did you get on with the panorama in the end

Obviously I don't know how Effers faired before she passed but I tend to take fewer pictures since my Parkinson's reared it's shaky head.

That is unfortunate to say the last a friend has that problem, and dose very well with a tripod Fuji digital bridge that is WI-FI enabled and can view the viewfinder image control the zoom and press the shutter via the phone.