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Here's a pano from a recent visit to the Adelaide Oval. The Redbacks looked to be training.


(5 photos joined using PanoTools)

I always seem to have trouble stiching these. I always have to do hand fading between the images to make them match. I don't use a tripod, but I think it may be due to using the 18mm end of the kit lens.
Would the frames fit better if I shot at 50mm?

Thanks

Daniel

Looks really good. Well stitched and plenty of sweet saturation. Tony Grieg would try market this one.

As for the best focal length (FL) for a Pano. Hmm, interesting question and easy to explain.

'The best focal length would be the one that looks best.'

18mm for your image works well. Perhaps a bit too much of a squashed feel can be offset by using around 24-28mm. 50mm would make the image look a bit flat.

It does come down to how much sky/foreground do you want in the image? How wide do you want the pano?

In the first example, Circular Quay is shot with a FL of 24mm and 50mm. I believe the 24mm image is better.

The second example was shot at 50mm which was necessary to give enough reach to get the Glasshouse Mountains close enough to see.

The key is to experiment.

EXAMPLE 1
Taken at 24mm

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Taken at 50mm

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EXAMPLE 2
Taken at 50mm - Comprises 13 images

This particular pano looks very nice, especially at this size (which can hide some of the subtler hassles of panos).
To address your question:

If your lens is not rectilinear (e.g. it has barrel distortion at wide angles) then that won't help when you try to align/stitch the shots. So a mid-range length on the zoom might be better.
But PanoTools can work around this to an extent, correcting each shot to be rectilinear (but calibrating each focal length for this is a bit of work).

The biggest thing that will make a difference is using a tripod and a pano head so that the lens is rotated around its entrance pupil. That way you don't get parallax errors introduced (most noticeable in scenarios like this where you have near and far scene elements).
Handheld panos can work well if you're not including close elements of the scene, but on the whole that doesn't help the composition...

Killakoala wrote:Looks really good. Well stitched and plenty of sweet saturation. Tony Grieg would try market this one.

Thanks. Who wants to buy a print for $699 unframed?

Killakoala wrote:As for the best focal length (FL) for a Pano. Hmm, interesting question and easy to explain.

'The best focal length would be the one that looks best.'

I agree your 24mm looks better. Did you have any trouble with barrel distortion?

Thanks

Daniel

DaveB wrote:This particular pano looks very nice, especially at this size (which can hide some of the subtler hassles of panos).

Thanks. You're right about the size. Everything looks OK at this size. But with careful use of PS to blur the joins, you have to look close to find the bits that don't line up even on the full size.

DaveB wrote:If your lens is not rectilinear (e.g. it has barrel distortion at wide angles) then that won't help when you try to align/stitch the shots. So a mid-range length on the zoom might be better.
But PanoTools can work around this to an extent, correcting each shot to be rectilinear (but calibrating each focal length for this is a bit of work).

PanoTools does a good job of making very distorted images fit together, but I always seem to have a little bit off.
I'll try zooming in bit more in the future. Thanks

Daniel

Daniel, i like it and i too am one who does this now and then at different places without a tripod, just to see how it turns out. In your case it looks great mate well done.

Thanks. Who wants to buy a print for $699 unframed?

as long as its a limited edition to 30,000 prints!
Nice job

Daniel, nice job. If you want an easier prog to use, try autostich... available from here http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.zip
It is awesome and free. It takes care of everything and produces awesome results...

You've done a great job on this one - well done
What I especially like is that you have it well framed by the roof of the stand you are in - this gives the whole picture a sense of location.
The comparison KillaKoala has given shows a good example of the differences in focal lengths for this sort of work - sometimes a shorter one will work much better and sometimes it won't.
As for programs, give Panorama Factory a go - there's a few of us here that use it, and have had rather 'good' results

G'day Daniel,
That's an absolute corker! I'm one of those lazy bastards that uses Autostich but I gotta say that's really well framed, I usually end-up losing the framing I intended due to cropping etc. so well done!

Jonesy wrote:

Thanks. Who wants to buy a print for $699 unframed?

as long as its a limited edition to 30,000 prints!

Each is individually numbered (with the number 7).

sheepie wrote:You've done a great job on this one - well done
What I especially like is that you have it well framed by the roof of the stand you are in - this gives the whole picture a sense of location.

Thanks. Using 18mm helped with this, although it gives other issues...

Daniel

Big V wrote:Daniel, nice job. If you want an easier prog to use, try autostich... available from here http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.zip
It is awesome and free. It takes care of everything and produces awesome results...

I'll take a look. It looks like it only outputs jpg. That's one thing I like about PanoTools is that it outputs to psd on multiple layers so I can fix any blending issues.

Daniel