Sublime Panorama

[Mr Darcy]

View from Sublime Point towards Katoomba
This is my very first attempt at a multi-row panorama
Two rows of 8 photos to the original
I used CS3 Photomerge default settings to create the pano It seemed to work OK, but the end towards the Three Sisters (LHS) seems distorted. I don't understand what caused this, nor how to avoid it in future. I made sure the camera was level in all axes for the first (bottom row), then tilted it up and repeated the row, keeping the plane of rotation horizontal. Also, some of the photos were merged out of line, but they worked visually, so I just cropped the excess away.

Click through to (much) larger. - about 22000x3000

Suggestions (framing and technique) more than welcome

[surenj]

Holy carp Greg! This is one massive panorama. I am afraid to click the link as it would be a mega byte on my system and it might never recover from such a crash!

Seriously, I will have a look when I get access to a faster internet elsewhere.

[Mr Darcy]

This is one massive panorama

Sorry about the lack of warning.
I loaded at fairly low quality. The JPG is about 4Mb
The PSD file I created the jpg from is 845 Mb

I am still trying to get my head around what is a good size for display on these beasts.
To my mind there is no point doing them unless you are going for hi res. otherwise you may as well take a slice out of a Wide Angle shot.
It should print up nice big. I have ordered a 10M roll of paper from my supplier to try it out. ( I THINK my printer will handle rolls)

[Reschsmooth]

Greg, when I check out the much larger image, it looks out of focus. Whilst I accept that looking at the minute detail of such a large image will not show significant clarity, this looks like it is more out of focus than just fine detail. For example, to the middle-right of the image, where there are buildings on top of the escarpment, I can see the detail of the structures, but they don't look to be in the plane of sharp focus. Was the focus manually set?

I am looking at this on a crappy work monitor.

Otherwise, lookinga the small version, the colours are amazing. Was this taken in the morning?

To add to the workflow, I reckon if you could add another row at the bottom, it would be magnificant.

[Mr Darcy]

This was taken on the same morning as my "Sublime Sunrise". Just before sun up and it was blowing a gale.
I went down to Sublime Point specifically to get a sunrise panorama. This is the first I have processed.
Focus was manual at infinity. At least that was the intention - I may have bumped the focus ring without realising it.
Most of the shots that morning were a little blurry. I put it down to camera shake. With the low light I was on a slow shutter speed even wide open. It was so windy, the tripod blew over at one point. Luckily I grabbed it before it hit the ground.

[colin_12]

Sublime colours from Sublime point!
I agree that it does not look terribly sharp but as you have explained the set up I would not have expected it to be crystal clear. You may wish to back off infinity a touch. I find this works when looking at my attempts at landscapes.
I think it will look good on a wall at the appropriate viewing distance.

[aim54x]

Top marks on the effort!!! Sounds like you have put some real work into getting the images for this stitch. I really like the sky but I cannot say that the overall pano does much for me. It seems to be missing something...sorry if this does not help.

[Murray Foote]

Hi Greg

It looks good at low-res - I can't get the high res version to work as yet. You must have been fairly quick to retain the sunset over the exposures. I can't tell whether it's distorted or not but then I don't know the view. I think the distortion must come from the camera body being at a different angle as you pan around. With a very expensive shift lens you could in theory move the front part of the lens from one side to another to get a panorama without distortion. In practice you probably would not get enough coverage though maybe with the new 17mm shift Canon ($X000) you might start to get close.

It makes me think of cheaper but quite esoteric alternatives - to construct a back for a 5x4 monorail camera that not merely permitted attaching a digital body but allowed it to slide across the back. Then you could get extra shift from moving the front standard as well. A field camera probably wouldn't be rigid enough but a Da Yi 617 (which has a removeable back and some shift for that matter) might be another option. And then with a 5x4 you'd have tilt as well. Almost tempting to try just to see whether it had any practical merit. One drawback would be that the sensor would be quite a way back off the back so you wouldn't be able to use a very wide lens, maybe 90mm (=30mm in 35mm terms) if you were lucky. And you'd cetainly have to want to make huge prints.

Regards,
Murray

[biggerry]

thats certainly a serious pano Greg!

my first thought looking at the low res version was ' the left looks a little funny' I am not familiar with any other stitching soft besides PTGui, however with this I have managed to get rid of most strange distortions - maybe it might be worthwhile stitching the images with another soft type? If you are keen I would have a crack at some lower res jpegs, just to see the outcome.

I think as a wall piece, in particular an 'over the fireplace' long thin frame picture, this kind of image will work very well - as with most very large panos, you need to ensure the room has the 'space' to view the image, the last thing you want is the 2m long image in a cramped hallway (I speak from experience here). I think you need to ensure people looking at the picture when in the room are viewing it from an optimal position by default, this is why I think above a fire place - also given you location and the warm colours of the image this is a particularly good image choice....

Given the very large res of the image (i image your working with tiff's also) you should be able to bring out a little extra light from the cliffs - I don't think you want the pano too dark.

Anyway, I hope these ramblings help...

[Mr Darcy]

Thanks all for your input.
I worked from the jpegs, not nef/tiff. This was a size decision. My Mac has only 4Gb. and as I run CS3 in Windows, I can only allocate 2Gb to it. As it is I have to shut down everything to get CS3 to run. I can restart somethings once its up and running, but I really need more memory. Of course if I had the $2K for the upgrade, I would probably buy a new lens anyway.
Anyways, here is another attempt. I used levels to bring out detail in the cliffs, and applied sharpening ( the last image was OOC except for stitching.)
Again, click through for a larger image. This time, it is a more manageable 5000x800. It is still 1Mb though as I went for a better quality jpg than the last time.

I have also included an original from near the LHS of the pano. Specifically the image with the Three Sisters on it. You can use this to judge the distortion introduced in the stitching process.
I went to some care to ensure that the plane of rotation was level, so I don't believe this is the source of the distortion.
I used the RRS Pano package to achieve the levelling.

As for the focus, I rechecked the lens. I used the 105VR for these & I notice that the focus ring actually stops beyond the infinity marker. I probably used the stop rather than the marker, so that is probably another cause of the blur. The light level was too low to check focus by looking in the viewfinder.

[Murray Foote]

I think that looks a lot better.

I went to some care to ensure that the plane of rotation was level, so I don't believe this is the source of the distortion.

What I was suggesting is that even if the plane of rotation was level, assuming the escarpment is roughly in a line, the very fact it is rotation and not shift has to mean there is some perspective distortion because the back of the camera will be at different angles to the escarpment for different exposures. I don't know how noticeable that would be as an effect, whether the escarpment is in a line or whether that's potentially the kind of distortion you were referring to. So it may or may not be relevant.

Regards,
Murray

[Mr Darcy]

Hi Murray,
The distortion I am seeing is a tilt from vertical. Horizontals are still horizontal, but verticals are not vertical anymore.
Compare the above detail shot from the original photo to this slice of the panorama covering approx the same area in both photos. If you check the line of the main sister, it is approx vertical in the original, but has a distinct lean in the pano. The horizontal bandin in the clouds & cliffs remains though. I have no idea what is causing it. It may be an effect of what you are describing. Hopefully some one here will be able to explain what and why.

[Murray Foote]

Hi Greg

Could it be an artifact of the blending? Is it there on the original unblended images?

Regards,
Murray

[surenj]

Finally looked at the large version. Much easier to view the new smaller larger image Thanks Greg.

I agree with Gerry in that more detail in the shrub has added to the image. What I would love to see is a photo of this hanging off your wall. Would be interesting to see how it prints.

[ralph257]

View from Sublime Point towards Katoomba
This is my very first attempt at a multi-row panorama
Two rows of 8 photos to the original
I used CS3 Photomerge default settings to create the pano It seemed to work OK, but the end towards the Three Sisters (LHS) seems distorted. I don't understand what caused this, nor how to avoid it in future. I made sure the camera was level in all axes for the first (bottom row), then tilted it up and repeated the row, keeping the plane of rotation horizontal. Also, some of the photos were merged out of line, but they worked visually, so I just cropped the excess away.

Click through to (much) larger. - about 22000x3000

Suggestions (framing and technique) more than welcome

A great first attempt Darcy, Panos are whole proccess unto themselves.
Check out "NodalNinja", They have great rail systems.

Do you find the 35mm format lacking in some respects ,
and that Panos are the best alternative?

[Mr Darcy]

A great first attempt Darcy, Panos are whole proccess unto themselves.
Check out "NodalNinja", They have great rail systems.

Thanks for that vote of confidence. Not actually my first attempt. But the first where it even sort-of worked.
Had a quick look at the Nodal Ninja. I suspect I would not gain anything, except possibly detent stops from what I have.
I recently bit the bullet & bought the RRS package. This was a big step up as it allowed much more precise movement of the camera. While I am not, at this stage, interested in multi row panos, it allows me to shoot a pano that is not on a horizontal axis. This allows me to use a much tighter grouping for high or low things. It is also very versatile. e.g. I use the rail for macros

Do you find the 35mm format lacking in some respects ,
and that Panos are the best alternative?

I am still exploring the whole concept of the pano, but yes, I find that 4:3 format is often not what I am after. I could (and do) crop, but that means throwing away pixels. Usually fine for the screen, but lacking when printing. I do need to resolve the whole concept of Nodal Point as I feel one thing lacking in the above photo is a foreground interest. Until I get my head around the Parallax concept and what it means for the photo, I will probably leave it out. I also suspect that even when aiming for 4:3, a pano may be a way to increase effective megapixels. For group photos for example.