Panoramic Shooting

[Travis]

Tomorrow I'm heading up to Lion's Lookout in Huntsville.

I'll be attempting my first collection of shots to stitch into panorama.

Basically, the only thing I know about this is to overlap shot by about 50% and to make sure the tripod is level. My tripod is a cheapy and doesn't have a level so I'm not sure a way around this aside from general eyeballing.

Anyone have any other tips that are handy for this style of shooting?

thanks

[Marko]

Hi Travis - Do you have photoshop? If so what version?

[tegan]

Panoramic shoots look rather flat and with minimal visual impact unless there is a lot of verticals and height/depth to the scene as well as distance.

Tegan

[Marko]

Here is a pretty good video that you can check out if you have CS3

It uses the auto-align feature in CS3 - pretty easy actually
http://creativesuitepodcast.com/inde...post_id=171208

Just download the movie..it's quite well explained!

[Marko]

I see you're still online Travis - but i'm late for something....I'll check in late tonite to see if you still need help...

best
Marko

[Travis]

Hey Marko.... I'm going to attempt the editing using the gimp.... thanks for the clip though... i'll watch it anyways.....if there are any gimp users out there that have attempted this I could use the tips... if not I'm sure I'll figure it out somehow...

and Tegan.... if you google Lion's lookout Huntsville you can see some shots.... mostly bad ones.... but the view is fairly diversified... the lookout overlooks the entire town which is surrounded by hills and water.. i don't really mind if it ends up looking flat.... in fact... i don't even know what a flat looking picture looks like..... this is more of a training exercise for me...

any other technical recommendations? Should I shoot wide or tight? I have only two lenses... a 18-55vr and 55-200vr.... and a u.v. filter... and a polarizing filter... Which lens should I start off with? Is there a better aperture/shutter speed for this type of shot? it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow

I plan on experimenting anyway but it would be nice to know where to start off..

thank you everyone

[tegan]

Have you been to the Haliburton Look out?

Tegan

[Travis]

no...common tegan... throw me a bone here.... i know you got the mad skilz...

[Marko]

I don't know anything about Gimp...sorry.

But your approach seems ok to me - try to keep the tripod level as you suggest.

You need to choose the best lens for the shot (of your 2 lenses the zoom is most likely) - only you know what that is when you get to your scene and check out the framing.

I'd also leave room for cropping so I'd 'overframe' the scene by maybe 5-10%

Good luck - hope that helps...and love to see some shots!

best!

marko

[AcadieLibre]

Here is the plugin for Gimp to do Panoramas. If you looking for any plugins try Sourceforge first one of the best sites for opensource apps and ad ons. All the documentation is included.

http://stitchpanorama.sourceforge.net/