[Hattifnatt]

Hello there,

After recently getting the K-1, I have decided not to go for the 15-30 (because of weight and portability) and wait for a new DFA wide-angle from Pentax. Until then, I am thinking to try something I have never done before, panos. I can use the FA 31 Limited or the Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art. Do you have some advice for the workflow I should follow?

My current workflow that I use is to do some basic adjustments in Lightroom (cropping, WB, shadow/highlights, lens profile) then I go to either Color Efex or Silver Efex. How do I need to change this if shooting panos?

Also, do I need a special tripod or tripod head? I am using a Gitzo series 1 traveler (GT1542T) with a series 1 traveler disc ball head. It has levels.

Any advice is welcomed! many thanks in advance.

[enoeske]

Hello there,

After recently getting the K-1, I have decided not to go for the 15-30 (because of weight and portability) and wait for a new DFA wide-angle from Pentax. Until then, I am thinking to try something I have never done before, panos. I can use the FA 31 Limited or the Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art. Do you have some advice for the workflow I should follow?

My current workflow that I use is to do some basic adjustments in Lightroom (cropping, WB, shadow/highlights, lens profile) then I go to either Color Efex or Silver Efex. How do I need to change this if shooting panos?

Also, do I need a special tripod or tripod head? I am using a Gitzo series 1 traveler (GT1542T) with a series 1 traveler disc ball head. It has levels.

Any advice is welcomed! many thanks in advance.

First, always lock down every variable on the camera. Lock down the settings so the depth of field, ISO and time exposure don't change and mess things up. Lock down the white balance so the colors don't shift from one shot to the next.

While not totally necessary for personal shots, its recommended to use 2 sec timer to get the mirror up and reduce any vibrations that might soften the image. A wired remote is recommended as well.

The tripod should be okay, but you want to rotate the camera about the sensor axis or as closely as possible to avoid distorting the image too much.

After you have your shots, you should be able to select them all in lightroom and combine them to a panorama. Then you can do your other post work on the whole image.

[stevebrot]

After you have your shots, you should be able to select them all in lightroom and combine them to a panorama.

Depending on Lightroom version, of course. If your version does not have direct support for panos or "merge to panorama" (requires Photoshop), you might be interested in the free Microsoft ICE tool.

Image Composite Editor - Microsoft Research


Steve

[stevebrot]

Also, do I need a special tripod or tripod head?

Some method of leveling the head and insuring that the pan is level to the earth (not the same thing) is helpful. There is some advantage to having a setup that allows you to avoid issues with parallax with foreground objects by doing the pan around the optical system's entrance pupil.

B&H has a decent HowTo:

How to Make Panoramic Photographs | explora

For info on reducing parallax:

http://www.johnhpanos.com/epcalib.htm


Steve

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Last edited by stevebrot; 08-10-2016 at 01:46 PM.

[othar]

Depending on Lightroom version, of course. If your version does not have direct support for panos or "merge to panorama" (requires Photoshop), you might be interested in the free Microsoft ICE tool.

You usually get good results with ICE from the beginning but when something goes wrong you only have limited options to influence the outcome, in my opinion. I therefore prefer hugin which is also a freeware.
For Hugin you can either stitch processed jpeg's or you can create mainly unprocessed TIFFs with LR (I only correct CAs before creating the pano) - stitch them and process the Pano afterwards in LR.

First, always lock down every variable on the camera. Lock down the settings so the depth of field, ISO and time exposure don't change and mess things up. Lock down the white balance so the colors don't shift from one shot to the next.

+1
I use manual mode for my panos too (especially WB) and I try to keep all settings (ISO, shutter speed, aperture) the same for all pictures if possible.

[jrpower10]

Some method of leveling the head and insuring that the pan is level to the earth (not the same thing) is helpful.

This. It's not enough to level the camera using the ballhead. The base of the head needs to be level as well, or close to (assuming your head has a panning option). You can do this by adjusting tripod legs, or get a leveling base (I opted for the latter as trying to level by shortening legs can be pretty tedious and I'm impatient).

[leekil]

If you don't already have software in mind and are using a Mac, this software is cheap and at least in some cases seems to work better than other more expensive packages I have tested. It doesn't have all the parameters to set, but it was able to stitch without intervention in several cases where the other software couldn't. But your requirements may be (are probably) different than mine.

DoubleTake - Stitch Images to Panoramas on Mac OS X

[othar]

Also, do I need a special tripod or tripod head?

As others have mentioned you should positon your tripod in a way that the camera stays level when rotating on the tripod and depending on your foreground it could be interessting to have some other equipment to position your optical center in the middle of your rotating axis to avoid parallax errors, but this is only of interest if you photograph man made objects in the foreground (interiors or something like this).
When your main interest is landscape photography you can even get good panos without using a tripod at all. When I am hiking I don't always take my tripod with me to spare me some weight or if there is not enough space left in my backpack, so I have to shoot my panos handheld.
Here is an example: This is a handheld pano of 10 pictures, there are probably some parallax errors in the foreground but you practically don't see them because there are no right angles, straight lines or anything man made you could possibly recognize as error. The only important thing is to overlap your pictures enough (around 20% but under 50%) or your stitching software might get problems.

[mikeSF]

great advice already given regarding locking down of settings, etc, and spending ample time leveling tripod precisely.

Other tips...

- if there are moving clouds, people, cars, etc, shoot your series against the direction they are traveling to eliminate repeats. That is, if the clouds are moving left to right across the sky and your pano series is left to right, you may find some annoying stutters or repeats in the clouds that can become problematic.

- avoid using polarizer with panos to prevent uneven polarization of the sky (just as you would when shooting with an ultrawide lens)

- be mindful of any lens distortion and correct if possible before stitching to facilitate better matchups. I find the DA21's barrel distortion makes pano stitching tricky whereas the FA31 has so little distortion, it is ideal for panos.

[microlight]

Agree with othar. I often take handheld overlapping portrait shots at 20mm with the Limited zoom within a second of each other, exposed manually. After development and minor adjustments in DCU5, I use ICE to stitch the TIFFs to give a wider field of view than I'd otherwise get with the 20-40.

[Quartermaster James]

I have been told to shoot panos with the camera vertical, to decrease the effect of edge to edge distortion. YMMV.

[tduell]

The tripod should be okay, but you want to rotate the camera about the sensor axis or as closely as possible to avoid distorting the image too much.

Not the sensor axis. The camera needs to be rotated about the lens nodal point to avoid parallax errors, particularly if there is anything in the scene close to the camera.

Cheers,
Terry

[stevebrot]

I find the DA21's barrel distortion makes pano stitching tricky whereas the FA31 has so little distortion, it is ideal for panos.

Counter-intuitive as it may sound, going wide for a pano is often problematic and not just because of barrel distortion. Volumetric distortion and keystoning are amplified as the FOV increases.


Steve

[stevebrot]

Not the sensor axis. The camera needs to be rotated about the lens nodal point...

...or more correctly the lens entrance pupil. There is some discussion whether to use the entrance pupil or the lens front element front nodal point to defeat parallax, though "nodal point"* is often used to describe both. Either way, what we want is the point on the lens axis that defines perspective (i.e. where converging lines converge to).


Steve

* Although the front nodal point may be near or the same position as the entrance pupil, use of the term is a misnomer in this context. Nodal point(s) is more appropriately applied for swing action on view cameras. For more see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_point_(optics)#Nodal_points -and-
How to adjust the nodal point in panoramic photography?

[stevebrot]

or get a leveling base

...a good solution or by using a system that inverts the ball head (e.g. Acratech and others) where you essentially kill two birds with one stone.


Steve