[Rnovo]

I'm not sure if any threads exist on this subject.
I am having a rough time perfecting a full 360x180 pano of the interior of a famous church here: dark interior and bright stained glass windows. I'm using PTGui pro and a K5 with the DA10-17mm fisheye with bracketed shots first at +/-1 EV bracket and another at +/- 2 EV and any variations thereof in ACR. Anybody out there with a choice of exposure technique they have found useful in a similar situation - without getting into "heavy PP"? I now think this is beyond the latitude capabilities of HDR and will have to accept washed out windows... Additional lighting is, of course, not feasible.

[Vasyl]

If you send me what you got I will try to play with it.

[Sagitta]

I'm not sure if any threads exist on this subject.
I am having a rough time perfecting a full 360x180 pano of the interior of a famous church here: dark interior and bright stained glass windows. I'm using PTGui pro and a K5 with the DA10-17mm fisheye with bracketed shots first at +/-1 EV bracket and another at +/- 2 EV and any variations thereof in ACR. Anybody out there with a choice of exposure technique they have found useful in a similar situation - without getting into "heavy PP"? I now think this is beyond the latitude capabilities of HDR and will have to accept washed out windows... Additional lighting is, of course, not feasible.

Have you tried running them through Microsoft ICE? Its my go-to for panorama's, and it does do distortion correction fairly well.

Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor (ICE)

[hcc]

I have not try full spherical panos, but I have done quite some landscape panos up to 270 degrees as well as indoor panos.

I use Hugin and PanoramaMaker (Arcsoft), although I prefer by far Hugin.

I found very difficult to do a decent pano with the DA10-17mm and I suspect that it is linked with the lens distortion. Instead I made my best panos using the FA31mm and VL58mm lenses. Both lenses are primes with negligible lens distortion. More generally I believe that a prime lens with minimum len distortion is likely to work best.

I hope that the comment may help.

[Rnovo]

Thank for all the comments.
I'll leave the windows as best as I can and think this over a bit.
The DA 10-17mm has so far given me great results, with no lens flare, PTGui pro has it in its data base and it's a great fish eye lens for this kind of work. I also find that PTGui gives good results but it does take some time to get a good handle on all the features such as all the stuff concerning control points selection and ways to do that, and more. There is a steep learning curve.
As for HDR I have found that the K5 exposure bracket feature will only give you its own result: you don't have control on each of the 3 (or 5) exposures. If you select +/- 1 EV and you want a fixed aperture, you won't get it. The camera will only give you the 1EV (2, or 3 EV...) bracket so if you need critical DOF, for example, you won't get it. It's the same for shutter speed - you can't get a fixed shutter speed with different apertures... That has been a problem for aerial photography in marginal situations where you want a fixed higher shutter speed.
I have a mac so I can't use windows software as it was suggested. I'll post a link of my best result.

[panoguy]

As for HDR I have found that the K5 exposure bracket feature will only give you its own result: you don't have control on each of the 3 (or 5) exposures. If you select +/- 1 EV and you want a fixed aperture, you won't get it. The camera will only give you the 1EV (2, or 3 EV...) bracket so if you need critical DOF, for example, you won't get it. It's the same for shutter speed - you can't get a fixed shutter speed with different apertures...

There is an obscure solution for this...
- Press the "Menu" button
- Go to section 5 of the "camera" menus
- Go into "E-Dial Programming"
- Go to page 2 of it's menus
- For "M" mode, set the Green Button to "Tv Shift"

This will mean that pressing the Green Button in M mode will only adjust the shutter speed, but it ALSO means that any Exposure Bracketing you do in M mode will also only adjust the shutter speed to get every EV you specify! (Weird that they are connected, but that's how it works.) BTW, you only want different shutter speeds for each exposure... changing the aperture messes up not only depth-of-field, but also focus, chromatic aberrations, vignetting and other things you should correct for in your DA 10-17mm shots.

I have a mac so I can't use windows software as it was suggested.

Then you're in luck. Try Bracketeer (Mac only) to use high-end image fusion on your exposures, rather than HDR. It will give you much more "natural" results, without all the fussiness of actual HDR. You should fuse the exposures together first, then hand them off for stitching... if you use the batch function of Bracketeer, they will look identical at the overlaps!

[Rnovo]

Well PanoGuy, you are a wizard - camera wise and, pano wise. That is a weird one for AEB set up and I won't ask where you got it! That is possibly the reason I have had CA of and on too with the FE...
Many thanks also for the info on Bracketeer. I used that in 2008 - the early version I guess - when I first had PSE6 and a K10D upon my return to photography after many moons of neglect.
So, I'll go back to see Mary, the church secretary, and ask for a third visit! She might give me a motherly smile but I'm determined to get this close enough for my learning curve and I'll keep you posted.
Thanks again from the Bluenosers and I'll go back again to your work and contemplate life...!

[panoguy]

No problem at all. I learnt the AEB trick from someone here many moons ago (Drougge, if I recall) and it has made my life that much easier with the K10D, then the K20D and now the K-5.

That is possibly the reason I have had CA of and on too with the FE...

Just so you know, you'll have CA all over the place with the 10-17mm in any case; whether it is noticeable or not is the only variable. That said, CA is something that is easy (or easier) to get rid of when processing your raw image files *before* generating HDR composites (or using Bracketeer, etc.). Vignetting is also apparent at or near 10mm with that lens, and even though HDR tonemapping will even out the fall-off to some degree, it is much better to fix it before you even get to HDR or image fusion.

Here are my pre-pano CA and vignetting settings (DA10-17mm @10mm and f/8) in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw, the utility Photoshop and I think Photoshop Elements use to read/ process raw files - Lightroom is probably similar as well):


Your settings for the 10-17mm (@10mm f/8) will probably be slightly different, based on variability in lens production, but that's a good place to start. Save this as a lens profile and you can automate the processing quite easily.

[Alcazar]

There is an obscure solution for this...
- Press the "Menu" button
- Go to section 5 of the "camera" menus
- Go into "E-Dial Programming"
- Go to page 2 of it's menus
- For "M" mode, set the Green Button to "Tv Shift"

This will mean that pressing the Green Button in M mode will only adjust the shutter speed, but it ALSO means that any Exposure Bracketing you do in M mode will also only adjust the shutter speed to get every EV you specify! (Weird that they are connected, but that's how it works.) BTW, you only want different shutter speeds for each exposure... changing the aperture messes up not only depth-of-field, but also focus, chromatic aberrations, vignetting and other things you should correct for in your DA 10-17mm shots.

guys, i don't get it - why don't you simply do your bracketing in Av mode? or am i misunderstanding the problem (you want only time to change during bracketing, not aperture?)

[Rnovo]

You can do that for one shot HDR but when you want to make a pano you need to have the same set of exposures all around, for each frame, otherwise you end up with a mixed bag and either won't work like in PTGui or it will look wrong. In Av at f8 you might get speeds as different as 1/4, 1/15, 2s. or even 4s. because Av is shooting for the same EV. That's why you want to use manual - you want the same EVs all around.
You have the same problem if you use AWB. WB will change all around so you need to a manual WB.

[Rnovo]

Better answer: for panos you don't want the camera meter to decide the exposure (in Av) because it varies all around - from darker to lighter. Use manual and all you're frames will be at the same exposures.