Wow, Cory, thanks! I hadn't thought about checking the exposure around the complete arc, but that makes sense. Marnie aka Doe :-) ================= I've been very successful doing panos with as little as 10-20% overlap. The *biggest* thing IMO is what's been mentioned that holding the exposure identical is really important. Getting different contrast due to flare with varying light is also somewhat important if the sun's anywhere near.
As far as software, I have no idea how the commerical offerings for Winders/MacOS work, but I do know that a lot of the open-source stuff I use is available for Winders. The main engine is PanoTools, of course, but the GUI frontend I use is called 'hugin'. It has a built-in error minimization optimization engine to automatically determine lens correction factors, differences in camera tilt, etc. Way cool. For me, here's the order ofoperations. - Set camera to RAW... with the amount of fiddling required for panos, I doubt ANYONE (with the exception of a few insane zealouts like Kenny-boy Rockwell) could argue that the flexibility won't be worth it. - Tripod (relatively level) is a good idea. - Do test shots for exposure at all prospective angles about the intended pano. Make sure the highlights don't blow out anywhere, and set the exposure to manual. - Shoot all frames, with at least 10-20% overlap. - Convert RAW to deep-color TIFF with identical WB and EV comp settings. - Use 'autopano-sift' to try to automatically generate the alignment points. - Review points with 'hugin' program... add horizontal and/or vertical points to ensure straight horizon/vertical objects. - Use the "optimization" to improve draft and iterate modifying/adding/removing some of the alignment points if necessary - Generate output "projection" images (or multilayer image) - Blend together with 'enblend' - Fine-tune final image (rubber-stamp dust, watermark, etc). -Cory --------------------------------------------- Warning: I am now filtering my email, so you may be censored. ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
