Pano Setup for D7D

[Agetan]

Hi all,

Thought to share this with you guys as I have few people PM me wanted to know how to do Panoramic using D7D.

In the nutshell, the camera + lens combination needs to rotate on its Pivot Point (central Axis) to reduce the parallax error. General rule of guide, if the subject is further away from you, the lesser the parallax error. Hence if you are taking Pano shots in landscape without any foreground, it is fine to mount the camera on tripod or even hand-held and you will get great result. However, if you want to include something that is very close to you, I am talking about standing about 0.5m or less from your actual subject, the parallax error will be so great that it will need some extensive photoshop session to get it right.


Simple steps:
1. Keep everything manual
manual exposure, Manual WB, manual focusing

2. Manual exposure
pan around and get different reading and use average exposure for the coverage that you are intended to do. It will be a compromise, hence pick a time where the exposure different is smaller.

3. Manual Focussing
Focus something in between the nearest and the furthest and set your lens around f8 or smaller.

4. Manual WB
If it is the same, you won't have problem with stitching later.

5. Make sure the head is in absolute level
So you will have a straight horizon

Calibrate your Combo with Pano head (you can build one yourself - will be in later part - stay tune)

For your info, my setup is Feisol CT3401 and KingPano head with KM 11-18 DT setting at 11mm and often it will be around f8 to f16. I like the KingPano head because it is well made and very stable to use with DSLR as well as it has the levelling base, which is very essential to get everything right. Price is very reasonable too. You can read more on KingPano HERE.

Bill King is a great guy to deal with....

Here is the setup:

Head

Whole Combo

and the results:

I will write in more details on the Home made Pano head later..

Regards,

Hart

 

[tankm]

Interesting. Hope you can share why the need for this setup for pano, compare to just tripod mount and rotate. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Johnston]

thanks for sharing. more tips please. more more more.....;p

 

[Agetan]

thanks for sharing. more tips please. more more more.....;p

Thanks.. u need to let me know what you want me to share in terms of tips goes...

Hart

 

[blueshift]

really helpful sharing.. thx a lot.. me waiting for more..

 

[tankm]

Have read the King Pano website...the head is US$149 + $34.50(shipping) and looks bulky.

Main thing I gather from the website is to get the lens to rotate at it's "Nodal Point". This will provide a picture that is not distorted too much to allow easier join between photos. The website has hints on how to find the lens nodal point.
http://www.kingpano.com/nodal_tut.htm

To get the lens to rotate at it's nodal point, I think the manfrotto sliding plate adaptor mounted on a ballhead that has independant rotate lock can be used. For levelling just use a 2-way bubble level on the camera as guide.

Manfrotto sliding plate adaptor http://www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/manfrotto/pid/3269

Waiting for you to share your home made pano head.

Thanks.. u need to let me know what you want me to share in terms of tips goes...

Hart

 

[Johnston]

Thanks.. u need to let me know what you want me to share in terms of tips goes...

Hart

Any tips from A-Z. BTW, how about vertical pano? Same? :think:

 

[Drudkh]

So far all my panos were taken handheld @ 28mm (28-75) and 18mm (18-70), like Hart mentioned, all in full manual.

http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e106/drudkhphoto/Darwin/?action=view&current=MindiBeach.jpg
The above is a 360 degrees taken just before sunset.

 

[Agetan]

So far all my panos were taken handheld @ 28mm (28-75) and 18mm (18-70), like Hart mentioned, all in full manual.

http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e106/drudkhphoto/Darwin/?action=view&current=MindiBeach.jpg
The above is a 360 degrees taken just before sunset.

Nice work Don...

Hart

 

[Agetan]

Any tips from A-Z. BTW, how about vertical pano? Same? :think:

Vertical Pano? not sure how... but in theory, just need to alter the direction of the head.

I haven't don't one yet, hence can't comment on it.

Hart

 

[megaweb]

Most Pano info can be found at this site

www.panoguide.com

 

[TME]

I reproduce one of my shots here... actually u dun really need a pano head unless u are after very exacting work... the shot below was taken with manual exposure vertically - total 11 vertical shots (I think so or maybe 9) - 180 degrees view. It stitched very well with minimal correction... I prefer to take vertical panos as u get more freedom to crop off the lens distortions at the ends of the shot (ie. top and bottom) and get a really nice looking pano... on the other hand, u need also to take many shots... many of the 11 shots below were at least 60% overlap of the next one... this gives the software lots of room to work even if the distortion is severe...

This next shot:
23 shots horizontal... 360 degrees view. The distortion in the foreground is very obvious and made worse by the fact that I was standing closest to the canteen where all the students were. I was shooting at 17mm which also worsened the distortions due to barrel distortion inherent at that wide angle despite the 1.5x crop factor in the 7D.

I think the object lesson from these two shots for me is that u should try to shoot a pano in which the subject-camera distance is as similar as possible across all your shots...

In many cases, that means sacrificing the foreground so that the curvature of the lens is cropped off... It requires that u shoot from higher ground (bridge, top of steps, from a building) and focus further away... I have seen many shots taken from a walkway beside a river or from a bridge of the river scene... the railing and walkway always gets shot in and there's this curvy foreground that (to me) spoils the pano effect... I would tend to lean over the railing and shoot without the railing... unless u intend for the curved effect... but I prefer nice straight conventional panos... but that's me...

Also try to shoot flat onto the scene without the camera lens pointing down or upward slightly... it makes life easier when u stitch...

Hope this helps... I'm a newbie where panos are concerned but I thought I just share what I learnt from these shots... I will be shooting in Cambodia soon (Angkor Wat)... hopefully have more nice panos to share when I get back...