Hela guys/girls!

I like to try to shot some panorama photo. Do I need a wide angle lense or I can use my original 38mm lens? Thanks  for some help in advance!

seeya Tunde

I don't know, Tunde, but I suppose the normal lens is best to prevent the 'rounding' effect... (I just wanted to move your question back to top;-)

Thx Geert! Looks like in a friday fewer my tread got lost!  Hehe!! But than again a best way to learn by try and error!

seeya have a smashing weekend!   Tunde

If you are talking about stitching shots together to make a panoramic image, a focal length in the region of 50mm is better because there is less distortion. If you are using an SLR a 50mm prime lens is ideal. You just need to make sure there is a slight overlap from one frame to the next

If shooting digital make sure that the white balance is manually set or shoot RAW, so that there is no colour temperature shift between shots. Even more tricky is maintaining a constant or graduated exposure through all frames, if shooting RAW this is less of an issue as this can be compensated in the conversion stage. If shooting Jpeg, this can still be done with a photo editing program, but it’s a little more tricky.

Also it is best if you take the shots in portrait orientation with a tripod mounded camera, even better if you use a lens collar as you can rotate the camera on the lens axis.

The reason for shooting in portrait orientation is so that you have a greater area to crop top and bottom to get a good panoramic composition, shooting in landscape orientation can leave you with a limited area to crop from and you may cut off some detail that you wanted in.

shoting in portrait orientation ehhh?  a very nice tip, I never thought of that before...=]

It all depends if you're going to stich or not. If you are, Simon_P gave great advice. An exposure 'trick' is to take measurements 90 degrees away from the sun (i.e. having the sun at your left or right) take a note of the measurements, then switch to manual everything set your camera per the noted measurements and shoot your panorama.

What camera do you use? I'm currently working on a mount specifically for the Nikon D70 and have my mockup ready in 3D Studio:

If want to create perfect stitches you''re gonna need something like this because of the nodal point of your lens.

Simon, never ever thought of doing portriat for pano's, great idea, thanks.  However using my tripod would give the problems 3DGuy has stated. The bracket, if I made one, would have to be some 300mm long, because of the type of head I use (quick grip ball, ball to head plate 250mm), to long!!

Another way would be to tie a string around the lens against the camera body with a small weight and mark the floor with chalk, and move the tripod on every shot to the same mark, but this would only work well if you were on flat ground I suppose.

Ah, or even better, use the flash shoe to tie the string as this is just in line with the sensor in the camera, sorry typing whilst thinking about. I'll shut up now.

That's it, of to experiment.

Steve

Attached Link: Nodal point

Doesn't really matter what head you have. The mount should be centered.

3Dguy, thanks for that, great link.

Great learning here, that will teach me for typing on the fly without putting brain in gear, now I understand. Thanks.

Putting design head on now, ruler, pencil, paper, here we go....

Steve

Some pretty great suggestions here, nothing left for me to add. I can say this though, i´ve been shooting alot of panos in my days. And i just bought a wideangle, and i tried to do a few with it...and so far i haven´t succeded. The distortion is too great to get the stitches okay easily. And...use a tripod eh? Great idea, lol. So far, all my panos have been handheld with me rotating.

Zacko: You need a program that can correct the distortion (like AutoStitch or Panorama Factory), then it's not a real problem. Shooting from a tripod with a bracket that allows you to rotate around the nodal point solves a sh*tload of problems aligning the images.

You might also look into PanoTools. It's free and a plugin for photoshop. It requires a bit of work, but it can correct your distortion.

:mellow: ...................
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HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! :b_funny: You´re too funny, lol.

Kort - if it is good enough for David Hockney to do it like that why match them all up perfectly ;)

I think you might be better trying a standard lens Andreas ;)

You know it Richard. Guess i  found another use for my old cam.

Ooops...I guess I was cheating when I used the pano mode on my coolpix...LOL.It has a ghost image of the previous shot...and you just line it up...easy as pie.

Then PS puts them together...

You must never underestimate the power of the eyebrow.
Jack Black

There is always someone to take the easy way out

You are never going to convince anyone that we are clever and this photography thing is difficult , with talk like that Marlene !

:laugh: LOL!

Ooooooops!My bad!

Sorrrrrrrrrrrry!

Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they're eating sandwiches.
Jim Carrey

I use a nikon 10.5 mm lens - it's not the lens length that's a problem but a question - as noted by 3dguy, of rotating around the nodal point. Nikon Control software 'corrects' the fisheye perspecive to rectilinear then software like Stitcher 5 will easily put the pano together.  I use the Manfrotto 303SPH VR HEAD for sphericals and cylindrical panorama - with the 10.5 i only need 6 shots for the cylindrical, 8 for the sphere. Have fun!

Sorry guys and girls! I was away for a short holliday so a bit late I reading these very good advises to try my hand ( camera) on pano!

Marlene, your way of doing pano is very encouraging ... I hope really that easy to make it! hehe

Thanks for  tips and tricks seeyus ... Tunde

Attached Link: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/teachnet/QTVR/NodalPoint.htm

3DGUY,  with cad in the program you could have the nodal point bracket machined right out!

I don't recall nodal point in threads since being on 'rosity buy may have missed it.

At my work, well, in my work as a jeweler, cad is used by many to produce jewelry items. The jewelry is made and rendered in 3d/cad programs then the cad is used to mill or grow a wax item like the render.  We have the program at work but an early one and totally useless overall unless a couple of weeks are spent for special training. Newer progs are more user friendly but are very expensive, in the thousands of US dollars likely due to proprietary industry usage.

Just a thought.    I will likely build a bracket for my cam sometime but by hand and accurate measure.   Thanks for the info on focal node.

Peace to All.       TomDart.

That coolpix is good for the panos. I still kept mine and  use it for that and macro.
Using arcsoft panorama maker really makes them a lot better too.

as far as programs go, I've got Arcsofts Panorama Maker. It works batter than PS but you've gotta get you exposures right or at least flowing to a light/darkness...

TD: the long hole on the bottom plate is that shape to allow to adjust to different nodal points for different focal lengths. A zoomlens doesn't have a fixed nodal point, it shifts with your focal length.

That's what the lines denote on the side of that long hole (18, 24, 35, 50 and 70mm). If I had a CNC machine available I would use it :P I still have to talk to a friend who's got a friend with a workshop.