My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours!

Posted By: glamson

My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 02/26/07 02:05 AM

Thought I'd post my favorite panoramic landscape. I am a nut for panoramas and the opportunities don't get much better
than Dead Horse Pt. Love to see yours.

You can check out more at...

http://www.lamsonweb.com/Galleries/Panomania

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 02/26/07 01:47 PM

Hi George,

Great photo. I also checked out your gallery, you have some really good stuff there. I hope to add a panorama I did of the Tetons later. I don't do many myself as I still have not found a decent stitching program, and I find the labor that some of you folks go through in order to make them come out in PS really impressive. :P

Cheers
James

Posted By: wapiti

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 02/26/07 03:48 PM

Beautiful image. I assume that this is at Dead Horse SP in Utah. Wonderful area. I need to get back there to capture some digital images.

Posted By: glamson

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 02/26/07 04:40 PM

Quote:

Hi George,

Great photo. I also checked out your gallery, you have some really good stuff there. I hope to add a panorama I did of the Tetons later. I don't do many myself as I still have not found a decent stitching program, and I find the labor that some of you folks go through in order to make them come out in PS really impressive. :P

Thanks James. I really feel that panoramas are the best way to capture an expansive landscape. I've
tried UWA but I hate the distortions it creates. I use Arcsoft's Panoramamaker4 to do the stitching
and it works fine for most scenes. I've always been too cheap to get PTGUI which I really think
is the best stitching software out there. I think the real key to a good panorama is the camera setup.
I always balance my Gitzo and then use a hotshoe spirit level to balance the camera. Again I'm too
cheap to buy a leveling base.

Posted By: glamson

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 02/26/07 04:47 PM

Quote:

Beautiful image. I assume that this is at Dead Horse SP in Utah. Wonderful area. I need to get back there to capture some digital images.

Thanks Bill. Dead Horse it is. I think alot of people really miss out by not driving out there
when they're headed to Arches or Moab. I think it's one of the best views in the Western US. One of
these years I'm going to figure out how to get down to the river.

Posted By: RomanJohnston

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 02/26/07 05:09 PM

Cool...very nice Panos!!!!

OK...now...here are mine...remember..you asked for it!!!! (hope you have 2 monitors..lol)

These are from my days with my Coolpix P&S....LOL!

And now the biggy!!!

Here are a few more from other P&S cameras:
[image]
http://www.pbase.com/romansphotos/image/69233435/original.jpg[/image]

And one from my first outing with my D70 back in 2004.

I havent been doing many lately...at least that qualify as panos...

This one is 3 portrait style shots together to make a shot that is equal to 30MP, but it holds to normal aspect ratios:

Look forward to seeing others shots!!!

Roman

Posted By: glamson

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 02/26/07 06:03 PM

Quote:

Cool...very nice Panos!!!!

OK...now...here are mine...remember..you asked for it!!!! (hope you have 2 monitors..lol)

These are from my days with my Coolpix P&S....LOL!

Roman,

I was hoping you would contribute some of your great panos to this thread. I remember the tulip festival
one from DPReview a while back.

I also started taking panos back in my P&S days with my Olympus 5050. It had a pano mode
that did a great job of stitching things together. Here is one of my first ones of Donner Pass.

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 02/27/07 12:26 PM

Show-offs. All of you.

Some of these are amazing, and make me hesitate to put up my more mundane stuff.

Roman - that third pano blows my mind. Very very cool (the unnamed really really big one).

James

Posted By: Peggy Sue

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 02/27/07 04:04 PM

James, you hit it right on the head - what show offs!! Such extremely lovely images. I live in the city Stan Jorstad resides. His shows are inspirational. If you care to view more "big" prints check out http://www.stanjorstad.com/jorstad_photo_online.htm . It is the best I could ever provide for you to see. Post more images please.....

Posted By: andrew

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 02/27/07 10:31 PM

Ok, I am itching to try my hand at this.
So basically you tripod the camera, be sure its level, then pivot and take 3 or so shots? Then take it to Photoshop from there for a stitch?
Sound about right?

Here goes nothin...

Andrew

Posted By: JeffDinPA

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/01/07 01:21 AM

I haven't done many of these, I really need to do more.

Andrew, To answer your question the setup is correct, and there are many ways to merge the photos.
I use a program called Autostitch. Don�t use polarizers since the different sun angle will mess you up.
Also lock the white balance and exposure so you do not have to mess with them, they'll never match up
right in the end. I suppose you can correct white balance in a raw workflow.

Here are a couple of mine.

Posted By: Tony Bynum

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/01/07 03:49 AM

Here's one from 2005.

Attached picture 6900-two-med-pan-emailtext.jpg

Posted By: Tony Bynum

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/01/07 04:01 AM

Here's one more. . .

Attached picture 6901-pan-1-bb-large-emailcopy.jpg

Posted By: Tony Bynum

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/01/07 04:57 AM

Now for the biggie!!!!!!! This is a 12 shot pan of the mountains where I live. I live near the left stide of the photos nearer the mountains.

Attached picture 6903-risgwolfsummet-longemail.jpg

Posted By: glamson

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/01/07 08:47 AM

These are all great images in this thread. Thanks to everyone for sharing.
Can't resist adding another. My megaMonopano.

Posted By: RomanJohnston

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/01/07 12:57 PM

Nice work all!!!

James, that long one is 7 shots stiched together....my first big pano.

Tony, what program did you do the stitch in? I see a problem I have had in a LOT of my panos is blend lines in the snow (its so dang hard to hide blends in the snow like that.) If you have CS2, download CS3 and restich in that using the new and highly improved pano tool.....it not only aligns and stiches...it autoblends to keep lines down...and it really does an amazing job without any inpur (just a warning though...it seems to work best in the rounded mode....(about 3rd or 4th option down from auto)

Roman

Posted By: glamson

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/01/07 04:38 PM

Quote:

Nice work all!!!

Tony, what program did you do the stitch in? I see a problem I have had in a LOT of my panos is
blend lines in the snow (its so dang hard to hide blends in the snow like that.) If you have CS2,
download CS3 and restich in that using the new and highly improved pano tool.....it not only
aligns and stiches...it autoblends to keep lines down...and it really does an amazing job without
any inpur (just a warning though...it seems to work best in the rounded mode....(about 3rd or 4th
option down from auto.

Roman,

I'm glad to hear that Adobe has improved the stitching in CS3. I found stitching in CS2 to be problematic.
PanoramaMaker4 does seem to do a pretty good job in blending its stitches.
The most difficult problem I've had with stitching is ocean panoramas.
The constantly moving surf and waves make it almost impossible to get smooth stitches.
I've even tried timing the waves to try and get them to line up. This helps but is very
hit or miss. Usually I have to go in by hand and try to blend the surfline. Here is one
of the pier in Oceanside CA that was very challenging (not exactly a "nature" shot but
illustrates the point).

Posted By: Tony Bynum

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/01/07 06:05 PM

I really had not noticed that snow until you pointed it out. It really shows up after being compressed 4 times! Thanks for pointing that out, I'll have to look it over. I used pan maker 3 to stich that and with only one gig or ram, it took about 20 minutes! LOL

good point glamson, it looks like it's hard to stich moving subjects that have a single line! My bear shot was three shots starting first with bear and moving left for the other two. . . so that was easy becasue I shot the bear, it was moving, but paned left to a static landscape.

that's a cool shot!

Posted By: glamson

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/01/07 07:13 PM

Quote:

good point glamson, it looks like it's hard to stich moving subjects that have a single line! My bear shot was three shots starting first with bear and moving left for the other two. . . so that was easy becasue I shot the bear, it was moving, but paned left to a static landscape.

that's a cool shot!

Tony,

That one with the bear was great. As I panned it to the right, I was expecting more landscape
and it was a surprise to see the bear. I have a pano with a the same bicyclist in all four frames that
is kind of interesting (I can't seem to find it). I just followed him with the camera pan for the panorama.

George

Posted By: andrew

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/02/07 03:47 AM

Here it is. First pano ever.
Flawless if you squint!

6 shots. I still need to figure out a few camera settings, but I think I have the gist of the technique down.
Can't wait to capture a beautiful Kansas sunset to share.

You all give superb tips and info for us amateurs.

Thanks!
FordyH

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/02/07 04:32 AM

Hey Andrew,

Very nicely done on your first attempt! Did you use a program, or did you do it yourself in PS? While I can see signs of the stitch marks, I think that with a little pp they can easily be cleaned up.

James

Posted By: glamson

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/02/07 07:37 AM

Quote:

Here it is. First pano ever.
Flawless if you squint!
6 shots. I still need to figure out a few camera settings, but I think I have the gist of the technique down.
Can't wait to capture a beautiful Kansas sunset to share.

Andrew,

Excellent image. Just watch out now, this can become addictive.

Posted By: andrew

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/02/07 01:54 PM

Stitch marks? You didn't squint did you James?

I just freehanded it in PS. I think the stitching will be better with better photos. I turned the autofocus off on the lens, but the camera still made minor adjustments to the focus between pics.

Thanks glamson! I can see how it could be addictive.

FordyH

Posted By: glamson

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/02/07 05:15 PM

Andrew,

A couple of other tips I use.

Lock the exposure on the brightest part of the scene you are shooting to prevent uneven
exposure between frames.

Don't use a polarizer. It will cause uneven sky that will make blends problematic.

George

Posted By: andrew

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/02/07 10:30 PM

I'll have to get out the user manual on locking the exposure.

Thanks though.
Andrew

Posted By: RomanJohnston

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/03/07 01:00 AM

Andrew......just shoot manual with preset WB and you will be fine. Take a couple of test shots to determins exposure (se histogram) and leave it in manual mode. Preset your WB and leave it. Delete your test photos.... Then shoot away!!

Roman

Posted By: RichardR

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/05/07 03:10 AM

Outstanding panoramas! Mine doesn't belong in the same league as those above but here's the giant Meteor Crater in Arizona. It's a mile wide and you're standing on the edge so other than multi-shot panoramas, don't know of anything but a fisheye that could get it all in.

That was taken with my old 2mp Olympus C-2100UZ, before I got my Nikon.

Regards,

Dick:)

Posted By: glamson

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/05/07 03:44 PM

Quote:

Outstanding panoramas! Mine doesn't belong in the same league as those above but here's the giant Meteor Crater in Arizona. It's a mile wide and you're standing on the edge so other than multi-shot panoramas, don't know of anything but a fisheye that could get it all in.

Dick,

This is a great shot of the crater especially considering the equipment you used. Actually, it was
the ability to actually make a fairly high resoulution photo with enought scope that first got
me so excited about the panorama technique. This was something that digital photography had
that was almost impossible with film unless you had a specialized (read expensive) panoramic
camera. Thanks for sharing.

George

Posted By: RichardR

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 03/05/07 11:55 PM

Thank you, George. Having the ability to make those digital panos sure did open up the ability to record some of those wide scenes. I used it for the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and a few other places on our Western Tour but wish now I'd have thought about it for some other places.

Here's another from The Little Big Horn, the memorial for the indians who participated in the battle, three shots taken with the same camera. The last figure in the line is a depiction of Chief Crazy Horse.

Regards,

Dick:)

Posted By: Dale Forrest

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 04/23/07 04:07 AM

Enjoyed looking at all of your panoramics.

Here is one of mine from my Teton trip in October.

This is a stitch of 2 images....Nikon D200 with 24mm nikkor manual lens.

Dale

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: My favorite panoramic landscape - share yours! - 04/23/07 07:44 PM

Dick

That is quite a unique pano. I like it a lot.

Dale,

I never tire of seeing Mt. Moran. There was a photograph that was entered in the Landscape contest that was quite similar to this that I also really liked. The rich saturated blues are just amazing.

James