Panoramas from my eastern Europe trip

[davestar]

Disclaimer - All the source pictures were taken handheld with my TZ3. Exposures, etc vary picture-to-picture which accounts for the fact that enblend couldn't handle the transitions too well. I'd only consider the top 2 of these "acceptable" though I'd still like to make some alterations to them.

I should probably mention that I stitched the photos together in the method suggested by fuzzybabybunny (hugit, autopan-SIFT, enblend). I've used Olympus' photostitch software in the past, but I wanted to step it up for these pictures.

Any panorama pros able to offer some advice as to how I can even out the colors in these pictures? Hope they're not lost causes.

Wachau Valley, Austria
Schloss Schonbrunn, VIenna
Bratislava
Budapest
Belvedere Palace, Vienna

The galleries for my last 2 European trips are located here

 

[corkyg]

I've shot lots of panoramas over the years - horizontals, verticlas, and both together. My rule of thumb is generally to use a 50% overlap in the optical finder, horizontally or vertically, and then the real blending, etc. is up to the stitching software.

The best stitcher years ago was by Enroute. That is now bought and incorporated into Corel Photo Album for the last few versions. I'll see if I have any examples and add them.

This was early morning looking East on the Columbia River: Columbia River

And this was the harbor approaching Monaco - Monte Carlo: Monaco

 

[Jawo]

As long as you have the orignial images they are not lost causes. I have loved Hugin and Enblend...does a pretty good job at blending. Look at FBB's excellent guide on how to use the above. FBB Tutorial

 

[davestar]

Originally posted by: Jawo
As long as you have the orignial images they are not lost causes. I have loved Hugin and Enblend...does a pretty good job at blending. Look at FBB's excellent guide on how to use the above. FBB Tutorial

I appreciate the responses, but you guys didn't exactly read what I wrote! I constructed the panoramas using fuzzybabybunny's method from his tutorial and I got those results. How can I fix them?

 

[corkyg]

Sorry - I guess that Fuzzy's tutorial doesn't result in a good blending of images. I expect that SHE would be the one to address that issue.

My suggestion was to use a different pan software that does the job with less fuss and feathers.

The panoramic function built in to Corel PA 6 and PS Pro XI is the former Enroute software. It is very simple and easy to use and you have these choices:

Cylindrical or perspective projection. Sharp or smooth blend. And, output size. That's it. Just drag and drop the overlapping images into a grid and click a GO button.

Your Budapest sample used cylindrival projection, and the blend was too sharp. That resulted from different exposures.

I've never used Hugin - and from the tutorial, I don't expect I ever will. It is too complex for my feeble brain.

 

[davestar]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Sorry - I guess that Fuzzy's tutorial doesn't result in a good blending of images. I expect that SHE would be the one to address that issue.

My suggestion was to use a different pan software that does the job with less fuss and feathers.

The panoramic function built in to Corel PA 6 and PS Pro XI is the former Enroute software. It is very simple and easy to use and you have these choices:

Cylindrical or perspective projection. Sharp or smooth blend. And, output size. That's it. Just drag and drop the overlapping images into a grid and click a GO button.

Your Budapest sample used cylindrival projection, and the blend was too sharp. That resulted from different exposures.

I've never used Hugin - and from the tutorial, I don't expect I ever will. It is too complex for my feeble brain.

ah, right. i'd never heard of enroute so i must've subconsiously passed over your mention of it. i've got to agree with your observations of hug-it - it's a sprawling, awkward piece of software, though it may one of the more powerful and flexible options out there.

in any case, i'll check out enroute (or its descendents). your panos definitely show that it can do the job. the columbia river shot in particular is amazing.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: davestar

Originally posted by: Jawo
As long as you have the orignial images they are not lost causes. I have loved Hugin and Enblend...does a pretty good job at blending. Look at FBB's excellent guide on how to use the above. FBB Tutorial

I appreciate the responses, but you guys didn't exactly read what I wrote! I constructed the panoramas using fuzzybabybunny's method from his tutorial and I got those results. How can I fix them?

Heya. Any way you can host the original files that are used to make the panos? The tutorial was VERY bare bones and only covered the actual program use. I did not cover how to actually shoot the parts needed for a panorama, which is a very important part of building panoramas that stitch seamlessly.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: davestar
ah, right. i'd never heard of enroute so i must've subconsiously passed over your mention of it.

Well, Enroute goes way back to 1998 when it's "Quickstitch" software was bundled with Olympus Cameras. My first few digitals were Olys until I decided to go DSLR in 2001.

Anyway, try this Google, and you can see how that evolved. It is now built into Corel PaintShop Pro Xi/PhoAlbum 6.

Enroute

My pans are basically no-brainers. I normally shoot left to right with about a 50% overlap, trying to pivot about the same axis. (Ideally, a tripod is perfect.) I try to key horizontal evenness by using some definable feature - like a shoreline or skyline.

I ised to do a lot more of them, but with the 5D being full frame, the wide angles are really wide. Most pans I do now are with medium telephoto.

Glad to see Fuzzy has jumped in. She's the real expert.

 

[davestar]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Heya. Any way you can host the original files that are used to make the panos? The tutorial was VERY bare bones and only covered the actual program use. I did not cover how to actually shoot the parts needed for a panorama, which is a very important part of building panoramas that stitch seamlessly.

The source images for the Bratislava panorama are here.

I've shot better panoramas in the past with a worse camera and less care, so I know it's possible to make these work. I know i could improve my panorama shooting, but i prefer to take pictures quickly and unobtrusively as possible, especially when wandering around Europe.

(fuzzy, you're a guy, correct?)

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: davestar

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Heya. Any way you can host the original files that are used to make the panos? The tutorial was VERY bare bones and only covered the actual program use. I did not cover how to actually shoot the parts needed for a panorama, which is a very important part of building panoramas that stitch seamlessly.

The source images for the Bratislava panorama are here.

I've shot better panoramas in the past with a worse camera and less care, so I know it's possible to make these work. I know i could improve my panorama shooting, but i prefer to take pictures quickly and unobtrusively as possible, especially when wandering around Europe.

(fuzzy, you're a guy, correct?)

I can't see any files in the folder. Are you still uploading them?

I'm a bunny! Yay!!!!!!

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Okeys. They're up now.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Ok, I'm looking at the EXIF info and I know what's going on. When you shoot panoramas, for optimal stitching you really really need to lock the exposure and the white balance for each picture. So if you're shooting four pictures to make a panorama, each picture has to have the same exposure for the colors to blend properly. So if one picture requires f/8, ISO100, and 1/200s, you must shoot all four pictures at this exposure. Looking at your picture files, some pictures are shot at 1/200s and some at 1/320s, which can cause blending problems and different colors between the pictures and a very noticeable seam.

When I shoot pictures for panos, I always use manual mode because this allows me to lock my exposure across all my pictures.

I noticed you use the TZ3, which doesn't offer manual controls (I have the older TZ1 but I only use it for video)

In this case you may have to use the other program other than Hugin/Enblend that you said works better. When I get home though I'll give your shots a go.

I think I'm going to need to go back to my tutorial and explain how to properly shoot the pictures for panos, as the not-locking-exposure thing is a really common problem with beginners. I was thinking about putting this stuff in at first, but I really just wanted to make the tutorial as a walkthrough for using Hugin, because I understand that it can be very confusing.

 

[corkyg]

In addition to Fuzzy's comments, I tried a quickie pan and got this from your pics:

Pan

Editing the individual pics would not make a good pan because of the factors Fuzzy pointed out on exposure, plus - I found insuffcient overlap on the first two pictures. The bridge was the key and it is at two very different angles. And that lack of overlap contributes to the minimal blending area, especially in the sky.

Also, these are all in 16x9 (letterbox) format, and that really demands 50% because each is quite wide.

 

[davestar]

thanks for giving these pics a go. i knew that ideally i'd have a locked exposure, etc, but as fuzzy pointed out, my camera doesn't allow such things.

i found a program called Panorama Factory that does a pretty good job blending and otherwise compensating for handheld, non-exposure-locked source pictures. i'll post up some results when i get a chance

 

[corkyg]

Just use a 50% overlap and you'll get better blending in any program. Rule of thumb - Viewfinder center moves to the right edge of the next frame. Use the optical finder when possible. LCDs suck in daylight.