I got into a situation today while standing at the top of a waterfall where my widest lens would not cover the scene I wanted (25mm wide view), so I just shot three images with the camera tilted up and down, plus one in the middle. This image is just a quick "photomerge" with no additional PS work other than to crop out the edges. For those of you who have not tried it, this new feature in PS10 is about as good as any stand-alone stitching program I've ever used at any price, and this from a lens that is about 25mm wide (so there must have been some distortion). I could not find any seams. These three shots, with about 50% overlap, come out to about an 80mp image with my camera (this version was downrezzed to the 700 pixel width for here). This is so easy and so good I must do more of it - try it sometime if you have not already...
By the way, for perspective, those boulders at the top of this image are about the size of cars, yet these falls are just the top part of a double-leap waterfall (the lower leap is much taller) - the falls were not running full tilt, and would really be quite impressive when they are (Baily Falls near Batesville, on private property).
It is RAINING in the upper Buffalo area tonight and I expect we will have wonderful waterfalls here on Friday, and probably into the weekend too - time to get out and do some shooting before the sun comes out! I'm headed into Bowers Hollow early tomorrow in hopes of catching that big waterfall full...
That's a fantastic image. The CS3 merge tool really is a big step up from prior versions. Just out of curiosity, at 240dpi, what's the print size of that 80mp file??? (how many feet?!!)
Very nice Tim. The stitching seems to have worked wonderfully. While I was in Branson it looked like you were getting the much hoped for rain in your area. This technique (and tool) could come in handy in a hurry. Have a great weekend!
Being the neophyte that I am when it comes to digital technique, I probably don't have the appreciation for this that some guys do. I've never tried to stitch before, but I can see what a powerful tool it can be. Looks like you've done a great job Tim, I can't see anything that looks like a seam.
Posted by Tim Buchanan on May 11, 2007 at 11:12 PM
Yup (#52), and I spent nearly the entire day in the woods chasing waterfalls - we had good rain last night, and then again this afternoon. I only fell twice today - once, I grabbed the camera on the way down and kept it from smashing into the rocks below - this is the first time I think I've ever sacrificed my body in favor of protecting the camera (normally I just let the camera crash where it may and save myself). The second time was in the exact same spot, although I did not have any camera gear with me (good thing since I went crashing to the ground again and into the stream - my body is pretty beat up tonight). All in all a great day in the woods and I got 8 or 9 good images (probably only 3-4 will make it into the new book project). I'll post the new stuff in the gallery sometime Saturday I hope.
Bill:
Stiching is really easy, especially now with the version of Photomerge that is included with PS10. The key to doing this is to overlap your images by at least 50% so the software does not have to bend things around too much. And, of course, you have to have everything on manual (focus and exposure). I think people spend way too much making sure everything is level (doesn't matter at all), and some even mess with finding the exact "nodal point" for their lenses (this only matter if you have something pretty close to the lens). For most subjects you can simply pan and/or tilt your tripod and shoot to increase your angle of coverage. My standard way of doing this with 35mm was to shoot 3-4 verticle shots and merge them into a single normal-perspective horizontal - you don't just have to use this technique for wide-angle panos. By doing this you can get some incredible resolution out of a much smaller sensor. I don't have much call to do that now, but do it when I need wider-angle coverage than my lens, as in the scene above...
This looks great. I know how much detail I get with 3 or 4 D200 images. I can't imagine how much you're getting with MF panos. Out of curiosity, have you tried to stitch with multiple rows (a mosaic panoramic)? I use PTGUI because it does such an amazing job with single and multi row. Of course, the more I can do with a single program, the easier life seems to be. I'm putting off buying CS3 until I get a Mac.
I know guys who have guit using ptgui because CS3 does such a good job. By the way, you can switch platforms for free with PS10 now so you can use windows until you switch - it just takes a phone call to switch, then they send you a new program (you have to sign a statement saying you destroyed the previous version). I've been using PS10 since early December and could not think of working without it...
Discussion
11 repliesBy the way, for perspective, those boulders at the top of this image are about the size of cars, yet these falls are just the top part of a double-leap waterfall (the lower leap is much taller) - the falls were not running full tilt, and would really be quite impressive when they are (Baily Falls near Batesville, on private property).
It is RAINING in the upper Buffalo area tonight and I expect we will have wonderful waterfalls here on Friday, and probably into the weekend too - time to get out and do some shooting before the sun comes out! I'm headed into Bowers Hollow early tomorrow in hopes of catching that big waterfall full...
Larry
Bill:
Stiching is really easy, especially now with the version of Photomerge that is included with PS10. The key to doing this is to overlap your images by at least 50% so the software does not have to bend things around too much. And, of course, you have to have everything on manual (focus and exposure). I think people spend way too much making sure everything is level (doesn't matter at all), and some even mess with finding the exact "nodal point" for their lenses (this only matter if you have something pretty close to the lens). For most subjects you can simply pan and/or tilt your tripod and shoot to increase your angle of coverage. My standard way of doing this with 35mm was to shoot 3-4 verticle shots and merge them into a single normal-perspective horizontal - you don't just have to use this technique for wide-angle panos. By doing this you can get some incredible resolution out of a much smaller sensor. I don't have much call to do that now, but do it when I need wider-angle coverage than my lens, as in the scene above...
This looks great. I know how much detail I get with 3 or 4 D200 images. I can't imagine how much you're getting with MF panos. Out of curiosity, have you tried to stitch with multiple rows (a mosaic panoramic)? I use PTGUI because it does such an amazing job with single and multi row. Of course, the more I can do with a single program, the easier life seems to be. I'm putting off buying CS3 until I get a Mac.
I know guys who have guit using ptgui because CS3 does such a good job. By the way, you can switch platforms for free with PS10 now so you can use windows until you switch - it just takes a phone call to switch, then they send you a new program (you have to sign a statement saying you destroyed the previous version). I've been using PS10 since early December and could not think of working without it...