Anderson Falls is located 10-15 miles east of Columbus, IN, about 45 minutes south of Indianapolis. In early May, 2007, I stopped off at Anderson Falls on the way back to Indianapolis following a shoot at Clifty Falls State Park in extreme southeast Indiana. (The Clifty Falls shoot had been partially successful; I'd have rendered it entirely successful if I hadn't been caught in a gullywasher of a rain storm that blew up out of nowhere while I was about a mile down a trail.)
While at Anderson Falls, I shot a set of three vertical exposures that I intended to stitch together later. When I tried, the pano program I was using (Panorama Factory) hiccuped repeatedly when trying to stitch the frames together. My extensive attempts at manually stitching the images also failed. I assumed that I was dealing with problems related to foliage blowing, parallax or both and gave up.
Just a few days ago, I was attempting to stitch a set of exposures of the Olympic Mountains that I shot while the Pacific Northwest last month and, again, Panorama Factory failed to properly complete the job. In this instance, there definitely were no issues regarding wind-blown foliage or parallax. On a lark, I tried stitching this image set using the Photomerge feature in CS4 and it worked like a charm. I remembered the Anderson Falls frames from more than two years earlier--a set I'd always been partial to--and decided to give it a try in Photomerge. Again, it worked like a champ; you see the results here. In this rare case, my anal retentive tendency to hang on to just about every frame I shoot paid off.
D200, 24-120 D; three vertical images, all @ 24 mm, f16, 1/8 sec., ISO 200
Posted by Brian Vance on August 17, 2009 at 1:59 PM
Nice falls scene, Kerry, It was worth the wait! It looks very natural and I like the balance between the FG trunks on the left and the BG trunks on the right. I would consider a small crop from the top keeping the green leaves in the ULC and bringing the frame more into a traditional 2x3 landscape orientation.
Was there any reason why you had not tried using Ps for stitching before now?
Looks like a nice place to shoot and I am glad you kept them and that it worked so well. Your original images muist have been well done to get such a nice blend.
Brian, re the decision not to use Photomerge in PS prior to this...I skipped CS3, passing on that upgrade and continuing to use CS2 until late last year when I jumped to CS4. Everything I heard about Photomerge in CS3 from those that had tried it indicated that the feature wasn't ready for prime time and I hadn't heard anything at all about the feature in CS4. I only tried it because it was clear to me that something about Panorama Factory wasn't right; it should have stitched that Olympic Mountains panorama with no trouble at all. I thought I was looking at upgrading to the latest version (the version I'm using is more than three years old), but thought that, before I paid the freight, it was worth seeing what the PS feature could do since I'd effectively already bought it. I was very pleasantly surprised by the final result, and that's what led me to give the Anderson Falls pano a shot.
My conclusion--while Photomerge probably isn't the right tool for multi-row HDR panos, it seems to do just fine on single row/single exposure shots...both horizontal and vertical (it stitched a three-image vertical pano of Marymere Falls that I shot last month that wasn't properly aligned at all...a function of the tribulations of shooting vertical panos with a ballhead). I almost never do anything but single row/single exposure panoramas so--at least for now--I'm sticking with Photomerge.
Kerry....nice shot first of all, being very familiar with the location! The rain helps keep that foreground boulder looking good with the muted colors!
I have CS3 and have used the Photomerge a few times with good success. I don't do anything complicated, but I have had good success with it.....it has not worked only once and that was with a couple of images where I moved between shots and inadvertently changed the perspective significantly. Even then a manual blend worked out OK (until I realized I had focus problems as well - operator error!!).
CJ
Posted by Chuck Beatty on August 19, 2009 at 8:18 PM
From a fellow pack rat, congratulations on a beautiful image. Glad you saved the originals for when the time was right.
Posted by Mike Klarich on August 24, 2009 at 2:40 PM
Nice job on capuring a wonderful image. I would just say Saturation is a personal preference, seems a tad overly done to me, in my humble opinion. However, I'm sure others would disagree. Nice job!
Discussion
7 repliesWhile at Anderson Falls, I shot a set of three vertical exposures that I intended to stitch together later. When I tried, the pano program I was using (Panorama Factory) hiccuped repeatedly when trying to stitch the frames together. My extensive attempts at manually stitching the images also failed. I assumed that I was dealing with problems related to foliage blowing, parallax or both and gave up.
Just a few days ago, I was attempting to stitch a set of exposures of the Olympic Mountains that I shot while the Pacific Northwest last month and, again, Panorama Factory failed to properly complete the job. In this instance, there definitely were no issues regarding wind-blown foliage or parallax. On a lark, I tried stitching this image set using the Photomerge feature in CS4 and it worked like a charm. I remembered the Anderson Falls frames from more than two years earlier--a set I'd always been partial to--and decided to give it a try in Photomerge. Again, it worked like a champ; you see the results here. In this rare case, my anal retentive tendency to hang on to just about every frame I shoot paid off.
D200, 24-120 D; three vertical images, all @ 24 mm, f16, 1/8 sec., ISO 200
Was there any reason why you had not tried using Ps for stitching before now?
Brian, re the decision not to use Photomerge in PS prior to this...I skipped CS3, passing on that upgrade and continuing to use CS2 until late last year when I jumped to CS4. Everything I heard about Photomerge in CS3 from those that had tried it indicated that the feature wasn't ready for prime time and I hadn't heard anything at all about the feature in CS4. I only tried it because it was clear to me that something about Panorama Factory wasn't right; it should have stitched that Olympic Mountains panorama with no trouble at all. I thought I was looking at upgrading to the latest version (the version I'm using is more than three years old), but thought that, before I paid the freight, it was worth seeing what the PS feature could do since I'd effectively already bought it. I was very pleasantly surprised by the final result, and that's what led me to give the Anderson Falls pano a shot.
My conclusion--while Photomerge probably isn't the right tool for multi-row HDR panos, it seems to do just fine on single row/single exposure shots...both horizontal and vertical (it stitched a three-image vertical pano of Marymere Falls that I shot last month that wasn't properly aligned at all...a function of the tribulations of shooting vertical panos with a ballhead). I almost never do anything but single row/single exposure panoramas so--at least for now--I'm sticking with Photomerge.
I have CS3 and have used the Photomerge a few times with good success. I don't do anything complicated, but I have had good success with it.....it has not worked only once and that was with a couple of images where I moved between shots and inadvertently changed the perspective significantly. Even then a manual blend worked out OK (until I realized I had focus problems as well - operator error!!).
CJ
Take care,