This tutorial was completed using Autodesk® Stitcher™ 5.1 and Photoshop® CS on a PC with a Nikon D50 camera, an 18-55mm objective, Manfrotto tripod and a Panosaurus panoramic head.
One could here have been satisfied with a tripod without panoramic head if the final aim was to create a 640x480 Quick Time® VR but we chose to create a printed poster. In this case, each detail counts, because the smallest defect can be seen on a large scale. A panoramic head is therefore necessary to avoid imperfections and especially to avoid any error due to parallax.
Click here to download the panorama project images sources
|
 |
I.
Some points to be noted before beginning to shoot
|
|
1. Take all the photographs in your panorama using the same focal distance parameters. If possible, use a wide-angle lens in order to reduce the number of shots. In this example, all the photographs were taken with the camera in "Completely Automatic" mode.
|
|
| |
Easy tips for "pros":
- The aperture diaphragm must be reduced to the minimum if you wish to obtain a greater depth of field and to avoid any blur effects on the first and second shots. It is not unusual to close the diaphragm beyond F 8.0 in panoramic photography.
- Place your camera in a vertical position.
- If you are a perfectionist, you can also, without it being strictly necessary, take care that the exposure and the development of your camera are set to manual and that the white balance is not set to the automatic mode in order to correct the exposure differences.
|
|
|
2. A small but useful recommendation: you should have a memory board of sufficient size to store all your images. A panorama can comprise from 10 to around 50 photographs, according to whether it is cylindrical or spherical and according to the focal distance of your camera.
|
|
3. Stitcher requires an overlap of approximately 20 to 30% between adjacent images. The number of images necessary to reach a 30% overlap will depend on the field angles of the objective used.
|
|
