Traditionally capturing panoramic pictures
requires specialized camera equipments (panoramic
camera advice), such as Hasselblad XPan, Fuji
GX617
or 35mm panoramic adaptor for Mamiya 7. Now using digital camera to capture
overlapping images followed by stitching on computer, one can "easily"
achieve the same result, if the scene is relative static. Furthermore,
digital composite images with great details, which rival
images captured by expensive digital SLR like Canon 1Ds Mark II, or large
format cameras, can be created using consumer digital cameras if multiple
carefully captured overlapping images are used for stitching together
(check the
results in Max
Lyons Image Gallery and
how to create digital Gigapixel images). By this way, I
will no long envy expensive Canon 1DsMKIII. Another advantage: as we know the edge performance of any lens is not good as its center. By creating panorama, the best resolved portion of the images are used with less distortions.
To create seamless panoramic photos,
one has to start with good overlapping images by at least 20%, which
is not an easy task as it may sound. What
I have been doing is to take overlapping photos on a tripod or simply
shoot by handheld. The results were acceptable if there are no much foregrounds
involved. However, to get perfect panoramics, the camera has to be rotated
around the Nodal point of its lens so that the parallax error can be
eliminated. Check the following links for how to find the nodal point 1 and 2.
Fortunately, digital camera makes the task of finding almost cost-free
and fast. Here is a link how to set up using some known camera/lens combinations. Once the Nodal point is found for particular lens and camera,
then one can take overlapping images by rotating round it. A
cheaper way to do it is suggested by Big Ben,
otherwise one has to invest in a good panoramic head. Here are some reviews
on panoramic heads:
Panosaurus Pan head and where to buy.
Nodal Ninja Pan head and the place to buy.
Judged from the pictures, it seems stronger enough to hold my camera
and normal or wide angle lens steady. The price is right. So far, it works fine.
A review on threr expensive and heavy Peace River Studios
3Sixty, Kaidan Quickpan III spherical, and Manfrotto 303 SPH pan heads
can also be found here.
The stitching program I have been using
is PTGui.
I found it does very good work.
"Panoramic Photography"
by Lee Frost focused
on traditional panoramics captured a lot of great panoramic scenes.
I highly recommend as a must read for anyone is interested in panoramic
photography.
