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Shooting Coastal Panoramas with the 756MF3 + 303
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Shooting scenic photos can be fun and one of the most rewarding
experiences you can have using your camera. Often, the view in front of
your camera is too broad to fit into one single photo frame, and
capturing that stunning sunset or expansive vista in its entirety seems
challenging, yet it's actually quite achievable when you know what
you're doing. With a good tripod and head, a little bit of know-how and
some readily available software, you can capture the scene to later
print and hang on your wall. This lesson will show you how to shoot
multiple shots of a horizon from one point avoiding common overlap
errors, then "stitch" them together into a panorama ( using Photoshop®
Elements).
(Click on any image below for an enlarged view.) |
Topics Covered:
- Choosing a Lens
- Setting up and Leveling the Tripod
- Setting up the Panoramic Head
- Finding the Nodal Point
- Programming Camera Settings
- Shooting the Frames
- Downloading Images to the Computer
- Assembling Images Using Photoshop® Elements
Manfrotto Equipment Used:
Other Equipment Used:
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| The concept of this lesson is to shoot multiple
images of a scene from right to left, or from left to right, then, like
pieces of a puzzle, to join the series together into one panoramic
image. The concept is simple and the execution should not be difficult
if the plan of action is well thought out and followed. |
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Choosing a Lens
As you look over the
scene you wish to photograph, one of the first decisions to make is how
near you want the elements within the shot to appear. There may be
trees or buildings that you want to see in detail. Maybe you like the
look of an open expanse with objects farther off in the distance.
How
near or how far the scene will look in your photo is dependent on the
focal length of your lens. A small focal length is referred to as wide
angle; this makes objects appear further away. A "normal" focal length
lens makes objects appear pretty much as they would normally. A long
focal length is referred to as telephoto and makes distant objects
appear closer than normal.
Figures 1 , 2 , and 3 show three
separate focal length settings and the resulting shot from each one.
Each shot was taken from the same spot. Notice the difference in the
apparent distance of objects that each focal length produces. |
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Figure 1 |
Figure 2 |
Figure 3 |
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| As you can see from these examples, there is a
great difference in the look of the images because of the different
focal lengths that were used. With the wide angle, more of the scene is
included, yet some points of interest seem far away. With the
telephoto, the same points of interest seem very close, yet much of the
foreground area is lost. |
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Choosing and Setting Up the Tripod
When
shooting the series of images that will make up the final panorama, a
tripod is an essential. It will of course keep the camera steady so the
whole sequence of photos is shake-free, but it will also ensure that
all the images are on the same plane, which in turn helps to ensure
that they join up closely. Although you can take perfectly adequate
panoramas using a normal photographic head, we decided to use a special
panoramic head on the tripod to help us rotate the camera around the
right pivoting point and through the exact number of degrees each shot
to maintain consistent overlap from image to image and avoid so-called
parallax errors. This is very important when shooting precise panoramas
that are easy and quick to stitch together back at home. |
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Figure 4 |
We chose a Manfrotto 756MF3 tripod (figure 4) for
this lesson for two reasons. The first was portability, since we were
going to be walking or hiking outdoors for these shots. The 756MF3's
carbon fiber construction is both light and compact, which was just
what we wanted, but it's also extremely rigid, again thanks to the
carbon fiber. The second reason for choosing the 756MF3 was its
ball-type mounting plate assembly that allows for easy leveling of the
camera, even when the tripod itself is not plumb because it's standing
on uneven terrain. This design is great for using with a panoramic head
because, when shooting panoramas, it's imperative that the horizon is
level. Sure, you can raise and lower each leg of the tripod to achieve
the same results, but a leveling plate built into the tripod is a
time-saver and makes shooting that much easier. |
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Setting up the Panoramic Head
We used
a Panoramic head on the tripod to shoot our panorama scene.
Specifically, we used a Manfrotto 303 Panoramic QTVR Kit. Since a
panorama image is a series of still shots, this head takes the
guess-work out of shooting all the images to make your panorama.
The
role of the Manfrotto 303 head is to maintain a consistent horizon from
shot to shot and to allow the camera to be precisely positioned so that
it rotates around its nodal point between shots. The Manfrotto 303 also
allows the user to set the degree of camera rotation set in relation to
the focal length of the lens being used. For example, with a wide angle
lens, it might take 8 separate images to cover a full 360° panorama;
with a telephoto, you might need 16 images to cover the same 360°
circle. The 303 Head has click-stop positions that allow you to
position your camera perfectly to take each of these 8 or 16 shots -
we'll show you exactly how to do this later in the lesson, but first we
have to set the head and tripod up. |
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To attach the pano head to the tripod, position the
base of the head over the mounting plate and mounting screw on top of
the tripod (figure 5).
Line up the mounting screw with the pano
head's threaded receiving slot, then secure in position by rotating the
pano head onto the mounting screw (figures 6 and 7). |
Figure 5 |
Figure 8 |
Like all Manfrotto's professional tripods, the
756MF3 has a mounting plate with three 45º angled pressure-set screws
that firmly grip the head in place and ensure that any rotation of the
camera won't loosen the head from the tripod. Hand-tighten these three
screws (figure 8) for a secure fit. |
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| As we mentioned above, we can easily make leveling
adjustments to the 303 head since the 756MF3 tripod has a built-in
leveling ball. It's the red semi-sphere at the top of the center
column. When loosened, the mounting plate moves freely, allowing for
positional adjustment so you can easily level your camera. |
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| To loosen the leveling ball, turn the knob at the
bottom of the tripod's center column. Tilt the head and mounting plate
assembly until the desired position is found. Use the bubble spirit
level on the head to find set horizontal by lining up the bubble inside
the marked circle. Hand tighten the knob at the bottom of the center
column to secure the leveling ball again (figure 9). |
Figure 9 |
Figure 10 |
The Manfrotto 303 Pano Head has a quick release
mounting seat to receive a mount hex plate attached to the camera
(figure 10). This quick-release system allows you to easily take the
camera off the tripod.
There is also a level bubble for gauging
the camera's position relative to horizontal. Note that with this
combination of head and tripod, we have multiple leveling bubbles - one
on the tripod and one on the head. It's important to use the bubble
that's closest to the camera. In this case, we use the leveling bubble
on the 303 head to find the horizon and level the camera as seen in
Figure 10. |
| The 303 Pano Head comes with an L-shaped bracket
for mounting the camera. This bracket allows for quickly changing from
vertical to horizontal and back in seconds without having to make any
further adjustments to the tripod or pano head (figure 11). The
vertical setting is useful when shooting panormic sequences with the
camera in the portrait position, which of course helps get a taller
final image, but requires more shots to be taken. |
Figure 11 |
Figure 12 |
The camera mounts on the long side of the bracket.
To
secure the camera to the bracket, line up the threaded female slot on
the bottom of the camera with the mounting screw of the bracket.
Hand-tighten the mounting screw to the camera then turn the gray outer
nut to secure the camera to the bracket. Do not over-tighten (figure 12). |
| Place the mounting bracket over the Pano head
making sure the quick release is open. Align the hex plate with the
receiver on the head and gently press down until the lock clicks into
place (figure 13). |
Figure 13 |
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| The Manfrotto 303 Pano Head has two sliding plates
that can be used for positioning the camera on the tripod because when
shooting a panorama series of shots, it is important that the camera is
oriented properly in relation to the tripod. The goal is to find the
optimum rotation axis to avoid lens barrel distortion (aka parallax
error) in your shots. This is called the finding the Nodal Point. |
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Figure 14 |
The tripod and head's rotation axis runs through
the center column of the tripod. If you continue this imaginary line up
from the top of the tripod through the lens, the nodal point, or ideal
axis of rotation of the camera is roughly at the mid point between the
front of the lens and the focal plane where the digital chip sits
(figure 14). |
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Note
The following section is a more technical explanation of how to find the nodal point as it applies to this lesson. |
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Finding the Nodal Point
The nodal point of a lens is
the point inside a lens where light paths cross before being focused
onto the film plane or digital sensor. When taking the pictures for a
panoramic image, you want to rotate the camera around a line that runs
through (or very close to) the nodal point of the camera lens. Failing
to do this may result in problems due to parallax during the stitching
process. Parallax is the apparent shifting of foreground objects
relative to background objects when you change your point of view or
position. One way to experience parallax is to hold out your hand, and
with one eye closed, place your finger over an object you see in the
distance. When you close one eye and open the other, your finger
apparently "jumps" relative to the distant object. This is parallax due
to your point of view shifting a few inches, from one eye to the other.
Parallax
is a problem in panoramas because they are generated from several
overlapping pictures that have been "stitched" together to make one
image. If an object which occurs in the overlap of two adjacent shots
is near the lens, and the nodal point of the lens moves between the
shots, then the apparent position of nearby object will shift relative
to the background. When the software tries to stitch the two shots
together, a blurring or ghosting will occur on the edges of the nearby
object as the software blends the object's shifting positions with the
background.
If you are taking a panoramic image of a landscape
where everything is far away, you can be considerably off the nodal
point with little ill effect. Parallax is more of a problem when there
are objects within a few feet of your camera or when you're shooting
interior panoramas. In that case you should try to get your pan head's
line of rotation as close to the nodal point as possible:
There
are two orientations that correspond to 2 scale readings that you will
need to find. The first is the location of the nodal point across the
diameter of the lens. Begin by setting up your tripod and mounting the
camera on the pan head as you would do for a Pano shoot. Be sure the
camera is level. Find some nearby object to judge parallax with. Here,
I set up near a light post, so that I can judge its hard edge with a
feature in the background.
1.Move the vertical bracket holding
the camera so that when you look at the camera from the front, the
center of the lens diameter is directly over the line of rotation of
the pan head. You can use a plumb line (e.g. a key tied to a piece of
string, dangled in front of the lens) to help you find the position
accurately.
2.Now you need to slide the camera backwards and
forwards over the rotation point to find the position of the nodal
point along the length of the lens barrel. Start off by placing the
camera so that the line of rotation runs through the front lens
element. The nodal point will be behind this position. Set your tripod
so that you can rotate the camera and have the edge of a nearby,
vertical object show up on opposite sides of a pair of shots. It will
help to also have vertical elements in the mid-far distance of the
shots.
4.If you have through-the-lens (TTL) focusing or a LCD
display on your camera, you can use that to judge when you have found
the nodal point by sliding the camera forwards until you reach a point
where rotating the camera left/right has no effect on the position of
the foreground vertical object relative to the position of the
background elements. If there is any slight shift in the relative
positioning of the two, keep adjusting the camera forwards until it is
eliminated. If your camera has a viewfinder that is not TTL, the
viewfinder lens cannot be used to determine the nodal point of the
picture-taking lens, and you will need to take a series of photos and
compare them to achieve correct nodal point positioning.
Once
you've determined the nodal point of the lens, you can mark or record
the correct position using the 303's millimeter scale engravings so you
can quickly find it the next time you set up for a Panoramic shoot.
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Figure 15 |
Programming the Camera Settings
We used the Manual Mode for our exposure setting to allow greater control over the aperture and shutter speed settings.
To set the E1 to the Manual Mode, turn the Mode dial on the top, right of the camera to the M setting (figure 15). |
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With the camera on the tripod and the CompactFlash
card inserted, we set the resolution to TIFF for the highest quality
image. The white balance was set to 5500ºK (daylight), the ISO was set
to 100, and the focus was set to continuous Auto Focus. After a couple
of test exposures, we set the aperture to f/9.0, and the shutter speed
to 1/80 second. Your exposure may vary, but make sure you set a good
exposure for the whole of your scene.
It is important that the
same exposure level is used for each shot in your series, as this will
make stitching easier and less noticeable.
Because we are
shooting in the TIFF mode for higher resolution images, our image files
will be rather large, about 14 megabytes. These means we could record
17 images on a 256 megabyte media card. We decided to use a Lexar 2
gigabyte CompactFlash card, which will let us shoot about 136 images at
the set resolution. |
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| Shooting in the TIFF mode will give us images that
will be 6.4 inches high by 8.5 inches wide at 300 dpi (standard photo
resolution) (Figure 16). |
Figure 16 |
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| Insert the CompactFlash card into the camera (figures 17 and 18). |
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Shooting the Wide Angle Scene
For our
wide angle scene, we will set our 11-22mm lens to 11mm. Once the
camera, tripod, and pano head have been adjusted and levelled, there is
one more adjustment to set with the pano head.
It is very
important when shooting panoramas that each image sufficiently overlaps
the previous image. This allows for easier blending of the images when
"stitching" together in an image editing software.
Once the area
of overlap is established, the pano head can be set to rotate the
camera in even increments so that all frames will have enough
overlapping space.
We framed up the first frame of the series.
Since we are shooting from right to left, we chose an area on the left
portion of the frame to be overlapped on the following exposure. |
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Figure 19 |
Figure 19 shows the area of overlap we chose for
our series of shots. In shots with changing elements, in our case the
waves, it is even more important to greatly overlap the images. This
will help when trying to match images in the editing stage. |
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| When the area of overlap is established, the pano
head can be adjusted to rotate in even increments to give each
subsequent frame the same amount of overlap. |
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To establish the amount of rotation we needed for a given lens, we set the camera to the first frame we wanted to shoot.
Notice the pan rotation scale at the bottom of the pano head. This scale is marked in degrees (figure 20). |
Figure 20 |
Figure 21 |
The barrel of the pano head has a registration mark directly above the pan rotation scale.
Note the position of the mark on the barrel to the scale.
Turn the camera, while looking through the view finder until the second shot is framed.
Check
the number below the registration mark. The difference between this
number and the starting number is the degree of rotation (figure 21). |
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As we have stated, it's better to overlap more
rather than less to make post production of the shot easier. So if the
amount of movement is in between two degree settings on the barrel,
choose the lesser of the two.
We established our degree of
rotation to be 30º. We placed the rotation set screw into the 30º
threaded hole. From this point, the pano head will click stop into
place in 30º increments (figures 22 and 23).
Note:You
will also see a "n" number above the degree number on the barrel of the
Pano head, these numbers relate to the number of shots you will need to
make a full 360 degree turn at each setting. |
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Frame up the first shot again. Take an exposure and
look at the result. If the exposure is good, rotate the pano head to
the next click-stop. Take your next shot. Rotate the pano head again.
Keep going until all of your n exposures are made.
The
following four shots were shot with our wide angle 11-22mm tele lens
set at 11 mm (figures 24 - 27). The first shot will be the right side
of our panorama scene and the fourth shot will be the left side |
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Shooting the "Normal" Scene
For our
normal shot, we will use the same 11-22mm lens set to 22mm. The degree
of rotation will need to be reset for shooting this series.
We
reframed the first shot and decided how much to overlap the next frame.
A starting point was chosen on the pano head rotation scale, then the
pano head was rotated until the second shot was framed. The amount of
rotation was 20º, so the set screw was placed into the 20º hole on the
pano head (figures 28 and 29). |
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We reset the first frame and started making our
exposures. We took the following nine shots, each one overlapping the
previous shot (figures 30 - 38).
This is the series of shots we will use to show how to stitch the panorama scene together on the computer. |
Figure 30 |
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Shooting the Telephoto Scene
For the
telephoto shot, we changed the 11-22mm wide angle zoom for a 14-54
telephoto zoom lens set to 54mm. Again, the pano head needs to be reset
to accommodate the change in focal length. |
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| Following the same procedure shown before, we
established the pano head rotation to be 10º. We set the pano rotation
to 10º, reframed the first shot, and exposed our next series of shots
(figure 39). |
Figure 39 |
Figure 40 |
The individual shots of the telephoto series is
shown here. Because we focused our attention on a narrower arc of the
horizon, there are seven images to stitch together (figures 40 - 46). |
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Downloading Images to the Computer
Okay!
You've shot all of your pictures and are ready to get them on your
computer. The first thing to do is to turn off the camer and remove the
memory card.
The images are imported from the memory card and
into the computer by using a media card reader. We used a Lexar USB 2.0
Multi-Card Reader that can read various types of media, including the
CompactFlash card we used for this lesson.
To connect the card reader to the computer, use the supplied USB cable. (figures 47 - 50). |
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| Insert the Compact Flash card into the card reader (figures 51 and 52). |
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| Copy the images from the media card into a folder on your computer. |
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Stitching Photos with Photoshop® Elements
The
piecing together of the images is referred to as stitching. A
photographic manipulation software is used to electronically "stitch"
the images together. Photoshop Elements is a scaled-back version of
Photoshop designed for the non-professional photo enthusiast. Elements
is available for under $100 and has many of the features of the full
version of Photoshop. For this lesson, we are using Elements 2.0. The
full version of Photoshop, or any one of a number of other image
manipulation software packages, can also be used.
We will stitch the 9 images taken with the 22mm lens setting to create our panoramic image. |
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Figure 53 |
We opened our 9 images in Photoshop Elements. Take
a look at Figure 53. The desktop has the Main Menu at the top of the
screen, the Toolbar to the left, the active image file in the center,
and the layers palette to the right. The Options Bar for the currently
selected Tool from the Toolbox is just below the Main Menu. You can set
the palettes anywhere you like on the screen by click-dragging from the
top bar of each palette.
Notice in the Layers palette that there is currently one layer named Background. |
| Figure 54 shows the Elements Toolbox with the name
of each tool. For this lesson, we will use the Zoom, Eraser, Move, and
Crop tools. |
Figure 54 |
Figure 55 |
Elements uses layers to construct the whole image.
Content of lower layers will be obstructed by upper layers. The
original layer in each file is named Background. These layers can be
moved and manipulated independently of the other layers (figure 55). |
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With our first image open (Image 1 is the far right
of our panorama series), we need to increase our canvas size to make
room for the additional photos.
From the Main Menu, click on Image>Resize> Canvas Size... |
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| The Canvas Size dialog box opens showing the
current file size and canvas dimensions. The Anchor box allows you to
anchor your image when increasing the canvas size (figure 56). |
Figure 56 |
Figure 57 |
Enter 16 for the width and click on the right, center box of the Anchor box. Click OK (figure 57). |
Click on the Zoom tool to select, then ALT/click
(PC) or OPT/click (Mac) within the image to zoom out. See how we now
have a larger canvas area to build our image (figure 58).
Notice how the image was anchored to the right as directed in the Canvas Size dialog box. |
Figure 58 |
Figure 59 |
Find the next image in the series (should already
be open) and make active in Elements. The layers palette now shows the
Background layer of the active file (figure 59). |
| Drag the Background layer from the second image
into the window of the first image. This will copy the layer into the
original file. Holding the Shift key when performing this action will
constrain the copied layer to the center of the image (figure 60).
Notice that the imported layer is above the Background layer in the
original image. |
Figure 60 |
Figure 61 |
We can make this layer semi-transparent by changing its opacity using the opacity slider in the Layers palette.
With
the higher layer selected (Layer 1), locate the Opacity slider by
clicking on the arrow on the right of the Opacity field. We set our
slider to 58% (figure 61).
The semi-transparent layer will be easier to match with the original image when moving into position. |
| Figure 62 shows the semi-transparent Layer 1 over the Background layer. |
Figure 62 |
Figure 63 |
Select the Move tool in the Toolbox.
Click
and drag with the image until the images match where they overlap.
Holding the Shift key while moving will constrain the movement to the
nearest angle of 45 degrees (in this case, will constrain horizontally)
(figure 63). |
| You can use the Zoom tool to more closely inspect the overlap areas of the photo (figure 64). |
Figure 64 |
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When the two layers are matched in position, use
the Layer palette Opacity slider to set the second layer's (Layer 1)
opacity back to 100%.
We will increase the canvas size to fit all nine images. Use the Canvas Size dialog box again to do this. |
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Figure 65 |
Set the width for the image to 75 inches, anchor
the image to the right by clicking the right, center box of the Anchor
field, then press OK (figure 65). |
| The image is now set to 75 inches long. Notice how
the thumbnails representing the layers in the Layers palette are now
long and thin (figure 66). |
Figure 66 |
Figure 67 |
Select the third image as the active image. As
before, click and drag that layer into the original image file window.
Remember that holding the Shift key when doing this will set the new
layer to the center
Lower the opacity of the new layer (Layer
2). Select the Move tool and click and drag this layer until it matches
the image where it overlaps with Layer 1 (figure 67). |
| Set the Opacity back to 100% (figure 68). |
Figure 68 |
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Before adding the rest of the images to our
panorama, let's check the images already loaded for any problems. Use
the Zoom tool to get a close look.
Notice that the sky of Layer
2 is a bit darker at the edge than Layer 1. Scrolling lower, we can see
uneven matching in the beach portion of these layers (figures 69 and
70).
We can "fix" this by partially erasing some of Layer 2 so
that it blends in with Layer 1. It's a good idea to regularly save one
or more versions of your file at this stage to make sure you can return
to it if you get over-zealous with the eraser and can't step back
through the next few phases...
Select the Eraser tool in the Toolbox. |
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Figure 71 |
The Eraser tool uses brushes of various sizes and
softnesses to erase pixel information from the active layer. The user
defines the brush size, softness, and strength (opacity) of the brush.
We
selected a large (413 pixels wide), soft brush for this procedure. It
is important to use a soft brush here, as we want to feather Layer 2
over Layer 1 (figure 71).
Using a lower opacity (30-40%) for the
Eraser brush allows the user to erase over several passes. This can
help to increase the feathering effect of the brush. |
Figure 72 shows the effect of erasing away a
portion at the top of the layer. Notice how some of Layer 2 was erased
revealing the part of Layer 1 below.
This also demonstrates the importance of sufficiently overlapping the edges of your photos when shooting the originals. |
Figure 72 |
Figure 73 |
Figure 73 shows the effect of further erasing away the right edge of Layer 2. The sky now looks much more even. |
| Here is a comparison showing an enlarged portion of the image before and after using the Eraser tool (figure 74). |
Figure 74 |
Figure 75 |
Let's add some more photos to our panorama (figure 75). |
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| Using the layer dragging method to copy one image
into another, we added the fourth, fifth and sixth images into our
panorama shot. We used the Eraser tool to blend the seams together. |
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The addition of the sixth image (Layer 5) presents a problem that you may come across when trying to shoot panorama shots.
Anytime
your panoramic view has anything that changes or moves over time, you
may need to take some extra care when shooting and when stitching the
images together on the computer.
In this case, the ever-changing
waves are part of our shot. Moving clouds or passing traffic are other
cases where stitching together seamlessly will be difficult or,
sometimes, nearly impossible (figure 76). |
Figure 76 |
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| If you find yourself shooting in a situation as
this, the best thing to do is to greatly overlap your exposures. Making
multiple exposures will also increase your chances of matching the
photos. |
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Figure 77 |
Select the Eraser tool. Make sure the layer you wish to edit is selected in the Layers Palette (figure 77). |
| Here we zoomed in on our image to get a better look at any changes we make (figure 78). |
Figure 78 |
Figure 79 |
After erasing some of the surf from the top layer
(Layer 5), we have a better match for the water (figure 79). Figure 80
shows a comparison of before and after this "fix". |
Figure 80 |
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| We added the three remaining images to our panorama, matching the images and using the Eraser tool to blend seamlessly. |
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Once all the images have been added and stitched together, we can zoom out to see the whole panoramic image.
Select
the Zoom tool, then ALT/click (PC) or OPT/click (Mac) to zoom out until
entire panorama shot is visible in the image window.
Notice the extra white space at the left of image. This needs to be cropped out (figure 81). |
Figure 81 |
Figure 82 |
Select the Crop tool in the toolbox.
Cropping
is accomplished by putting the cursor over one corner of your intended
crop, then click-dragging to the opposite corner of the intended crop
(figure 82). |
A cropping marquee will surround your crop.
Adjustments can be made by click-dragging any of the eight "squares" on
the cropping marquee (figure 83).
Press the Enter key on your keyboard to finalize the crop |
Figure 83 |
Figure 84 |
Figure 84 shows our cropped image in the Photoshop Elements image window.
Notice how the Layers palette still has all of the images that were copied into the file on separate layers.
Make
sure you save your file at this point. It is a good practice to save
your layered image files in an archive folder. This allows you to more
easily edit or manipulate the image in the future. |
After saving the layered image file, you can
flatten the image. Flattening is the merging of all layers into one
layer. A flattened file will greatly reduce the file size of your
image. Our layered panoramic image file was reduced from 153 megabytes
to 104 megabytes when flattened.
To access the Flatten Image command, click on the More button at the top, right of the Layers palette (figure 85). |
Figure 85 |
Figure 86 |
Select the Flatten Image command from the menu window (figure 86). |
All the layers will merge into one single layer
called Background (figure 87). Save this image in another folder or as
a different name from the layered version. Saving as a TIFF image is
best for making large prints.
The image can be saved as a JPEG
file, greatly reducing the file size even further. Saving as a JPEG
will result in some lost image data, which may effect the quality of
the image. |
Figure 87 |
Figure 88 |
Figure 88 shows the flattened image appearing in
the Elements image window. Notice that now there is only one layer
called Background in the Layers palette. |
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Our finished panorama is shown below (figure 89).
Keep in mind this image is reduced, the 300 dpi original version is an impressive 5 ft. or so wide and 10 in. tall. |
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Figure 89 |
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| Figure 90 shows the areas where each of our 9 images overlapped to create our panorama scene. |
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Figure 90 |
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The shots for our panorama photo were taken with a
wide angle zoom lens (11-22mm) set at 22mm. This actually is close to a
normal size lens for a traditional film 35mm camera.
Figure 91
below shows another version of our stitched panorama scene shot from
the same point with the lens set to 11mm for an extreme wide angle.
This image was stitched together using three images. |
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Figure 91 |
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| Figure 92 shows another panoramic image shot from the same location with a 14-54 zoom telephoto lens. The lens was set to 54mm. |
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Figure 92 |
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| Figure 93 shows the final results of all panoramas;
one shot with a 11mm lens, one shot a 22mm lens, and one shot with a
54mm lens. |
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Figure 93 |
Manfrotto Equipment Used:
Other Equipment Used:
Recommended Links
- To learn more about Photoflex equipment, go to www.photoflex.com
- For more tips and techniques on lighting and cameras, visit www.webphotoschool.com and sign
up for access to the Member Lessons.
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