So maybe in the next 6 months I will go back to my blog and approach it in a more frequent manner; and back to an educational tone too! At least once a week…I will try.
Yesterday evening, I set out once again to do something I've learned in 2014 that I've become fond of; panoramic photography.
Thanks largely in part to some great photographers who have become my photography partners in crime over the last couple years, I've been introduced to Panorama photography. In fact, I've become addicted to Panoramic Gigapixel photography.
Photography is all about learning. And panoramic capture is certainly not as easy as taking pictures and stitching them together in Photoshop. A well-executed panoramic image must have a variety of variables among a series of continuous photos to be effective.
So what are some of those variables?
Well, first of all, you aren't talking about one single photo. We are talking about several images that will be interlaced between each other to create on large GigaPixel image. So proper exposure is mandatory. And for good reason. Imagine taking a series of photographs along a pan from left to right. Now imagine 2 of those 5 images don’t have a proper exposure. Your “stitch” of all 5 images will have 2 noticeable “holes” (as I refer to them). So even and balanced exposure across the whole pan is a must. I've always said, you should only take photos in Manual Mode on your camera. So Panoramic Photograph is great practice for this.
Another variable that works hand in hand with exposure is color temperature. It is extremely vital to have a consistent color temperature across the board. If not, your final image will look very unbalanced and obviously stitched. That’s not a good thing. So my recommendation is to manually set your color temperature across the images and match the numbers on the Kelvin scale to the exact number in post-production.
Taking a panoramic. How? Remember 20%.
Most of us have probably done it with our own smart phones. Simply start at an anchor point and move left to right in a panning fashion. The only difference is you are using a camera. It is essential to have the camera on a tripod however. A good fluid head that will allow you to pan is a recommendation.
Now for the capture, here’s one very important thing to remember. Always allow at least 20% of overlapping region from frame to frame. This is vital for the software to find common regions within the frames to align the photos correctly. This is very important! Take your photos from left to right allowing for 20% overlap…it’s that easy.
So I've captured even exposures with the right color temperatures. Now What?
Assuming you own the latest version of Photoshop. This step is essential, but normally the easiest. Here’s the command path:
1. Go to “File” and select “Automate”
2. Within the Automate tab you will see “Photomerge”.
3. Click on “Photomerge”, select the images, and let Photoshop do its magic.
It’s very addictive and quite amazing to say the least. Now you won’t always get a perfect merge and you find yourself with some patches to fill. But if you are familiar with Photoshop and can work by using data from a master file, you will be able to fill any gaps in the image. Go ahead and try one next time you go out regardless of what type of camera you have.
I’m sure I've missed a couple things in here, but simply write me a message if you get confused and I will answer it. Heck, even if you have suggestions…throw them at me.
-CG
Below are a few panoramic images I've captured from last evenings sunset atop Malibu and another from the Sierra Nevada Mountain range this month. I'm certain to post more in the future!
(Images are not at their full resolution for web use)
