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Hi there,

Whilst waiting for the Ferry at Sorrento on our great ocean road trip I whipped out the camera and thought I'd have a stab at doing a pano. This is my first ever one (no idea why I haven't tried this before!)

Three frames. Taken with the kit lens + CPL. Set the camera to manual mode and metered off the brightest bit of the sky (I think). Stitched in Photoshop manually.

What do you guys think?



Paul

Paul, overall its a nice Pano, but I have to comment the CPL is obviously playing havco with the exposure in the sky. I haven't got a CPL yet so haven't tried to shoot a pano with one on, but its definitely something to consider, particularly with wide ones, or ones where the angle of the sun to camera varies greatly such as in this shot.

I don't want to be harsh, but the join between #2 and #3 in this shot is fairly noticable too. I've only used Panofactory, but I'm sure there are methods to reduce that 'seaming' in the shot. Perhaps using masks or adjustment layers could help (I'm only guessing I'm not pro a PP).

Yeah I have since read that it's best to keep the CPL off for pano images and really wide shots that include heaps of sky due to the different polarisation.

I was hoping that the smaller size of the pic would mask the seam between #2 + #3. Doh.

I definately plan to do some more of these in the future. It's kinda fun stiching them together!

Good first panorama Paul. Craig's already pointed out the CPL problem. I'd suggest you try PanoramaFactory. I've had more success with that than Photoshop. You can get a 30 day free trial of PanoramaFactory (but the trial version leaves some text in the middle of the finished panorama). The trial will enable you to see if it works for you. I've found it does better stitching and outputs each photo as a separate layer into Photoshop, so hiding stitching marks is easier.

http://www.panoramafactory.com

Cheers
John

nice first up.

the polariser plays a little havoc with the sky but overall a good job.

I recommend the panofactory also.

Steve

As the others have said, Panorama Factory is the way to go for this type of thing. I have found it does a good job of blending when using a polarizing filter, but it is best to leave it off as results can be uneven. (You can always shoot the scene with it on and without) I have had best success with polarizers when shooting in vertical format and lenses above 35mm.

My tips are: set everything to manual (focus, white balance, exposure). Use a tripod & level the camera for best stitching results.
Shoot vertically.
Get Panorama Factory. It does an excellent job of warping images & blending exposures for a very natural look. You can export a PSD file with layers & masks for fine tuning. Try it free for a month.

A good first pano Paul.
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Cheers,
Paul.

The issue of using CPL filters in pano photography is discussed here:

http://www.tawbaware.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?t=1991

Hope this is useful

Cheers
Gecko