PANORAMIC - tips, advice, suggestions NEEDED

[manyhats]

Ok folks, I have been wanting to do some panoramic shots. Know nothing much about the process, but getting ready to find out!! Thought that as I started my new learning adventure I would ask you guys to share your thoughts, suggestions and advice.
I am worknig with my D70 and photoshop 7.
Some info on the Photoshop process as well as the actual proceess of taking / lining up and capturing the shots needed would be helpful.
Thought this may also help others too, could be a good link and tutorial for others to come.
Thanks in advance to all for your participation, wisdom, time and energies. :)

Michael

[Windy]

Use a tripod, make sure you overlap rather than try to line edges up. Use manual so that your settings are the same for the whole image.

[tomreese]

Ok folks, I have been wanting to do some panoramic shots. Know nothing much about the process, but getting ready to find out!! Thought that as I started my new learning adventure I would ask you guys to share your thoughts, suggestions and advice.
I am worknig with my D70 and photoshop 7.
Some info on the Photoshop process as well as the actual proceess of taking / lining up and capturing the shots needed would be helpful.
Thought this may also help others too, could be a good link and tutorial for others to come.
Thanks in advance to all for your participation, wisdom, time and energies. :)

Michael

Michael,

You can do some panoramas by simply putting your camera on a tripod, levelling the head and shooting a series of photos while panning. There are little bubble levels you can stick into your flash shoe if your tripod doesn't have a bubble level.

You do need to be careful not to have anything in the frame that's close to the camera if you use that method. You'll get some parallax error that will give the stitching software fits.

There are gizmos available that you can use with your tripod to correct the parallax error if you're serious about it. The gizmos allow you to rotate about the optical center of the lens instead of about the camera base. Yes, those few inches can make a big difference.

I found a bunch of hits with a google search for the words tripod panorama
including this site:

http://www.shortcourses.com/how/panoramic/panoramic.htm

I hope this helps.

Tom

[tomreese]

Oops I had a senior moment. The level in the flash shoe won't work. The base of the tripod head has to be level or the camera will go out of plumb as soon as you start to pan. Some tripod leg sets have bubble levels in them. If yours doesn't, you could level the tripod using a torpedo level on the center column if you have the patience.

Tom

[Rich]

I use Panoramic Factory for my panos. They have lots of good advice on http://www.panoramafactory.com/ the learn more page http://www.panoramafactory.com/papers.html

Good advice from Tom.

[wetpixel]

The one thing I always do for panoramas is set exposure lock. As you pan for your shots the exposure changes. So when you stitch the photos together
their color will not match making the job extremely hard.