Panoramic images

[Jonwilson]

Hi,

I have been commissioned to produce a very large pano image.  The image is of a long building (140 ft)and they would like a flat perspective (straight-on view) of the whole building.  Final image size need to be 13in X 100in @300 dpi.
I was thinking of 3 tripod locations and using a Canon 5DSR and 45mm TSE.  Making a shift Pano at each tripod location.  Will there be stitching issue with this method?  Recommend a better method?

Thanks in advance,

Jon

[TonyVentourisPhotography]

There are a lot more factors that would influence my decision. 

What is directly in front of the building.
How far back can you get from the building and still have a clean uninterrupted view
How many distractions will you deal with in front of the building (cars, traffic, deliveries, etc...)
What perspective do you want

If this was just a nice long image of a square on face...my first inclination is to get back much further and do fill the frame its a telephoto lens as much as I can vertically and do a large stitch of multiple pieces from the center.  This works better the further back you can get.  I've done this before.  Then again, it was early morning and the parking lot was empty and I could get waaaaay back in order to keep perspective square on most of the building. 

Stitching in pieces and moving is tough.  I would measure out my positions and mark them.  I would also do a trial run with jpgs.  Shoot a quick set and run the jpgs into a laptop and stitch them and see.  I often do this with complex panos.  Shooting a quick jpg run allows for a fast stitch and process. 

If public can get in your way you need to ensure you are closing off the areas you need to be in if you resort to that.  An assistant and safety vests are always handy. 

Also I would do a test of an extreme shift set (3 images, far left, center, right) stitching up with another set.  Sometimes the far edges of the tilt shift lenses is not the best.  I would want to make sure software can ensure they stitch well, especially in terms of vignette.  You don't want an odd off-quality in the intersections of the image. 

[dchew]

In most cases you do not want to move the camera/lens combination like that to three different locations because it changes your perspective pretty dramatically. You would be better off just swinging the lens in one position.

Or even better, rent a technical camera, an IQ3100 and an sk60xl. Take three images by shifting the back 20 mm left, centered and 20 mm right. No warping or distortion. That would give you 200 dpi @ 100 inches. Then scale it up 50% to 300 when you send it to the printer.

Dave

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Hi,

I have been commissioned to produce a very large pano image.  The image is of a long building (140 ft)and they would like a flat perspective (straight-on view) of the whole building.  Final image size need to be 13in X 100in @300 dpi.
I was thinking of 3 tripod locations and using a Canon 5DSR and 45mm TSE.  Making a shift Pano at each tripod location.  Will there be stitching issue with this method?  Recommend a better method?

Hi Jon,

As the others have said, depending on the flatness of the building's facade (and obstructions in front of it), shooting from multiple positions probably will cause lots of issues and much much (did I mention much?) more postprocessing work to make it fly.

The 'easiest' way to do it is from a very large distance with a longer focal length and from a single shooting position (to avoid parallax issues). Without knowing the layout, it's hard to give specific advice.

Cheers,
Bart

[Jonwilson]

Thank you for the responses. Some more info...

The building is a single story (imagine a series of storefronts) approximately 170 feet long. There is a median of grass and bushes between the camera and the building.  This median will be 30 feet in front of the camera.  The building is about 75 feet from the camera.

I do want a flat look as Paul mentioned.  There will be no cars or other objects except for the median.  The building front is pretty flat.

I plan on using 3 tripods and move the camera from one to the next.  The tripods will be level and square with each other and the building.  The idea was to use a shift lens and create 3 shift panoramas(one at each position) and merge them for the final image.  If I shift the camera-back (11mm on a rail) as I shift the lens, will this solve some of the parallax issues between images?

To make things more difficult, I need to be able to repeat these steps for a matching evening image.

Thanks for the replies!

Jon

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi

I would always consider a rotational pano. That technique gives a lot of flexibility and uses the best part of the image circle of the lens used.

Rotational pano may need better software but may also yield better results…

Best regards
Erik

[Jonwilson]

Eric,

Sounds like a rotational Pano is the way to go.  Thanks for your advice.

Im looking at RRS pano heads.  Any other brand that you would recommend?

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

It is a nice head and used to have one. I have found that I had little use for it after I bought my Arca Swiss D4, so I gave it to my best friend.

I mostly shoot single row panoramas in landscape. Good panorama software should be able to work out lens distortion, but I have not really testing that.

What I have used has been "AutopanoPro": http://www.kolor.com/autopano/ but there are a few alternatives…

Best regards
Erik

Eric,

Sounds like a rotational Pano is the way to go.  Thanks for your advice.

Im looking at RRS pano heads.  Any other brand that you would recommend?

[Joe Towner]

13" tall, not so bad.  I would actually suggest shooting it like the do for aerial maps, where you walk a parallel line to the building, shooting every 10-15'.  Stitch it as a merge document, not as a panorama.  With panoramas, you have this whole curved issue, and getting things square and flat is going to be tough.  A laser range finder would be helpful to keep you the same distance off the building over the entire path.

-Joe

[BernardLanguillier]

- This is a case where flat could work thanks to the foreground,
- You will need a lot more than 3 locations I believe,
- I would shoot with a lens at least 85mm and avoid wide that will result in too much streching
- it will be key to be at the same exact distance to the building (I use my Leica laser meter)
- it will be key to be perpendicular to the building
- shooting on an overcast day may be best since you may need too much time for the movement of the sun not to be apparent

Cheers,
Bernard

[Jonwilson]

Paul,  I will share the final results.  Thanks for all the help.


Jon

[Theodoros]

IMO, the ultimate way of doing panoramics, is to use a tech camera, have the lens entrance pupil at exactly the center of the tilt arc and on the swing axis, use a camera that has all its hor/ver and side sifts bellow the swing tilt mechanisms and then rotate the whole camera by the swing axis and even apply movements on the lens between the shots...

One can even stitch a really close focus architectural interior this way and even swing the lens for half the angle that is used on the camera between shots....

[TonyVentourisPhotography]

Just another warning... Be mindful of extreme shifts.  Test out before the real run.  There is very little equipment, including tech cams that will give amazing results at extreme shifts.  It's one thing to extreme shift and have a lot of sky at the top... And it's another to have building detail.  Lining up shifts from opposite moves if you are moving might have very different vignette or other flaw characteristics.  The. Again it depends how picky you are.  I might also recommend ptgui for stitching to be able to potentially correct exposure weirdness. 

Also...a duplicate night shot at extreme shifts... Test the look first before the real run and make sure and points of light at your extreme shifts don't change shape or look too different.  If I had to keep perfect points of light, I would use panoramic stitching to just use the center 60% from each frame and overlap heavily.
Again just my opinion. 

[BobDavid]

My fist choice would be to back off and photograph the building with a telephoto lens (app. 100mm on a D810 or a Sony A7r/A7rII). Four or five stitches should do the trick. You won't have to worry about parallax so long as the sensor is 100% perpendicular to the ground. Depending on where your vantage point is, you may need a tall tripod and a step ladder to avoid tilting the lens up.

My second choice would be to use a view camera or a tech camera that allows for at least +/- 20mm shift and decent rise/fall on the back standard. That in combination with a Sony A7r mirrorless and a high-end EL lens such as an APO 80mm Rodagon N, a 105mm EL-Nikkor N, or a 135 Componon S will work beautifully (no linear distortion and virtually no CA). Four to five stitches will work fine (this is my setup).

Being able to photograph the building during nice lighting conditions is critical. If your technique is clean, you might be able to get away with printing at 150 dpi. I'm sure you are going to be a lot pickier than the customer.