Single row pano with limited pano gear

[Destiny]

Hi,

I am thinking on getting a simplified pano kit, made out of:
- Kirk LRP-1 Long Rail
- dedicated L bracket for my D700

I already have a levelling base and was thinking of putting the rail onto the ballhead (which has a panning base), adjusting (roughly) for Nodal Point and shooting 1-row panoramas (camera in portrait orientation).
My concern is that if I put the ballhead at an angle (looking a bit up or a bit down) and adjust for the parallax it is still going to be a bit tough and PTGui won't handle this.

Has anybody tried similar config? Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[fike]

That arrangement will only work well for horizontal panos if your rotating platform is level. 

What happens if the platform is not level is that you get a u-shaped or rainbow-shaped series of photos that can't be straightened without unrealistically bending the subject...particularly problematic if you have a horizon.

As I reread your entry, I realized you want to take vertical panoramics.  I don't think that would be very suitable for closeup objects.  I am not sure why, in this case, you think you need a panning base.  If you intended adjust the pitch of the camera with the ballhead, that won't be ideal.  Distant subjects will be fine, but if you were taking a photo through branches of trees, intersecting branches will NOT align due to parallax issues.

Remember that all of this is irrelevant if you are shooting panoramic images where the subject is distant.  In that case, go for it with handheld or tripod-mounted recklessness and generally it will come out well.

[Destiny]

fike, thanks for reply.
I made a typo, what I meant is 1-row panos but the camera in portrait orientation (to maximise quality).

[fike]

That's a good basic setup, but remember that you will always have the limitation that you need to shoot single-row panoramics directly at the horizon.  If you want to point the camera up or down and have pixel perfect precision to avoid closeup parallax, you will need to get a full spherical setup.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

fike, thanks for reply.
I made a typo, what I meant is 1-row panos but the camera in portrait orientation (to maximise quality).

In that case fike is still correct. When you rotate, then that rotation plane is taken as your 'horizon' of the stitched scene.
So when the  bottom of your camera is not parallel to the rotating base you'll have issues (you're shooting part of a circular path with parallax).
When the rotating base is not level to the real horizon then you'll have to compensate the 'pitch' in the stitcher, but parallax should not occur.

That is why you need a rotating camera mount, on top of the ballhead, similar to the RRS solution, or meticulously level the setup beforehand.

Cheers,
Bart

[feppe]

Alternatively you could stop sweating the small stuff, use a ball head, and buy a trip abroad with the money you save. Unless you shoot architecture or have foreground objects you can shoot panos handheld.

[Luis Argerich]

Alternatively you could stop sweating the small stuff, use a ball head, and buy a trip abroad with the money you save. Unless you shoot architecture or have foreground objects you can shoot panos handheld.

Agree! Unless you really have objects close (very) to the camera you can do a handheld pano perfectly. Without a proper pano head the only function of a tripod is to help you take longer exposures.

[Destiny]

Somehow I cannot think of hand holding a f16 + ND 0.9 pano

Seems like I will have to invest into Nodal Ninja :/

[David Sutton]

Well have you done a test with PtGui to see if it will do the job? As Luis said, unless you have very close objects you don't probably need a pano head, just a tripod. Well it's your money I guess. But it's also more gear to lug around and set up.  I've no experience with PTGui, but Autopano will stitch just about anything I throw at it, including fairly close objects, shot using a ball head. Many users report a better stitching quality if the camera is moved off portrait orientation by about 20 to 30 degrees. YMMV.

[feppe]

Somehow I cannot think of hand holding a f16 + ND 0.9 pano

Seems like I will have to invest into Nodal Ninja :/

Of course not, but a ballhead will probably do the job just fine.

Before splurging four figures on a pano setup, I'd recommend doing a few test panos with your existing tripod gear.

[leuallen]

For single row panos I use a leveling base, a Manfrotto 410 geared head, and sometimes a Manfrotto mico slider. I usually dispense with the slider and nodal adjustment since it seems to make no difference in the work I do. Using m4/3 with adapted lens from 40 to 300mm (double for 35mm equivalent). The scenes are generally at a distance with no foreground elements so no parallax.

If parallax is a problem is use a shift adapter with a 50mm up lens (shorter lenses do not seem to cover the shift well and give color shifts at the extremes). The lens is stationary and the camera shifts. With camera horizontal I get about a 3:1 ratio: vertical about a 2:1. This is enough for me.

Useful on the geared head is that you can control the rotation overlap by the number of turns of the knob. For long lenses it is about 1 to 2 turns, shorter about 6.

I use CS5 and it works very well but then I do simple panos.

The advantage of this is that it is what I use for everything else so it is always available.

Larry

[Destiny]

Believe me, I am not in a rush to spend too much on my set up, especially that I wouldn't use very frequently.
Id rather spend it on some filters.

I did some trial and was not very happy with the outcome hence all the considerations.
Seems like I have to do some more (btw. all stiched in AutoPano and in PTGui).
Funny enough, any shots taken with 85mm 1.8 even at close distances (2m) of things that should give parallax issues were fine. It is my WA Nikon causing all the troubles.

I still think a L bracket is a must, as otherwise I have to rotate the plate to the side to be off centre from the ballhead rotation to achieve portrait orientation.

My current set up is:
- GT1541T tripod
- FLM LB-60 levelling base
- PhotoClam PC-36N ballhead
- Markins camera plate (dedicated for N d700)

[Lisa Nikodym]

I use a setup very similar to the one you propose in your original post,using a simple rail from RRS and an L-brakcet, and it works fine for me.  The one caveat is that not only does the tripod need to be level, but the camera also needs to be level in the sense that the top edge can't be tilted.  It can be pointed up or down somewhat (it doesn't need to be pointing at the horizon), it just can't be nonlevel about the "in and out" axis (am I explaining it OK?).  For that, I have a cheap (~$30) bubble level that I first place on the tripod rim next to the ballhead to level the tripod, then I attach it to the hot shoe on the camera to level the camera.  That works very well for me; no "bending" issues with my panos as long as I'm reasonably careful about leveling both the tripod and the camera.

I also did some parallax experiments in a hallway in my house with the rail, adjusting the rail position for several focal lengths (I use a single zoom lens for all my panos), and marked the optimum rail position for each on a file-folder sticker I attached to the rail.  That takes care of the nodal point issue!

Lisa

[Destiny]

Lisa, thank you for your input!
If I understand correctly, you shoot vertically, camera pointed up or down, but levelled horizontally.
Would you mind sharing a picture like this? Also, what focal length are we talking about?

BTW. Great pano!
http://www.stanford.edu/~melkor/lisa_pictures/large_jpg/WEurope/Italy_pano2.html

Could you post some tips for me about the clouds in this topic: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=45484.0