Panoramic Shot Critique/Advice

[Solarian]

So I stitched together this panoramic of 7 photos I had taken from a tripod. This was my first time doing it, and I got somewhat annoying banding where the photos merged. I didn't use Photoshop's internal function that does them, maybe that would have done a better job? I don't know, but here it is, tell me what you think, and hopefully how to fix/eliminate the banding and get them to merge smoother. Things I did to make them blend, played with the exposure/color balance of each photo, and then used layer masks to fade out where one photo overlaps the other to avoid a line.


Here is the link to my flickr, so you can see the full size as well (it's still reduced, photoshop exploded when I tried to export full size)
stitch on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[inkista]

Correct for vignetting before you stitch. A lot of wider lenses exhibit what's called vignetting--the center of the image will be brighter than the edges.

You could also try stitching with a package like Hugin, which can blend over seams for you with a package called enblend.

You may also want to consider using portrait orientation for member images, so you'll get more vertical coverage.

[Solarian]

Thanks! I tried Hugin, and I think the end result is better than my first attempt. I think I actually did a slightly better job of aligning everything, but the blending and the color matching is so much better in Hugin.



stitch-3 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[inkista]

Yup. That's the magic of enblend. The enfuse features are fun, too, since they let you do something similar to HDR, without actually having to go to HDR file formats. Enfuse is set by default for a more natural look than Photomatix, so depending on the look you're going for with combining different exposures, it may also be a good tool to have.

[Solarian]

I stitched another panorama that I had taken on that same trip. I think this one is a bit better.



mountain on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Yorkie]

Aside from the technical aspects of your panoramas, a more serious problem for me is the content. Your seascape is mostly uninteresting sea and sky, and the landscape shot appears to miss out the key thing that everyone's photographing below the level of your shot...

My suggestion is to get some shots where there's something worth seeing in every frame before you join them together, then work on the technique of joining them up.

Another tip is where you've got a deep view like your landscape shot, take portrait (upright) shots instead of landscape (longest side down) shots and remember to overlap at least a third so you've got a chance of making the elements join up properly as there is likely to be more lens distortion at the edge of your shots.

I've done a few stitched panoramas and use a piece of software I got really cheaply with a tiny digital camera ages ago. I guess it should still be available - or an update of it. It's called ArcSoft Panorama Maker 3.0.

I've attached one of mine to show you what the software (and maybe 30+ years of photographic experience) can produce.

The main thing is to have fun learning and trying again.

Hope this is helpful.

Yorkie
Yorkiepix - Welcome home