Panorama using Hugin

[dlambert]

This is a panorama shot from the top of Perry's Monument on Put-In-Bay - just off the North coast of Ohio in Lake Erie. I hand-held the camera, so the original shots weren't perfectly aligned.

I originally tried using ArcSoft's Panorama Maker 4, but I had really lousy results. I ended up finding Hugin, which had a higher learning curve, but did a lot better job.

You can see larger versions on SmugMug.

What do you think? I know that the stitches are visible, but do you think this is an acceptable first shot?

Has anyone tried doing prints of something like this?

[inkista]

I think it's really good for a first pano. I particularly like that you maintained the rule of thirds with the horizon--most people don't think about the overall composition when they're shooting a pano for the first time.

As for the seaming, just a small piece of advice: when I shoot a pano, my mantra becomes "manual manual manual". I use Manual shooting mode to lock down the exposure settings. I use manual focus so that my focus point won't shift between shots. And I use a manual (non-Auto) white balance mode so that I won't have color shift between shots.

Also, if you want more vertical coverage, try shooting the member images in portrait mode.

[dlambert]

Originally Posted by inkista

I think it's really good for a first pano. I particularly like that you maintained the rule of thirds with the horizon--most people don't think about the overall composition when they're shooting a pano for the first time.

As for the seaming, just a small piece of advice: when I shoot a pano, my mantra becomes "manual manual manual". I use Manual shooting mode to lock down the exposure settings. I use manual focus so that my focus point won't shift between shots. And I use a manual (non-Auto) white balance mode so that I won't have color shift between shots.

Also, if you want more vertical coverage, try shooting the member images in portrait mode.

Thanks for the advice -- between that and having a tripod along, that definitely would have improved the shots. I'll have to try shooting in portrait -- until I started trying to assemble the pano, I'd only played with ArcSoft a little, and it didn't like portrait's at all. I think Hugin will handle those a lot better, though.

I also need to be a little more careful about getting enough overlap from shot to shot. There were a couple of frames where I had very little overlap, and mapping the connecting points from shot to shot was tricky.

[data5amurai]

Hugin is great and that is what I use on every pano I take. I agree with inkista about a few things. I always use portrait mode for every pano, unless I am doing a vertical pano. Gives you a larger perspective! Also, make sure to always use manual white balance and never use filters other then a standard UV. One other important thing, I always overlap each frame by 50% and let Hugin do the rest. It always makes for a better stitch!