Help with panorama

Hi,

It's hard to believe, but I'm new to panorama shooting (I'm a programmer/3d artist). But now I want to learn more about it. I borrowed my girlfriends Canon EOS400D with a (kit)18-55mm and a 50-200mm Sigma lens.

So I started googling, but I couldnt any 'useful' information. They all basicly say, "put it on a tripod, turn 360 degree in x steps and have 30% overlap". But I couldnt figure it out.. For instance I put my tripod in my room, with enough sunlight, I measured a good ISO (think it was 1600), started to take pictures, all went well. But then my pc monitor was way to bright, and then I tried to make a photo of the ceilling, and I just couldnt, because the camera couldnt focus on it.

So I read something about exposure lock. You're supposed to hold down a button (the asterisk), then aim at a spot which lightning you want to take over, then hold down that button, and take the photograph. But how am I suppose to take 30 pictures, up and down, while holding that button.

Then I started stitching, and that went well. But the krpano droplet said it was a incomplete panorama.... and ask me to choose what kind it was. I thought well I shot in a circle, so it much be spherical... But the panorama looks real bulby now, not straight. So I choose partianal panorama, but then I came out to flat.

I'm wondering if you guys have tips for me. I wanna practice with the equipment I have, before I spend money on expensive stuff.

What are your F values, ISO, mm lens (I read you should use around 24 mm inside, and 50mm outside). How do you get overall sharpness. What am I missing? Even in a wellit room, I have to push the ISO to 1600 which is odd I think (dont know, new to photography)

I did another test, and this time I got the exposure under control. I rotated the camera by hand, measuring the exposure time, then took the average, put my camera on manual with manual focus. mounted on the tripod. I then made a horizontal row with 30% overlap, tilted the camera by 30 ish degrees, did the same again for up and down. I think I took 40 photo's. End result was a 25000x12500 picture.

Only issue I had was that my pc screen (which was in my photo) was waaaaaay to bright. If I took that intoo considiring, all of the other areas would be under exposed. How do you guys handle such great differences in lightning?

And although my tripod was stable, some parts of the photo seems blurry. Mainly the parts where there is almost nothing to see, like the floor, ceiling and my couch. I think my stiching program gets confused in that area.

I've seen the panoguide website, but I can't find useful information. For example, take this topic: http://www.panoguide.com/howto/panoramas/spherical.jsp
How to create a spherical pano. Half of it talks about patenting, then fisheye lense. And bout 10 lines about shooting without a fisheye.

They talk about fixing the aperture en exposure every shot. While I've read never to do this, because you will get great differences in lightning. If I fixed the shot of for instance the monitor, then the surrounding area would be dark, and would not match the other areas. So I'm confused.

I will, probally tonight :) Read your pm to late yesterday.

Update. I talked with Tuur and got some great tips. I really need a panoramic head. What brands are there (cheap) with clickstop other then nodal ninja?

Yeah I'm trying to get a 2nd hand Nodal Ninja :) From all the designs and possibilities, it seems the nodal ninja is the most robust.

I see some different versions of the NN, you have the MKII 3, v5 and Ultimate R1 and R10, and the 180.

I have a small camera, so I dont need the v5. The 180 doesn't look like much. So which one is the better of of the NN 3 MKII, Ultimate R1, and R10.
It looks like the R1 and R10 work with an lensring (which you need to buy seperately for around 100euro).

Any suggestions?

For lenses Im looking at Samyang/Falcon 8mm Fisheye, or maybe a 2nd hand Sigma 8mm (because the AF, and because sometimes 2nd hand expensive lenses are better then low budget stuff). Any experiences or examples from users using those lenses?

Thanks for all the help guys!

Thanks mate :)

I bought a Nodal Ninja 5 with RD16 rotator, a used model, for a nice price. And Today I ordered a Falcon 8mm Fisheye (Falcon is the same as Samyang).

I practiced taking shots with my stock lens. And It went waaaaaaay better with the Nodal Ninja. I ended up with a 21000x11xxx panorama with a "stich value" of 3 aka Good. Althoug I took a Nadir/Zenith shot, the stiching program didnt recognize it... I read on forums I should take a 60 degree zeneth/nadir instead of a 90 degree. So I need to practice that

I shoot with Iso 100 now, with no moving objects, just interior shots. First I mount my Camera, set it on AF, and turn around, and measuring the Aperture. So If I have like a dark area and my Aperture says 1/10, and I move the camera to a light area, the aperture is 1/80. I try to aim for 1/30. Then I focus on an object, and switch the camera and lens to manual. With an 18mm lens I was able to have a 30degree stop.

I didn't know what Bracketing exactly was so I googled, http://rorymolephotography.co.za/blog/?p=251
That seems a good option. I need to get a bigger memorycard though :P

One of these days Ill post a picture. As soon as I got the nadir/zenith figured out.

Well I have a first draft...

I shot with bracketing, steps of +1 and -1. 18mm ISO100 with stock kit lens

this comes straight out of autopano, no editing.

http://www.talentstoolkit.com/pano/tmp

For some reason he never finds the images that are the wall, and even though I shot a nadir and zenith, he doesnt add them to the photo...

So After I shoot the panorama tiles. I load the tiles of the 3 exposers in photomatrix (over 300 tiles) and perform Exposure Fusion?

Does he need RAW or JPG?

He then resaves the correctly exposed tiles again?

And then you open it in a Stiching program?

I couldnt find how to add a zenith nadir to the panorama in Autopano, even when I forced to create a single panorama of all the images, he still ignored it. I have to look at the documentation or wait till Tuur comes :)

Tuur learned me some cool tricks. We found out that the main problem was:

A) non stable tripod. I should buy a heavier one.
B) Not enough overlap
C) I really should wait till the 8mm lens arrives :P For a beginner a 18-24mm is a handfull (4 rows, 12 step, 3 bracketing... ALOT of photo's)
D) Don't throw them all the tiles with different bracketing in the same folder and try to stich them all together :P

But I was glad to see I was on the right track, it's just those minor settings I have to handle.