FinePix S5700 Users / Discuss

Victor W.    says:

As promised, here follows a basic tutorial for composite imagery.

You'll have to forgive me, but I've been laid up in bed for two days with a 106'F temperature! :(



Firstly, the software that I have been using is Microsoft ICE, (Image Composite Editor) and is available for free, (isn't that a lovely word), to download from here: research.microsoft.com/ivm/ice.html and is available for XP, Vista 32 & 64 bit.

The basic concept is quite straight forward and just involves taking lots of pictures, (as many or few as required), then using this software to combine or stitch all the images together to form a larger image.

The following image shows the process for a basic panorama:



This is the simplest method and generated an image equivalent to 28 megapixels and similar imagery to using a lens of 24mm wideangle, (35mm equivalent)

The final tonemapped and paintshopped image came out like so:



This just simply, (and I say that cautiously, I'll explain later), involves taking 8 pictures from one vantage point, making sure that each image overlaps the previous - Anywhere from 30% to 50% is a good start, the more the software has, the better the chance of a good stitch.

The following takes this concept one stage further:



This method involved 'panning' up and down the scene capturing 21 images in all. The final image was equivalent to 32 megapixels!

The final tonemapped and paintshopped image came out so:



All in all, pretty impressive. (Well you'll be as impressed as I was when a 32 megapixel image comes up on your screen!!)

Now, here comes the more 'difficult' bits:-

You'll have to be in manual mode so that you get consistent exposures and the white balance will have to be locked for the subject, (ie anything but auto).
This ensures that the images are the same colour and tonality for stitching.
You could use auto, but you get weird results!
A good start is to check the exposure the camera gives you in A mode at around f5.6/f6.8. (f13.6 may give you problems when you come to darker areas). Set that exposure in 'M' mode and you'll pretty much be there.
The other problem is auto focus - I know manual is a pain to use but the camera may change focus throughout the panning process depending on subject distances.
ISO is actually not that important, 400 looks alright because you're making a much larger image in the final output, so it doesn't show up noise as much.

You also have to be careful of anything that moves whilst shooting the pan/combination. You'll notice on the last image I had to add a sky in afterwards, this was because the clouds moved during the shoot. (I overexposed the sky in the end knowing it would come out white so that I could add a sky using a simple overlay.)

When you've got that little lot out of the way, there comes the 'panning' techniques.
You may experience problems with 'parallax' where try as you might, the images will not stitch together. For landscape views the errors are fairly insignificant if you keep the camera to your face whilst using the viewfinder. If there are near and far objects such as lamp posts etc. you may find you get 'ghosting' or double images and 'tearing' errors, again where the images don't stitch properly.

This has to do with 'Nodal Point' techniques and I'll explain that later in another post if anyone wants to know more.

Another tip if your trying this out is to photograph your hand at the start and the end of the pan - makes it far easier to identify when you come to download the images!

Try it out in different places, can be quite impressive inside a room or building and gives that lovely extreme wideangle perspective.



As always, I'm more than happy to answer any questions and if anyone else has some tips then feel free to add them here. (I know the Laddie has done some vertical panorama shots and I think gp2003, (Albert), did some panoramas.)

Oh yes, I'll explain the tonemapping process in another post too.
(How to get those extra colours and tones on the final images.)

Give it a go and lets see those pictures.

Have fun!!!
Originally posted at 6:15AM, 18 October 2008 PST ( permalink )
Victor W. edited this topic 7 months ago.