Panorama of Sydney Airport Beach

[Philip Argy]

The link resolves to a 'private' message, Lee

[Lee G]

Phil,

I was just made aware that the link is not working.

Here is a link directly to the JPG which is 1.9 mb in size.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/xjnmdj...4 5661x600.jpg

This one works as verified by Gareth Forwood.

Enjoy and feedback is not required but appreciated if you wish to send.

[Philip Argy]

Nice 180, Lee

[Shameel Kumar]

Great work guys! Both panoramics have captured a very interesting scene.

Lee, I think the problem your having with stitching your pano' together has got more to do with the setting you used when you shot your series of photos. The most common problem with pano's is a changing exposure level between each shot (as shown in your series). To get the best results, try these tips:

1. Switch the camera to Manual Mode. If you have it on Shutter Priority mode, then the aperture will vary between each shot since that control is left up to the camera. Same problem with Aperture Priority mode, though if it's bright light conditions, then the change in shutter speed between shots won't be much of a problem, only in low-light/night pano's would a varying shutter speed become a problem. Of course, full Auto mode is also not a good setting to shoot panos.

2. Set White Balance manually. Similar issue as above..by leaving the white balance setting up to the camera's brain, it may well change as you turn around during your series of shots. You might have some photos with nice blue sky, others with a yellow-ish hue..and that can be very tricky to fix in Photoshop. Have a manual setting... even if all your shots end-up having a wrong white balance (eg: they all end up having a yellow-ish hue or whatever colour) at least the whole pano is consistent, and its very quick and easy to fix in Photoshop or even more basic image editing programs.

3. Choose center-weighted exposure and focus (unless you prefer manual focus, then go for that!). This again changes another setting which normally would vary with each now to now be fixed and under your control.


These are the 3 main tips I learnt when I started becoming interesting in panoramic photography. I'm no expert by any means, far from it, but if you get these 3 tips committed to memory, then your next series of photos to stitch into a panoramic will become much easier to firstly photography, secondly easier to stitch together, and thirdly, result in a more impressive photo!

Here are some panoramics I've done in the past year:

View from Circular Quay, Sydney at night. Stitched together about 16 photos. First attempt at a nighttime pano and was a little rushed.



NASCAR race at Fontana, California - Feb. '09. Although this seems like a straightforward photo that's just been cropped down, it's actually 6 vertical photos stitched together (Reminds me, Tip #4: If you have the time, you get better results shooting vertical photos to create a pano, but that also means more photos to stitch).



Panoramic of a university building. Stitched about 5 photos together.



Late afternoon sunset. Total of 8 photos put together.



Camping with the family. No one said you can't do VERTICAL panoramics. Get some fascinating results when you pano from the ground up.



Another vertical panoramics. Put together about 7 photos here.



Sunset in the countryside of California. Series of 10 photos I think. Here it is critical to have as many of your settings set to Manual, because there are big difference in exposure and white balance between the sunny parts and the dark parts of this scene.



Another vertical panoramic. Very tricky which all those lines. Gotta keep the camera very steady, which is hard to do when you don't have a tripod like in this case. I had to pretty much use my forehead as a make-shift tripod, but hey, whatever works!



Shark Bay, SYDNEY - start of the 2008 Sydney to Hobart Yatch Race. About 12 photos put together.

[Shameel Kumar]

Continued...



It's a long flight from LAX to SYD, so I tried to think of some creative photo techniques since you don't get to fly every day. So I tried to do a pano of the wing of this QF 744ER. Turned out pretty good. Just imagine this shot done as the sun is setting!! Waiting for that opportunity.



Euroka Clearing Lookout at the base of the Blue Mountains. The view was just amazing, it definitely could only be fully captured with a panoramic..even a single shot with a very wide angle lens wouldn't capture the same scene.



Avalon Beach, northern beaches of Sydney. Beautiful day, beautiful scene.. was a given to try a panoramic. About 8 shots put together.



Taken from the Sydney Harbour Bridge Pylon Lookout. Always taken photos from the ground, thought I'd try something different up there!



Vertical panoramic of a hot-air balloon during a short weekend away at the Lake Tahoe Keys, California. Combined 5 horizontal shots together.



Little Planet: Dos Palos Cemetery (Memorial Day '09). This is my first attempt at creating a 'Little Planet' (very quick attempt, no tripod, didn't even bother changing the cameras settings to manual.. just did it for pure curiosity). A 'Little Planet' can be created only by shooting a 360-degree panoramic. If you want to know how to turn a 360-d pano into a little planet, do a quick google search, very simple if you have Photoshop or even Photoshop Elements like I do. This pano stitched together at least 16 vertical photos..but of course for better results I should have taken at least double that to really capture good detail.


Rest of my Flickr photos

[Greg McDonald]

Great shots Shameel!!

[Gareth Forwood]

Wow Shameel! Awesome shots, I'm definately going to have to give that a go sometime. Thanks for sharing your methods!!

[Raymond Rowe]

Nice shots Shameel can i ask how you put your signature into the photos.I also do a lot of pano work.

[Lee G]

Shameel, Great photos!

You're right - I had the camera set to Av Priority with AWB and autofocus when I took the shots. It wasn't planned, I just took the shots and later thought to have a look at how they would stitch up.

I've done some further research on panos since and next time will be ready with all the manual settings before giving it another go.

Do you use any particular pano software or just stitch in Photoshop?

[Martin Buzzell]

I just want some of the photos!