Mark Schuster
Posts: 713
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 7 Jul 2008 at 23:46 GMT
updated: 7 Jul 2008 at 23:48 GMT
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Thursday the 26th of June was a fine, if blustery day, so we decided on a little excursion to Cambridge. When we got there it was evidently a graduation day at a number of colleges The place was hopping, people were happy. I hope these few panoramas convey the mood.
panoradiant.co.uk/cambridge/colleges-30000.html *
panoradiant.co.uk/cambridge/college2.html **
panoradiant.co.uk/cambridge/college1_out.html
* colleges-30000 was made with 3 circuits of 6 + handheld nadir.
** college2 was made from 6 around plus 2 or 3 extra shots to include people I thought interesting. The group of three cheerful friends, pretty girl on bike and girl in white blouse and graduate gown.
APP/Smartblend Pano2VR PS
Mark
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mediavets
Posts: 420
Location: Isleham, Cambs., United Kingdom
Registered: 8 Feb 2008
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 8 Jul 2008 at 8:31 GMT
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I like them.
You must shoot very fast and be PS guru to produce such panos with so many people and so much movement in the scenes. No-one seemed to be paying much attention to you either so you must also be a rather discreet pano photographer.
What camera and lens were you using?
Andrew
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Mark Schuster
Posts: 713
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 8 Jul 2008 at 19:49 GMT
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Andrew,
A complement! Well I never.
Let's concentrate on this one.
panoradiant.co.uk/cambridge/college2.html
Yes I do shoot fast but that’s not really necessary to populate my panoramas. I shoot a quick 6-around – nose up 5 degrees. Then wait and see what – who – comes into range. Three friends, the one in the middle in his brand new gown: Swing the camera around and snap them. Girl in white blouse and college gown: Quick, snap her. Girl riding her bike across the pavement – illegal – who cares? So pretty, got to snap her. Another girl on a bike cycling up the road – a bit slow off the mark and just got her rear end, never mind. And last but not least, operate the tripod’s quick release and point the camera downwards, click – known as shooting ones self in the foot. Ha, ha – just thought of that.
Take it all home and after converting from RAW to TIFF drag all nine or ten images into Autopano Pro and see what comes out of Smart Blend after interminable rendering a layered equirectangular. Create a preliminary 360x180 in Pano2VR – takes just a couple of minute – to see what you’ve got.
Now for Photo Shop. Choose what – who – you want, one layer at a time. I find select (lasso) copy-paste from layer to layer easiest (I know there is a more professional way – but I’m not a PS guru, despite what you think). If necessary move your selection about a bit and give it a tweak with transform (cheating? – so what!). And there you are: DIY population explosion! More crowded than it ever was in reality, and surprisingly nobody seems to have taken a blind bit of notice of me. I’m insignificant, invisable to all but security guards who often turn out to object – but not in Cambridge, you as a Cambridgeshire man will be pleased to know.
That’s It. As to equipment; a well worn Canon 300D with ancient Minolta Rokkor-X 7.5mm f/4 fisheye mounted on a Nodal Ninja.
That’s it.
Mark
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mediavets
Posts: 420
Location: Isleham, Cambs., United Kingdom
Registered: 8 Feb 2008
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 8 Jul 2008 at 20:14 GMT
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Mark Schuster said: Andrew,
A complement! Well I never.
........
Create a preliminary 360x180 in Pano2VR – takes just a couple of minute – to see what you’ve got.
........
and surprisingly nobody seems to have taken a blind bit of notice of me. I’m insignificant, invisable to all but security guards who often turn out to object – but not in Cambridge, you as a Cambridgeshire man will be pleased to know.
That’s It. As to equipment; a well worn Canon 300D with ancient Minolta Rokkor-X 7.5mm f/4 fisheye mounted on a Nodal Ninja.
That’s it.
Mark
Mark,
Have I been uncomplimentary in the past? - If so I apologise unreservedly.
I seldom if ever critique others panos as they are all better than mine. Although I often witter on about how I shoot with my gear when others who use or plan to purcahse similar gear seek advise. And I also tend to be a bit of an APP 'evangelist'.
I use the DevalVR standalone player for an initial quick review of rendered panos 'in the round'.
I live in Cambs. now but cannot claim to be a 'Cambridgeshire man' having been born in Kent, raised largely in Gloucestershire and lived most of my adult life in Berkshire. I'm now a bit of a rural recluse and very seldom venture into Cambridge as the traffic is so awful there.
Enough .....your panos of Kings parade are great and technique very clever.
Do you ever venture onto the APP Forum - I'd like to see your panos in the gallery there.
Andrew
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Mark Schuster
Posts: 713
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 8 Jul 2008 at 22:29 GMT
updated: 8 Jul 2008 at 22:39 GMT
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Andrew,
I too have become a follower of Autopano Pro since rediscovering it six months ago; a true deciple. There is a certain magic about it.
Please take another look at this crowded shot.
panoradiant.co.uk/cambridge/colleges-30000.html
No tricks by me this time. What you see is what came out the other end of APP after dragging in 32 shots (including the first 6-around) taken over a period of several minutes. The only editing was to remove five painted toe nails (not mine) sticking out of half a sandal (certainly not mine). Apart from this there were none of the usual amputees, walking wounded or ghosts - not even obvious clones. How's it done? Magic? Don't know, but that's one of the reasons I'm won over to APP.
I've just been looking at some of yours in the Gallery. Very nice, especially your local church (didn't know there were any bright churches in the UK) and the gorge. Where is that? Oh, but I can't resist! Don't like the way you cap the South Pole. No offense, but please let's have a proper nadir. APP can manage a misaligned handheld as you well know.
Mark
PS - The last shot I took was the one with the guy with a red hat with pom-poms. I took a shot of him as he walked past. Asked him to slow down so I could get a good one of his unusual costume, but he said, 'Not if that's a Japanese camera', to which I replied, 'All cameras are Japanese'. By this time he had reached the spot you see him turning towards me. Point is, the closer shot of him as he walked past has completely disappeared. APP deselected it. Has a mind of its own.
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Matt Rogers
[360 Precision]
Posts: 209
Location: Oxford UK, United Kingdom
Registered: 16 Jun 2005
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 9 Jul 2008 at 7:26 GMT
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Mark Schuster said: No tricks by me this time. What you see is what came out the other end of APP after dragging in 32 shots (including the first 6-around) taken over a period of several minutes. The only editing was to remove five painted toe nails (not mine) sticking out of half a sandal (certainly not mine). Apart from this there were none of the usual amputees, walking wounded or ghosts - not even obvious clones. How's it done? Magic? Don't know, but that's one of the reasons I'm won over to APP.
But what you're describing isn't a unique feature of APP as such but Smartblend which can also be used in PTGui and other Stitching applications.
Matt
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mediavets
Posts: 420
Location: Isleham, Cambs., United Kingdom
Registered: 8 Feb 2008
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 9 Jul 2008 at 9:17 GMT
updated: 9 Jul 2008 at 9:37 GMT
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Mark Schuster said: Andrew,
I've just been looking at some of yours in the Gallery. Very nice, especially your local church (didn't know there were any bright churches in the UK) and the gorge. Where is that? Oh, but I can't resist! Don't like the way you cap the South Pole. No offense, but please let's have a proper nadir. APP can manage a misaligned handheld as you well know.
Mark
Church (Grade 1 listed) has a very high clerestory, added along with the angel roof in the late 15th century, which makes it both light but also challenging to photograph especially on a sunny day. I've not yet managed a pano of the church I'm happy with. More about the church here:
www.druidic.org/camchurch/churches/isleham.htm
The gorge? In China somewhere, not my images, the pano a result of showing a forum member who was having problems that APP can stitch a 3-shots-rolled pano.
I've yet to learn and perfect the 'trick' to get a handheld nadir to stitch well in APP, I'm too lazy.
As Matt says Smartblend is not unique to APP but I believe the tightly integrated customised implementation of Smartblend in APP may be unique.
I don't enjoy post-processing. I admire the results produced by those that do, but I have neither the patience nor the talent for it, so without Smartblend I'd probably long ago have lost interest in pano photography.
My goal is rather simple - to be able to produce spherical panos with the least amount of effort, and at reasonable cost, with sufficient resolution and image quality for fullscreen display via the Web. That has determined choice of gear and software all along.
Anyway APP works well for me and I like its ease of use. And APP V2, in development, promises still more good things:
www.autopano.net/blog/2008/06/17/kolor-announces-...
Andrew
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Mark Schuster
Posts: 713
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 9 Jul 2008 at 13:05 GMT
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Both Matt and Andrew tell me that Smartblend is used by other application than APP. Well I'm pleased to hear it, but I doubt others - at least PTGui (I only have version 5) - are as easy to use. For instance, because - or at least I think, because - I tilt the lens up whilst shooting, I usually have to level during preview. This is so easy with APP. As to control points, which are easy to add or remove with PTGui, after 6 months of APP I've never needed to bother with them. I think Andrew will concur.
Andrew, thanks for the link to the Kolor anouncement. I look forward to the release of APP2. Unfortunately I will have to pay for the upgrade as I purchased APP1 yonks since, but most of you who got APP more recently won't have to pay a penny for the new version.
Thanks for the link to the St. Andrew page too. I'm not what you would call devout but appreciate beautiful churches nonetheless.
Mark
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Dave Kennard
Posts: 98
Location: United Kingdom
Registered: 26 Mar 2006
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 9 Jul 2008 at 16:21 GMT
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Hi Mark
Very nice panos, lots to look at.
The colour seems to be a bit flat though, I found this in my panos and just discovered the other day that I needed to convert my image's colour profile (AdobeRGB) to sRGB before converting to cubefaces. It made quite a bit of difference.
Dave
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mediavets
Posts: 420
Location: Isleham, Cambs., United Kingdom
Registered: 8 Feb 2008
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 9 Jul 2008 at 19:28 GMT
updated: 9 Jul 2008 at 19:29 GMT
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Mark Schuster said: Both Matt and Andrew tell me that Smartblend is used by other application than APP. Well I'm pleased to hear it, but I doubt others - at least PTGui (I only have version 5) - are as easy to use. For instance, because - or at least I think, because - I tilt the lens up whilst shooting, I usually have to level during preview. This is so easy with APP. As to control points, which are easy to add or remove with PTGui, after 6 months of APP I've never needed to bother with them. I think Andrew will concur.
Mark
Well, Mark, when shooting with my gear - Nikon DSLR and either Nikkor 10.5mm FE or Sigma 8mm FE and NN5 head- I seldom need to do anything to adjust/modify APPs automatically detected CPs.
But...I've just been trying to help another APP user on this thread:
www.panoguide.com/forums/tipsntricks/5091/
And his sample image set (24MB) provide a real challenge (for me) to get a really good stitch with APP, requiring a lot of manual addition and modification of CPs - so if you fancy a challenge?!:
www.al-riyadh.org/360/BackYard/Archive%202.zip
Andrew
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jomosoft
Posts: 64
Location: Aruba
Registered: 20 Nov 2006
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 9 Jul 2008 at 23:42 GMT
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Hey...this is where I'm going to study 3 weeks, starting monday. Can't wait to see all those photo opp's for myself. Great pano's, you sure catched the mood.
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Mark Schuster
Posts: 713
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 9 Jul 2008 at 23:47 GMT
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Jomosoft,
You'll love it. Hope the weather is fine.
Mark
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