William Allard
Posts: 8
Location: Dorset, United Kingdom
Registered: 9 Jun 2008
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The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 11:04 GMT
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Hello everyone.
Can anybody help? I am proud to say that I have found my Nodal Point or Entrance Pupil of my Sigma 8mm Fisheye Ex Lens. However, the problem is now to find the right stitching software.
Can anybody recommend a software brand to use? It seems
mind boggling to me as a newbie which one to choose? I will be doing the majority of panoramas in doors!
Furthermore, can anybody give me any tips to solve the exposure problems that can arise when taking panoramas?
Equipment used, Canon EOS 450D, Sigma 8mm EX DG Fisheye, Manfrotto 303 SPH
If anyone can help or point me in the right direction to find out, I would be most grateful!
Warm regards
William
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mediavets
Posts: 401
Location: Isleham, Cambs., United Kingdom
Registered: 8 Feb 2008
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 11:32 GMT
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William Allard said: Hello everyone.
Can anybody help? I am proud to say that I have found my Nodal Point or Entrance Pupil of my Sigma 8mm Fisheye Ex Lens. However, the problem is now to find the right stitching software.
Can anybody recommend a software brand to use? It seems
mind boggling to me as a newbie which one to choose? I will be doing the majority of panoramas in doors!Warm regards
William
Most members of this forum use PTGui - but I use Autopano Pro:
www.autopano.net/
Download from here:
www.autopano.net/wiki/Lastest_Beta
You may like to trial both.
Andrew
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Photosbykev
Posts: 15
Location: Gloucester, United Kingdom
Registered: 30 May 2008
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 11:49 GMT
updated: 12 Jun 2008 at 11:55 GMT
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I've tried a few software packages and ended up buying PTGui as it delivers the results I want and is very versatile.
Re exposures, alway set your iso setting to a manual one rather than auto. I tend to shoot at iso100 most of time and accept the longer shutter times that will be needed when stopped down to say f16, using iso 100 gives me the highest quality with minimal noise. The only time I would change this is when subject movement becomes an issue.
Ensure your white balance isn't on auto, I use the cloudy setting on my 40D as I like the general appearance of the images straight from the camera, I then batch adjust the colour temperature of the Raw files before exporting them as Tif files for processing in PTGui.
Finally always shoot in manual exposure mode rather than auto or Tv or Av or god forbid program mode This will ensure that you have a constant exposure to work with.
If you need to change the exposure to prevent the sky burning out then either use Grad ND filters for the sky shots (and remove the filter for the lower ground shots) or consider doing multiple exposures at each position and then HDR/fuse them together before or during stitching.
With the 8mm lens the filter option is out of the question so multiple exposures and HDR is the way to go.
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William Allard
Posts: 8
Location: Dorset, United Kingdom
Registered: 9 Jun 2008
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 13:45 GMT
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Thank you for your reply
I would also like to convert the panoramas into virtual tours,adding thing like maps,hotspots and radars. PTGui does not seem to support this. Could I use another software to do this and would they be both capatable together?
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iam360Texas
Posts: 62
Location: Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Registered: 12 Jul 2006
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 14:52 GMT
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Canon 20d and the Sigma 8, F/8 provides the greatest depth of field where all is in focus from 4" [10cm] in front of the lens to infinity is in focus.
I too have used the Manual setting using F/8 and the EV's are sampled at 0,90,180,and 270 click stops by adjusting the shutter speed, then I average the 4 shutter speed values to use in the Manual mode.
20d's lowest ISO is 100.
However, the Canon 5d it is possible to use ISO 50.
Some of the Canon cameras use Kelvin values. Daylight is 5200, Cloudy is 6000, Shade 7000, Tungsten 3200, Flourescent is 4000.
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mediavets
Posts: 401
Location: Isleham, Cambs., United Kingdom
Registered: 8 Feb 2008
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 15:13 GMT
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William Allard said: Thank you for your reply
I would also like to convert the panoramas into virtual tours,adding thing like maps,hotspots and radars. PTGui does not seem to support this. Could I use another software to do this and would they be both capatable together?
Tourweaver:
www.easypano.com/tourweaver125.html
Andrew
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William Allard
Posts: 8
Location: Dorset, United Kingdom
Registered: 9 Jun 2008
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 15:20 GMT
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Thank you Andrew
I presume what you mean is that I Can use PTGui as a stitching software and Tourweaver to convert the panoramas into Virtual tours?
William
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William Allard
Posts: 8
Location: Dorset, United Kingdom
Registered: 9 Jun 2008
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 16:04 GMT
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If I were to use aperture mode (AV) to get the appropriate shutter speed for all of the rotations and then take the average EV and then shoot in manual mode would this be appropriate method?
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frozenjaZz
Posts: 37
Location: France
Registered: 8 Apr 2008
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 16:16 GMT
updated: 12 Jun 2008 at 16:17 GMT
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Hello,
you have a great combo there (450D + Sigma), concerning the 303 I don't know, it looks sooo expensive... and sooo large/heavy/bulky... I am not sure it is the best choice with fisheyes !
You have found the nodal point for 4 photos around ? (as you know, the nodal point on fisheye lenses is not unique, so you can't have found THE nodal point...)
I love PTGui and I use it with good success. I personnally use a monopod + 450D + Sigma 8mm f3.5.
You'll get 9000x4500 panos.
For exposure, I still don't have the best answer, except try to find an "average" exposure...
But a great thing to know concerning the Sigma 8mm : do several tests, say at f5.6, varying only the distance scale. Try 0.5m, between 0.5 and 1m, 1m, between 1 and infinity, and infinity.
On my copy, I thought the best setting for greater DOF was 1m. But then I found my panos were a bit soft... so I tested again, and now it is clear that the ultimate setting is between 0.5 and 1 meter. Not very intuitive...
Even at f4, and 1600ISO, I get decent results (4 photos + 1)
cedricsimon.com/panos/2008/provence/eglise_monieux
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mediavets
Posts: 401
Location: Isleham, Cambs., United Kingdom
Registered: 8 Feb 2008
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 16:43 GMT
updated: 12 Jun 2008 at 16:50 GMT
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William Allard said: Thank you Andrew
I presume what you mean is that I Can use PTGui as a stitching software and Tourweaver to convert the panoramas into Virtual tours?
William
Yes, or any other stitcher that creates input formats accepted by Tourweaver.
I use the Sigma 8mm f3.5 on a Nikon DX format DSLR with a Nodal Ninja 5 pano head. The combo works well. I use Autopano Pro to stitch as I find it more intuitive and easy to use than PTGui (which is probably the most capable, other than Hugin which is not exactly user friendly yet, but also the most complex of stitchers) and APP stitches my fisheye images well. I don't use virtual tour software but those that do rave about Tourweaver.
Andrew
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Photosbykev
Posts: 15
Location: Gloucester, United Kingdom
Registered: 30 May 2008
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 12 Jun 2008 at 17:34 GMT
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It would be worth learning how to read the histogram function in the live view of the 450D. Using the histogram will quickly tell you whether you can use one exposure to cover the dynamic range of all the scene or if you need to consider using multiple exposures. This is good tutorial on the histogram and how to read it www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understandin...
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Pete Loud
Posts: 146
Location: United Kingdom
Registered: 14 Oct 2006
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Re: The Holy Grail
Posted: 13 Jun 2008 at 9:01 GMT
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"I am proud to say that I have found my Nodal Point or Entrance Pupil of my Sigma 8mm Fisheye Ex Lens. "
Would you care to give more details on that.
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