Bennie
Posts: 3
Location: Illinois, United States
Registered: 29 Jun 2009
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Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 29 Jun 2009 at 22:23 GMT
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I would like to take a pan of the scenery from a riverboat. Unfortunately it will be moving. I see in the tutorials, the warning: "Don't move from the spot." Well I can't ask the captain to stop the boat. Do you have any tips to help increase the success of being able to stitch the pictures to achieve good results? I am working with a Canon PS S3IS. Thanks
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John Willetts
Posts: 259
Location: Bath, United Kingdom
Registered: 13 Mar 2008
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 30 Jun 2009 at 8:46 GMT
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I don't think it would work as a shot unless the river is narrow, the camera is high and the objects on the bank are quite tall.
If that is the case, shoot fast, use Enblend (or is it Smartblend) and spend a lot of time working on the Photoshop layers.
John
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Hans Nyberg
Posts: 2760
Location: Denmark
Registered: 28 Aug 2005
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 30 Jun 2009 at 9:11 GMT
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Bennie said: I would like to take a pan of the scenery from a riverboat. Unfortunately it will be moving. I see in the tutorials, the warning: "Don't move from the spot." Well I can't ask the captain to stop the boat. Do you have any tips to help increase the success of being able to stitch the pictures to achieve good results? I am working with a Canon PS S3IS. Thanks
You need another camera for that. Your lens is only a 36mm equivalent and you need a lot of images for 360.
Panoramas from boats or other moving objects need a very fast shot with a fisheye which covers 360 in 3-4 images.
Hans
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Paralaxative
Posts: 33
Location: Edmonton, Canada
Registered: 24 Jul 2008
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 30 Jun 2009 at 15:22 GMT
updated: 30 Jun 2009 at 15:24 GMT
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So, you're thinking of panorama of just one shore, right?
It sounds like you're describing the way your Canon stitching software lets you stitch a flat document (like a timeline) by taking several images.
That's OK for a flat image (document) but if you want to do it from a fast-moving riverboat, it's a whole different ball game.
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 30 Jun 2009 at 15:54 GMT
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Unless Paralaxative is correct and Bennie doesn't want a 360° image, situations like this are where two fisheye capture with a lens that produces a 183 to 190° circular image shines
I'm envisioning shooting from a deck with a walkway or deck above the camera, one shot aimed at the the shore, the second shot aimed at the hull with some cleanup at the horizon where the seams meet and you've got it.
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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Bennie
Posts: 3
Location: Illinois, United States
Registered: 29 Jun 2009
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 30 Jun 2009 at 21:57 GMT
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Yes. I am talking about a shoreline panorama.
I was thinking if I choose Continuous Shooting I would get a better image than if I shot a movie and tried to copy images from it. (I have Photoshop Elements 5 and Premiere Elements 3). I read someplace that I should freeze the shutter speed and aperture settings.
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 30 Jun 2009 at 23:33 GMT
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Bennie
There really isn't any software that will automaticly do what you want.
I've wanted to do "street elevations" by stitching a series of photos taken as I walk down the opposite side of the street.
The stitching software we use is specificly designed to stitch photos taken from the same very precise spot.
To do what you want is just a lot of work hand aligning and stretching photos in Photoshop or something like it
Sorry
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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Pele Leung
Posts: 30
Location: Australia
Registered: 22 Sep 2008
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 2 Jul 2009 at 6:26 GMT
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I am also interested in shooting and making such a super long pano. My interest was sparked up by a long museum painting. See link below:
www.npm.gov.tw/exh96/orientation/flash_4/index.ht...
I understand that some stitching software can only handle pics taken from the same point but there must be something out there which could serve closer to our purpose.
Overall, there are two issues:
1. How to shoot fast enough when the photographer is moving along the river. My straight answer is higher ISO and larger aperture.
How about shooting from the other side of the river bank and then take a shot for every fixed distance along the river bank? Yes I understand there could be another issue - the width of the river may not be the same all along... so?
2. The stitching part indicated above.
Any more fresh ideas, folks?
Pele Leung
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Hans Nyberg
Posts: 2760
Location: Denmark
Registered: 28 Aug 2005
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 2 Jul 2009 at 7:27 GMT
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The free Canon Photostitch has an option for doing it which is said to be quite good.
But it is only free if you have a Canon camera or scanner.
You will find it on the CD.
Hans
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 2 Jul 2009 at 13:48 GMT
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Hans
I have the Canon Photostitch that came with my camera.
Its doesn't do a very good job at this type of stitching.
What I've been going to try is AutoDesk's Stitcher Unlimited which has a "flat stitching" option primarily made for stitching scanned documents too big to fit on a scanner in one image. Haven't gotten around to it though
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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Bennie
Posts: 3
Location: Illinois, United States
Registered: 29 Jun 2009
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 2 Jul 2009 at 15:51 GMT
updated: 2 Jul 2009 at 15:54 GMT
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I have the Canon Photostitch. I tried to stitch some pictures that I cropped to eliminate some of the "double" images that resulted from the movement of the boat on a previous trip. Photostitch would not accept images of different sizes. Adobe Photoshop does.
Thanks everyone for your comments. I think the real solution is to convince the captain to tie up on the opposite shore!
Edited to correct software names.
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Hans Nyberg
Posts: 2760
Location: Denmark
Registered: 28 Aug 2005
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 2 Jul 2009 at 16:09 GMT
updated: 2 Jul 2009 at 16:12 GMT
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Doug Aurand said: Hans
I have the Canon Photostitch that came with my camera.
Its doesn't do a very good job at this type of stitching.
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
I have not tried it myself for this kind but I know that it has been used by German scientist in Cambodia to stitch the long ornaments at Angkor Wat
You have to use the special setting for it.
As far as I remember it is called matrix.
Hans
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John Willetts
Posts: 259
Location: Bath, United Kingdom
Registered: 13 Mar 2008
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 2 Jul 2009 at 17:39 GMT
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If you can get someone to fall overboard, the Captain should stop the boat.
Us Old Hacks will go to any lengths to get a shot 
John
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Pele Leung
Posts: 30
Location: Australia
Registered: 22 Sep 2008
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Re: Pan from a moving riverboat
Posted: 2 Jul 2009 at 23:18 GMT
updated: 2 Jul 2009 at 23:19 GMT
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I tried Photostitch v3.2.1 last night and it has encountered difficulty to deal with larger matrix (2 rows x 5 Column). The software took it and started analysing the pics and then stopped moving to the save stage where it would do the real stitching. Although it seemed to be moving for smaller size (2 rows x 2 columns), it didn't stitch one pic correctly.
BTW, for shooting from the opposite bank, single row is probably enough. As a long river might involve a large number of pics (100+?), I am not sure whether Photostitch is as good as PTGUI in resource handling. We will see.
There is another situation which may cause problem. If the river bank suddenly gets widened at one point, two neightbouring shots may capture the same subject in slightly different size. Say a shop window as an example. If the same shop window but slightly different in size in two neightbouring shots, how does the stitching work? It may be anybody guess!
I will give it a go - walking along the opposite bank and taking shots at regular distance in a stable light condition. Just watch this space.
Pele Leung
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Paralaxative
Posts: 33
Location: Edmonton, Canada
Registered: 24 Jul 2008
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