Morten Andersen
Posts: 56
Location: Roskilde, Denmark
Registered: 12 Jun 2006
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Want to brush up on techniques
Posted: 10 May 2008 at 15:53 GMT
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Hello everybody.
I was wondering if is is the right place to bring this inquiry. If not, please excuse me.
I am so fortunate that in the next couple of months I will be doing a lot of tours. I will be shooting a lot of panoramas, and only have a short period of time to process them. That's why it is important that I optimize the process making the worflow as effecient as possible - including using the right programs and procedures.
Here is how I have my worflow outlined right now:
My set-up:
Canon 5D, sigma 8mm f5.5, Agnos TCPShort (and RingT rotator).
I shoot 4+t
1) Shoot bracketed images as Large jpg´s
2) After each panorama, I take an extra image of a red piece of paper to illustrate where the next panorama starts (to help me when I get back in front of the computer with hundreds of images)
3) I combine the images with Photomatix
4) I have previously stitched using Panoweaver 5, but I have just bought PTGui. Does anybody have any experience with the built-in HDR feature? Is it better then Photomatix??
5) I open the jpg file in PS for retouching, correting colors, saturation etc.
6) I convert to cubic to remove tripod.
7) I use Pano2Qtvr to convert to cube faces
8) I re-open all 6 cubes in PS and use WP Pro from www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/WPpro to resize to cubes at 1300x1300 and saves the image.
9) I build the tour with FPP.
Are there any parts of the workflow I can improve to be more effecient??
I look forward to hearing from you guys 
Best regards
Morten
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Mark Schuster
Posts: 691
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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Re: Want to brush up on techniques
Posted: 10 May 2008 at 23:32 GMT
updated: 10 May 2008 at 23:50 GMT
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Morton,
Those who know me from these pages will agree I'm not one of your experts, therefore I won't comment on any but Point 2. Why a red piece of paper in particular? Are you into bull fighting? What's wrong with holding your free hand up in front of the lens? If you wear a wristwatch you will have a record of the time too.
Having said I'm no expert and will comment on a single point only, re-reading your posting another thing bothers me. Clearly you take a lot of trouble over shooting your panoramas, why not take a little more and shoot RAW which will make correction a lot more accurate than fiddling about with JPEGs in PS? If you shoot, as I suspect, a mix of different artificial lights and daylight you need not worry about white balance which can be accurately adjusted in retrospect in a RAW editor like Adobe Camera RAW.
Hope you get loads of business,
Mark
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Vilmer
Posts: 119
Location: Argentina
Registered: 23 May 2007
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Re: Want to brush up on techniques
Posted: 11 May 2008 at 2:49 GMT
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Hi Morten,
congrats on the jobs!
2 remarks from this -also not the most experienced- member.
1) I would shoot RAW, and if needed develop them in 3 exposures to create what is called 'fake hdr' here. Most of the time you will be able to get good enough results by playing with the settings in camera raw.
2) I would first put the cubic faces back into an equirectangular before resizing the pano. I have the idea that you will get visible seams around the cubic faces if you 1st resize them..
And since you are on a tight developing schedule, you might want to outsource the tripod removing to someone in a country where people don't earn so much. Like Argentina or something 
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