PanoDirk

More information

Description

I'm retired now and have some "inconveniences" with my health, so fast and flashy photographing is a little bit difficult, but I discovered shooting 360x180° panoramas is my cup of tea and is something I can handle with lightweight and small photo gear when I go panorama "hunting" with my mobility scooter.

The equipement I use for panoramas is a small form mirrorless system camera Samsung NX100 (aka Evil Sam) with APS-C sensor to mount the 180°FOV Samyang 8mm F3.5 Fisheye (NX-mount). Use a PanoMAXX head with seperate Sunwayfoto DDP-64S click-stop rotator and locked the build-in small disc-based rotator. The pano head is now real sturdy and very smooth to operate + FLM LB60 Levelling Base to allow the head to be convenient levelled without adjusting the tripod legs. A typical panorama shoot consists of 6 horizon level images, camera a little pointed to the ground (-12°) to make a small nadirfootprint and 2 Zenith images tilted to +68° above the anchor image and one in opposite direction. This technique gives more and better control points in the stitcher (PTGui) and also more resolution in the zenith, so 99% of my panos are stitched automatically. Only use "Delete worst control points" option or delete sometimes manual entries from the control points table to achieve a "very good/good result" with control point distances not exceeding 5 after Optimize (heavy+shift).
When I have to tuck in the tripod legs so that they are not visible outside the circumference of the pano head rotator I hook a bungee cord to center column to to add extra weight(2-4kg)for more stability by very low center of gravity. With 6x60° images the L-bracket of the panohead vanishes by itself in PTgui and only a small nadir footprint remains to fill up. Purchased a very robust oldskool Gitzo-style tripod of Triopo model MX-1327 (magnesium-alu 2,2kg - 157cm without center column up - 32 mmm tubes) and mounted the levelling base direct on the 3/8" screw and on top the rotator and pano head. Wow it stands like a rock for only a fraction of the Gitzo's price.

Software:
# PHOTOMATIX - Shoot panos mainly in RAW and convert to 3 Tiffs for LDR photos (-2/0 /+2EV) to control the overall contrast because in 360° outdoor panos you always have partial against the light photography without exposure compensation possible, thus high contrasts and that's why I use PhotoMatix in "Exposure Fusion" mode.
# PTGUI for stitching
# Corel Paintshop Pro X4 (general editing) and placing Nadir cap or kind of Nadir content-aware-fill (Remove object in Clone Tool).Not suitable for tile floors or brick streets, etc. so use a nice socalled lenscap.

History

Member for

1 year 7 weeks