File :-(, x, )
Panorama Anonymous
Hey /p/, I've tried my hand at some panoramas lately and they have not turned out very well. Can anyone share some advice on making good ones? Specifically:

- What stitching software should I use? There's a lot of ripoff-looking stuff out there.

- What kinds of focal lengths (and/or lenses) work best? My cheap digicam seems to have a lot of barrel distortion at wide angles, which I think was part of the problem.

- Exposure settings, etc.? -- How do you balance out light and dark areas of the scene without producing obvious differences between images?

(Pic not taken by me)
>> Anonymous
I've always used photoshop to stitch my photos together. It's time consuming, but I keep control over the end product. I think I'm going to do some experimentation with panorama software this year. I think if you want to get specific software you should try as many trial versions first before purchasing.

I don't think the camera model matters much, as I use a digial canon powershot [a real dinkey point and shoot] and get perfectly fine looking panoramas.

Exposure settings. Yeah, these can be a real bitch about getting the right exposure for each photo. But because I use photoshop I can adjust the lightness of each seperate photo so they blend together more easily.

Also, I think it's best to have photos that overlap.
>> Photon
For panorama:
Software: PTgui, Photoshop, Elements, Autostitch, etc.
Hardware: P&S camera: no lens option, use widest possible. DSLR: a lens that has almost no pincushioning, vignetting such as primes.
Setting: Use exposure lock.

Process: Level the camera, take photo and position camera so 1/4 of photo overlap. Rotate on axis.

WIN!