Australian_Photography_-_June_2016_

48 AUSTRALIANPHOTOGRAPHY.COM AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY JUNE 2016

PHOTO TIPS seamless panorama stitching

Lighting

Think about where the sun is and how the scene is lit before

you start shooting. Positioning the sun at your back will result

in a uniform and easy-to-manage exposure throughout the

entire scene. Shooting into the sun, when it is very low and

close to the horizon or when it falls behind a cloud, is also

possible. In terms of exposure, it’s important to expose for the

brightest part of the scene. I often use filters to assist

with exposure control – neutral density filters to slow the

shutter speed, and graduated neutral density filters to darken

bright skies.

Straight shooting

You’re almost ready to start shooting. Before you do, the

following tips can save you hours of mucking around in post:

• Shoot from left to right, the images will load in your browser
  from left to right, so it will make it easier to keep track of your
  series when you’re back home on your computer.


• Before you commence the series, take a picture of your
  hand with a finger pointing in the direction you are about
  to pan to.


• You can use your viewfinder’s grid display to help keep your
  images level. Line up the horizon with one of the grid lines to
  improve your chances of capturing a level horizon.
  
  
  • Pan slowly and accurately, there is no need to hurry to the
    next image. Keep an eye on the entire scene and on your
    viewfinder to ensure you’re panning accurately to the
    next frame.
  
  
  • Shoot more images than you need. I usually aim for around
    six frames with about 25% overlap. The more overlap you have
    the greater your chance of obtaining a successful stitch. The
    greater the overlap however, the more images you will need to
    take to obtain the ideal 3:1 ratio.
  
  
  • Stop to take each frame, there is a natural tendency to pan
    through the whole scene whilst clicking frames along the way.
    By stopping you are ensuring the sharpest images possible and
    can concentrate on your composition.
  
  
  
  

Raw processing

Before you start stitching your images, it’s important to refine the

Raw files to optimise tonality, white balance and clarity:

• Once you have downloaded your memory card, place each
  series into a separate folder, so you can keep a track of
  each attempt.


• Highlight all the Raw images in the series and drag them into
  Adobe Camera Raw (Photoshop) so all the files open at once –
  the thumbnail of each image should appear on the left side of
  the screen.