Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The complete Picture Panorama

IT'S AMAZING WHAT CAN BE ACHIEVED WITH JUST YOUR CAMERA AND A SPOT OF PHOTOSHOP. PANORAMAS ARE SO SIMPLE TO CREATE THAT YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF USING THIS TECHNIQUE AGAIN AND AGAIN ONCE YOU KNOW HOW... IMAGINE YOU'RE GAZING out over a breathtaking vista. You don't have a camera with you this time, just your eyes. How do you appreciate the view? Do you stand glued to the spot, looking at one part of it or do you slowly swing your head from side to side to take in the whole of the vista in one fell swoop and allow your brain to process it as a single majestic memory?

The answer, of course, is the latter. Whether we're admiring the landscape or looking down the street, we instinctively pan’ our heads from left to right to analyse the scene because this is far more effective than looking at a single part - just like a completed jigsaw is easier to understand than one with lots of pieces missing.

It's the same with photography. Creating dramatic and meaningful scenic images in a single frame is a big ask because so much of the view is left out. How many times have you downloaded a set of landscapes onto your computer only to be disappointed because they didn't really capture the drama and beauty of the scene? It's not that you're a bad photographer, but simply because your brain took in far more of the scene than your camera did. And if the images fail to impress you when you were actually there to see the scene for real, imagine the poor viewer who only has the small section of the scene you captured with your camera to work with!


Sphere we go!
Panoramas take on a mind- bending life on their own when you turn them into 360° panos - a simple Photoshop technique will do all the hard work for you.

IF YOU HAVEA DIGITAL CAMERA, YOU HAVE THE MEANS TO CREATE PANORAMICS,AND THOUGH YOU MAY THINK THE PROCESS IS COMPLICATED AND HIGHLY TECHNICAL, NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.

Panoramic photography gets around this problem by allowing you to capture scenes in the same way your eyes scan them and your brain interprets them. The elongated 'letterbox’ format forces the eye to scan across the image, taking it in bit by bit rather than in a single hit, and psychologically this is just like looking at the real scene.

In the distant days before digital technology took over our lives, panoramic photography required the use of specialist (and expensive) cameras such as the Fujifilm GX617 or Hasselblad XPan. Some models of panoramic camera are still made today, and some photographers still use them, thinking they offer the ultimate solution. Unfortunately, they're living in the Dark Ages, because when it comes to creating dramatic 'panos', a digital SLR beats a panoramic film camera hands down due to its versatility.

Panoramic cameras were/are limited to a single format, but because digital panoramas are created by shooting a series of overlapping frames and 'stitching' them together with software, you can vary the field -of-view to suit each situation: sometimes you may only shoot two frames, while others you may shoot six, 12 or 20, or keep going until you've covered a full 360°. You also have a much wider choice of lenses for a digital SLR and can use any of them to create a digital pan, from wide- angle to telephoto, whereas panoramic film cameras tended to have either a fixed lens or a limited range of three interchangeable lenses.

In a nutshell, if you have a digital camera, you have the means to create panoramics, and though you may think the process is complicated and highly technical, nothing could be further from the truth.

Be prepared
The key to success with creating digital panoramas is planning. The latest stitching software is capable of amazing results, but only if you give it a set of images that it can make sense of, and for that to happen you need to be aware of certain factors.

It's a good idea to mount your camera on a tripod so you can level it properly, and keep it level as you rotate it between frames. In low light, it also means you won't need to worry about camera shake. If the camera isn't level then you'll end up having to crop quite a bit off the top and bottom of the final stitched image and this could mean that you lose important subject matter, such as the top of a building.

In-camera features
If you can't be bothered to stitch images, consider buying a camera that can do it for you. The latest innovation is Sweep Panorama, found in DSLRs such as the Sony A37 and A65, and compacts such as the Sony NEX-7, NEX-5N and Fuji X-Pro 1. Press the shutter while panning the camera across a scene in one smooth swing and it automatically takes a series of frames then stitches them in-camera. It's a simple way to create great panoramas, but you need to make sure you 'sweep' the camera slowly and smoothly, especially in low light, otherwise your images could be blurred.

You also need to keep the camera horizontal to avoid wonky panoramas! The Panasonic TZ30 has a similar mode, as does the Samsung WB850 and ST200F. Other digital compacts have panoramic modes that stitch frames in-camera, or you get software with the camera allowing you to stitch the images in post-production.






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******Usman ahmed owner of this blog created this post with his knowledge.All content provided on this blog is not copied from any other blog and site and is for informational purposes only and  The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.

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