Hi there,

i tried taking panorama shots using e-p1. using the system, it is almost impossible to get the "connecting shot" right, right?

hence, i thought of olympus software would be able to help me merge the two shots nicely, bu all i see is auto mode when i tried to merge them. and the outcome isn't that good. 
is there a way i can merge the two pics "manually"?

any tips for a newbie taking panorama pics on e-p1?

thanks in advance

Hi Leeks,
I'am not totally an expert at this but I have done a few in the past. My suggestion is to:
1. Use a good tripod with a marked 360 degree head.
2. After taking a exposure to determine exposure, set your exposure settings and put your camera in manual mode.  If you are using the Olympus zoom try to have it at about 30mm.
3. Set the focus and take your pictures(using the self timer to reduce camera shake) with a 20-30% coverage overlap between each photo(10-15 degrees each side).
4. Use your software to merge the photos into one. There are a few "free" software programs on the web that are slightly better or equal to Olympus Master so do a search.

Good luck--hope this helps

ChaunceyD

 

OR the PANORAMA scene setting in E-P1 might do the job?
It has the overlap box for you to refer while shooting.

I can't find the (e-p1 ver 1.4) panoramic mode in ART filters. I have 6 filters, but nothing that says panorama. What gives?

Of course there is a problem using the tripod mount on the e-p1 as it is not centred under the lens, so you will get some parallax distortion, as the viewpoint changes with the angle.

Quote from: Tercha on June 26, 2010, 06:40:19 PM

Of course there is a problem using the tripod mount on the e-p1 as it is not centred under the lens, so you will get some parallax distortion, as the viewpoint changes with the angle.

not to mention positioning on a tripod that has a variable sliding mount point slot rather than a center screw. Doing some math I guess you could use it as parallax compensation, but it still wouldn't be perfect.

I would not stress too much about that--the tripod socket position is not the critical axis, the rear nodal point of the lens is what ideally you should use and you can get panoramic shots without that.

A few thoughts:

As suggested above use a longer focal length--magnification on a flat image plane increases toward the corners and so shorter focal lengths increases that change.

Take more pictures so the stitching program can use less of the edges.

Then hope the program understands the images to make the stitch.

Manually doing this is possible, but not easy. It is better to work on giving the "right" data.

Not an expert on this, but I had a rough series of 5 shots at a sunset.  I took them while standing with no tri-pod.  I was using the 20mm Panasonic at the time.  I tried the Olympus software first, and maybe I didn't enter something correctly, but Oly got it all wrong.  As Chauncey mentions, there are free options out there.  I tried Hugin and got some very nice results.

Let us see them! I'm curious!

I can't see where these are stitched. Looks good, although on the noisy side.

seems like theres a lot of photos on the gallery that could be placed here. Cosinaphile has a bunch. Soooooo....riiiiiseeee from the land of death!! (the thread I mean)

First: Gruu thats awesome
Second: I took this outside of macaroni grill, its true what they say, no two macaroni grills are alike, the food was horrible. This wasnt meant to be a panorama, I took two shots of the area in the 16:9 aspect because I loved the light fall off of the right one and the clouds of the left one. Any way things werent aligned (or equal) at all so I took my unparallel photoshop masterful arts  and aligned them both on the horizontal axis, matched the brightness and color output balance and then did the stitching using the foreground as reference, masked it off what looked weird and croped the rest. Not the best looking pano in the universe but hey, it wasnt even meant to be one, and it was handheld!

I want to see more, sooo, post them here

Holy cow Lisandra... up from the grave with this one!  As adash said, mine is noisy, but I didn't have a tri-pod so sharpness wins.  Maybe if I had Lisandra-skills in Lightroom or Photoshop I could have knocked down some of that noise?  Lesson one in Panorama... USE A TRIPOD.   
@Lisandra, yours looks very nice!  I can't believe you worked it over to that level in PS and yet it still looks like a single natural photo! 
@zebraman, way cool... I'm going to have to check out this MS ICE!

btw... there is a great panorama thread paralleling this one.  Maybe we could combine them or something???
http://e-p1.net/nature-and-landscape/10-frame-panorama-why-do-anything-by-halves/

Holy cow Lisandra... up from the grave with this one!  As adash said, mine is noisy, but I didn't have a tri-pod so sharpness wins.  Maybe if I had Lisandra-skills in Lightroom or Photoshop I could have knocked down some of that noise?  Lesson one in Panorama... USE A TRIPOD.   
@Lisandra, yours looks very nice!  I can't believe you worked it over to that level in PS and yet it still looks like a single natural photo! 
@zebraman, way cool... I'm going to have to check out this MS ICE!

btw... there is a great panorama thread paralleling this one.  Maybe we could combine them or something???
http://e-p1.net/nature-and-landscape/10-frame-panorama-why-do-anything-by-halves/

This could be for all kinds of Panoramas, not just Nature/Landscape (The Other Thread)
I'll move it to "Other Photos".

No, I didn't see it somewhere else. I just think it's fantastic. If that was on the 2011 best photo contest it would have got my vote

Nice work!

Have gone a bit panoramic crazy of the last few months and here are a few I done and most have been posted in other threads. All taken with the E-PL1 kit lens and daylights shots handheld and night one's using a tripod. I sometimes use the panoramic stitcher in photoshop but not always successful so have started using Hugin which is free and it can correct the exposure between the shots to even out.


Pano of the Firth of Forth Bridges by vdub_er, on Flickr


NewcastleGateshead Bridges Panoramic by vdub_er, on Flickr


Between the Bridges by vdub_er, on Flickr


Industry on the river Tees by vdub_er, on Flickr


Dunston Staiths at Dusk by vdub_er, on Flickr