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Shooting Panoramas

How much Overlap?

The amount you turn the camera for each shot
varies. It is dependent on a number of factors
such as the field of view (the angle) of your
camera and lens, as well as which program you
intend to use. For example, in their QuickTime
VR Authoring Studio, Apple recommended that
the images should overlap by anywhere from
one-third to one-half.  That’s a good rule of
thumb for most stitching applications. You
should check with the recommendations of the
software that you intend to use in order to

determine overlap requirements.

How many Shots?

Once you’ve determined the overlap, you’ll be
able to figure out how many shots. The easiest
way to do this is to  simply look through the
viewfinder and turn the camera to achieve the
desired amount of overlap. You then check the
angle readout to see how far you turned the
camera. Round the angular value to the nearest
convenient value. For most stitching programs,
it is generally not that important to use a
precise overlap value. However, it should be
noted that some programs are more sensitive
to an overlap value that constantly repeats
from shot to shot. You may need to experiment
somewhat to obtain the best results.

How do I begin?

Taking the Photos

When you’re ready to shoot, make sure that the
camera is securely attached to the QuickPan III.
You should use a tripod that is sturdy, ideally
one that has a center support system of braces
to help keep the camera from flexing.

Proper leveling is important and often
misunderstood. When it comes to leveling there
are two things that are fairly important. With
multirow panoramas (i.e. Stitcher) the issue of
leveling is less crucial and primarily involves
aestethics and placement of the horizon. We’ll
concentrate primarily on cylindrical or single-
row panoramas.

First, the camera's optical axis should be parallel
with the rotation plane of the tripod head. In
other words the camera should not be pointed
up or down with respect to the plane of
rotation.

Secondly, it's also somewhat important for the
camera and film/CCD to be properly aligned
with respect to rotation when viewed from the
front (looking into the lens).

This can happen because the camera is not
seated flush against the upright bracket. This

is pretty common since many cameras have
mounting screws that are not in the center of
the base. Many cameras have screws off to one
end of the camera or at the edge of the camera
and this can cause the camera to not be pulled
down evenly onto the tripod head mounting
plate.

Another problem is that CCDs may not be
accurately positioned within the camera body
and respect to the mounting surface. It only
takes a fraction of degree and with other
manufacturing tolerances this can add up to be
noticeable.

This misalignment can also happen if the
upright bracket is bent  or  is  not  exactly
perpendicular to the rotation plane of the head.
At Kaidan we check this dimension very closely
to ensure it's as close to 90

°

 as reasonbly possible.

The effect of a rotated camera (when viewed
looking into the lens) is a stairstepping of
images as you progress around the panorama.
Stairstepping has nothing to do with the state
of the entire head being level with respect to
the horizon. This can be corrected by rotating
all the images a slight amount in your authoring
program.

Содержание III

Страница 1: ...User s Guide V0 9 27 June 2002 QuickPan III Panoramic Tripod Head...

Страница 2: ...sbuiltaround asturdyandpreciseRotatorBasewith interchangable indexing rings There areseveralcamerabracketsthatslide and lock onto the Rotator Base Why do I need a tripod head A panoramic tripod head m...

Страница 3: ...evel zerodegrees thusfulfillingthesamefunctions as the Standard Camera Bracket An optional Arca Swiss QuickRelease camera plate is also available Standard Camera Bracket The Standard Camera Bracket is...

Страница 4: ...plate Arca Swiss shownatright Thetwoindependentaxesofadjustmentpositionsthe lensinsuchamannersoasnottocaptureanymore of the Rotator Base than necessary When a camera equippedwithacircularfisheyelensis...

Страница 5: ...helower portionoftheblack Indexing Ring there is gold col ored pin visible through the hole in the side Insert the tip of a ball pointpen ora paperclip end into theholeandpushthegoldpinin ward till th...

Страница 6: ...ntilitwon t turn anymore Next install the knob intotheappropriateslotthenintothe tripodmountingholeofyourcamera Turn the inner knob into the camera until it bottoms out then turn the outerknobclockwis...

Страница 7: ...It s important to make sure that the centerline of your camera s lens intersects the pivot axis of the swing arm Since some cameras have tripod mounting threads that are not inlinewiththecenterofthec...

Страница 8: ...the appropriate slot then into the tri pod mounting hole of your camera Turn the inner knob into the camera until it bottoms out then turn the outerknobclockwiseuntilthecamera is tight on the bracket...

Страница 9: ...eye Rock your head from side to side Notice how your finger moves with respect to the background This relative movement is due to the fact that you re not rotating your head around your eye s nodal po...

Страница 10: ...one and another in the viewinder slide the camera fore or aft in order to eliminate this movement Here the telephone pole has moved behind the brick wall left to right Slide the camera to the front or...

Страница 11: ...de of the viewfinder After each pair of photos slidethebracketrearwardandrepeat theprocess Slidethebracketthesame increment each time i e 10mm Be sure to record the scale setting for each pair of imag...

Страница 12: ...that are fairly important With multirow panoramas i e Stitcher the issue of leveling is less crucial and primarily involves aestethics and placement of the horizon We ll concentrate primarily on cylin...

Страница 13: ...ightproduceapanoramathatistilted with respect to the horizon but that might be an artistic choice orsomethingyou want to do on purpose As long as the optical axis is parallel to the rotation plane and...

Страница 14: ...tapes Bothoftheaforementioneditemsarecopyrightedandsubjecttothelawscon cerning intellectual property Kaidan will replace defective software videotapes free ofchargeuponreturnreceiptofdefectiveitem s...

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