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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.