Let’s learn something new, shall we?
AE Lock
The ability to lock exposure settings (aperture and shutterspeed) calculated by the camera over a series of images. This setting is useful when shooting images which will be stitched together into a panorama because stitching is much easier if each image has the same exposure. (via dpreview.com)
Case in point: my hopeless attempt at a panorama in Glencoe, Scotland. Click on the image below for a larger view (210kb).
I say hopeless because (a) I wasn't using a tripod (although I did a good job nonetheless), and (b) my digicam's AE Lock is cancelled after the shot is taken. Helpful, Sony. Thanks. Using manual settings wouldn't have worked, since the position of the sun when I took the shots (around 17:45) was too low to allow enough light consistency across the 13 individual photos.
I've created panoramas before so I know that with average equipment it can be a hit or miss undertaking, but am slightly upset this time around. Yet glad in a way because I wouldn't have done it enough justice. It's one of those places you have to visit for yourself. For some more photography, take a look at digicam.coza where I've added some albums from Scotland. Lots to come still... what a job.
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7 Comments
Scotland is sooo beautiful.
Why didn’t you take a reading from the grass in the scene? Grass is 18% grey and this is what your digital camera exposes for.
take a reading from the grass, convert it to manual aperture & shutter and take all your panoramas at this exposure and it will work out perfect. It works for me every single time
Interesting tip, Karen, I’ll give it a bash next time. thanks!
David: I’m currently using Photovista 3.0 to do the stitching, and it exports to a java applet but I tend to use different applets for displaying the panorama. There are freeware apps that do the same thing, I’m sure…
David: On Windows XP I used The Panorama Factory for doing photo stitching. I liked it alot, though it’s not an incredibly well designed GUI.
Oh, on a side note coda – The Panorama Factory will auto-level balance your photos to match up brightness contrast and colors. It might not be perfect – but it creates consistancy.
I used Photoshop to make this collage. It took a while but it turned out okay. I shot all the photos freehand without a tripod as well. I like the rough, pieced together feel of it.
19 August 2004
Colin D. Devroe06:21 am
I’ve had my fair share working with panoramas. I had a very nice solution for Windows – which allowed me to stitch my pictures together and either create a flat JPG (as you’ve done) or a quicktime 3d VR thingy. I have yet to find anything I like on Mac.