Panorama problem: Yarra Valley, Melbourne, Australia

[hardman]

Can someone advise me on panoramas? I wasn't impressed with the pano setting in the app; they look too distorted, so I took 5 overlapping raw images and used LR panorama to stitch them. Only 3 raw images were stitched. I didn't use manual focus so I'm thinking that the remaining 2 images were at different focal lengths? What settings are advised?

 

[Meta4]

Can someone advise me on panoramas? I wasn't impressed with the pano setting in the app; they look too distorted, so I took 5 overlapping raw images and used LR panorama to stitch them. Only 3 raw images were stitched. I didn't use manual focus so I'm thinking that the remaining 2 images were at different focal lengths? What settings are advised?

Lots of possibilities for what you describe.
Unless you have the M2 zoom, all shots would have been at the same focal length.
You have to have a good overlap and enough identifiable points in the overlap area for software to be able to match and stitch.
Using the preset pano feature doesn't give much choice and control.
For serious panorama shooting, doing it manually might be better.
Panoramas can be really good ... or not so.
There's a lot involved and it can take a lot of practice to get the hang of what works and what doesn't.

If you upload your 5 shots to dropbox and send a link, I could have a go at them with proper panorama software and see what I can find out for you.

 

[hardman]

Lots of possibilities for what you describe.
Unless you have the M2 zoom, all shots would have been at the same focal length.
You have to have a good overlap and enough identifiable points in the overlap area for software to be able to match and stitch.
Using the preset pano feature doesn't give much choice and control.
For serious panorama shooting, doing it manually might be better.
Panoramas can be really good ... or not so.
There's a lot involved and it can take a lot of practice to get the hang of what works and what doesn't.

If you upload your 5 shots to dropbox and send a link, I could have a go at them with proper panorama software and see what I can find out for you.

Thanks for your ideas, I'll try more overlap and play with the manual settings some more. I agree that there's probably too much uncommon points to match up too so not worth the effort this time. Is there a software you recommend?

 

[Meta4]

Thanks for your ideas, I'll try more overlap and play with the manual settings some more. I agree that there's probably too much uncommon points to match up too so not worth the effort this time. Is there a software you recommend?

Lots of overlap is good but if you have big areas of water or soft grass/tree cover, the software might have trouble finding points to natch.
Here are two quick examples:

... and a few more frames stitched together makes this:

No one program does everything I need but Kolor Autopano Giga and Microsoft ICE manage to do most things I want in panoramas.

 

[hardman]

I see what you mean here and I'll try different settings before buying any more software. LR is fine for me atm. I downloaded PTGui trial for a play but it contains too many tricks for an old dog!

 

[bushie]

I use Hugin to stich panoramas. It is very comprehensive and is free

 

[hardman]

I use Hugin to stich panoramas. It is very comprehensive and is free

Thank you very much! Just finished stitching 2 panos together.

 

[genesimmons]

use litchi for panos, it offers much more options, u can adjust the rows the number of photos per row and u can adjust the degree like 180-90-360 etc, you can also bracket all the photos to make a hdr pano, its a 100000 times better than dji go

 

[Meta4]

Thank you very much! Just finished stitching 2 panos together.

There's a lot more lost detail that could be recovered from those shadows.
This is just quick and dirty example from about 10 seconds in Photoshop:

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Thank you very much! Just finished stitching 2 panos together.

Good one.
Now, go find an app to sharpen your avatar pic, ha ha

 

[RobH2]

Lots of overlap is good but if you have big areas of water or soft grass/tree cover, the software might have trouble finding points to natch.
Here are two quick examples:

... and a few more frames stitched together makes this:

No one program does everything I need but Kolor Autopano Giga and Microsoft ICE manage to do most things I want in panoramas.

This is a spectacular image...