AE Lock & Panoramas

[WhiteD3]

When taking multiple shots to stitch into a panorama, should the AE be locked at the settings for the first (or baseline) shot, or should the camera be allowed to make exposure settings as you rotate for each shot?

[dmdigital]

Lock the exposure setting for all shots. It pays to pan across the panorama and see what is the highest exposure setting then set the camera to manual and use that setting for all shots. Its far easier to achieve a lightening of a darkened shot than a blown out highlights. So AE lock on the brightest shot or better still (if possible) use manual exposure settings.

[ozzirt]

I have found the best solution to be, forget the camera, put it on auto if that's easiest and then use good software to make your seamless panorama.

I have a 3X zoomed pano of 17 shots and I defy anyone to tell me where the joins are, once I've cropped it.

I use an older version of MGI PhotoVista. It has a crappy interface, but does a great job.

This is a 5 shot pano ( the 17 was a bit large to display here)

[mfc]

stick it on manual(focus and exp)

[dmdigital]

For some reason one of the Moderators appears to have merged the "How To's" into one sticky post Anyway they must have had their reasons.

In amongst this sticky is this post: How to: techniques explained by members in a tutorial which explains things (I Hope) reasonably well.

They real key to effective panoramas is to keep everything as constant and level as possible. Another thing is to avoid using filters, especially a polarising filter. Again so that everything is constant.

This means: Manual Aperture, Manual Shutter, Manual Focus.

[dullbird]

yes I merged them into one I can't sticky them all individually.....

The how to's have been up there for some months like that derek where have you been!

it saves people going to search for them, thats even if they bother.

[WhiteD3]

Here's two pano's I took in HK last week. Both with the AE lock on. The first was taken at sunrise and the other 30 minutes later about 1km further along the promenade. Very overcast as you can see.





I thought locking the AE would mean I wouldn't encounter the obvious difference in exposures in the picture directly above (RHS). Maybe I was doing something wrong?

But the exercise raised another query, that of post processing. I tried post processing the panorama using PSE7 but that doesn't work as PSE appears to treat the pano as separate parts (ie the original shots that make it up) so you end up with levels all over the place.

So I then tied post processing the individual pics, using the same settings, then doing the pano, which was much better but still not right.

[slt]

For some reason one of the Moderators appears to have merged the "How To's" into one sticky post Anyway they must have had their reasons.

In amongst this sticky is this post: How to: techniques explained by members in a tutorial which explains things (I Hope) reasonably well.

They real key to effective panoramas is to keep everything as constant and level as possible. Another thing is to avoid using filters, especially a polarising filter. Again so that everything is constant.

This means: Manual Aperture, Manual Shutter, Manual Focus.

+1

There's one more thing to watch: white balance, especially for night work, but even during the day you may get considerable colour temperature differences which will stuff up your sky. You don't necessarily have to do that in the camera, but before you merge the photos with whatever editor you are using, make sure white balance is the same in all of them.

slt

[300+]

H

I thought locking the AE would mean I wouldn't encounter the obvious difference in exposures in the picture directly above (RHS). Maybe I was doing something wrong?

Nice shots. I think the problem you are referring to is that the RHS has effectively the wrong exposure. This is the danger of locking the exposure. If there is not enough dynamic range you end up with part of the shot wrong.

I take a few samples to work out what exposure to set - if you lock the exposure on the first frame this may be the darkest part of the shot.

If you leave the exposure on auto as you pan each shot will be better exposed, but the joins could be more visible.

Which problem would you like? Which is best will depend on your camera, the scene and your post processing.

But lock the exposure at a mid level is a good rule of thumb.

Cheers, Steve

[djambalawa]

WhiteD3 - to me it looks like the exposure on the panos is pretty good - I don't see obvious different exposures in your pano..

Agree with the manual settings that others have said...

I reckon ptgui is the best pano software...

Heres one of buffalo creek in darwin