ABOUT ME

I live in a camper van with a West Highland Terrier for company.
My passion is creating images but it is a work in progress.
I am always willing to share what knowledge I have and can be contacted through the comments on this post or e-mail ADRIAN
ALL IMAGES WILL ENLARGE WITH A LEFT CLICK

Thursday, 4 April 2013

I’M SORRY, REALLY SORRY. (04/04/13)

This is the last post on planets and big panoramas for a while. You will be getting sick of them.

Yesterday Fed-Ex rolled up with my Easter toy. It is a complicated bit of kit. Very complicated, I had to read the instructions. After getting in a right tangle I read the instructions. There are a lot of them eleven pages. Frightened me I can tell you.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA             It’s a virtual reality panoramic head. It took me about an hour to set it up and then like a muppet I didn’t write down the settings.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA    For all that it cost I was more than a wee bit peeved that they didn’t supply the levelling base it is useless without it. I’ve gone off Italians so no more gobbledygook Latin from me.

I then shot an almost full panorama. 360° x 171° it was and took 99 separate exposures. I shot middle JPEGs. I popped the first lot into ICE and then couldn’t save the image. Took me a while to twig that I had to compress it first……Silly me. It is a massive file. It does save it but obviously to almost everybody but me you then can’t open it. I uttered a few ‘Well bless my Souls!’ Before the penny dropped.

iceed040413    Here are the images stitched in ICE. It does a grand job of exposure adjustment. but it made a dogs dinner of the zenith shots so I took them out.

IMG_0001 Panorama    This is the same set of ninety nine stitched in PTGui. It does better with the zenith shots but it doesn’t do as well when it comes to exposure compensation.

I suspect that Adobe’s stitcher in PS Elements could do it but I hadn’t got a day to wait. It’s a pity they stitch in a different order or I could have a go at blending them together. There will be a way. I’ll sleep on it.  

IMG_0061_stitch_edited-1      The planet from the ICE stitch.

IMG_0001 Panorama_edited-1      And from the PTGui software.

My head is spinning so tomorrow I’m away to Sheriff Hutton near York. I’m hoping there will be Barn Owls and boxing Hares there.

I’ll not be posting tomorrow so have a good weekend.

Posted by at

26 comments:

  1. Bas.4 April 2013 at 18:24

    ik snap er niks van maar een heel goed weekend.

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    1. ADRIAN5 April 2013 at 04:39

      Nik, kijk omhoog panorama's op Google. er zijn veel tutorials.

      Delete
  2. DawnTreader4 April 2013 at 19:56

    You scared me there for a while. Browsing my Google Reader list, all I saw at first was just "I'm sorry --- This is the last post" ... Not that I understand a word when you get into details of your equipment but what you accomplish with them is usually amusing! I've had enough of instructions for today though... Just managed to connect to my new broadband cable and set up the new router. It's working now. I hope it continues to... :)

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    1. ADRIAN5 April 2013 at 04:40

      So I see. You now have super fast web connection. Let us just hope it is stable.

      Delete
  3. Douglas Mcfarlane4 April 2013 at 20:34

    Good luck for your trip to York I hope you get some Barnies and Hares all this talk of ICE has be both confused and shiverring, though I do like the planet images, remind me of Saturday nights:)

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    1. ADRIAN5 April 2013 at 04:41

      Douglas, the Hares are about. They will disappear within an hour of my arrival.

      Delete
  4. Horst in Edmonton4 April 2013 at 21:12

    Wow, 360 degree panoramas, that's awesome. Love the equipment your accumulating. Photography sure is an expensive hobby, but I still love it.

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    1. ADRIAN5 April 2013 at 04:44

      Horst, I have spent ages trying to make do and bodge set ups. The big panos one sees. The interior ones especially are shot with an auto head tethered to a computer.
      I would just like to get them good enough to convert into scroll around ones.

      Delete
  5. GB5 April 2013 at 03:43

    Well done that man! I've just twigged the full significance of planets. You pretend to be thick sometimes. Spare a thought for those of us who are.

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    1. ADRIAN5 April 2013 at 04:53

      Graham, They are a record of all that you can see from where you are. The rectilinear.....oblong one is actually a merator projection so it distorts badly at the pole or zenith. It's why the UK looks so big compared to Spain on maps. It's best to avoid tree branches but they are the only way I can compare my efforts. A clean horizon would be better.

      Delete
  6. Kate5 April 2013 at 11:09

    These images are fantastic! I've been away so I must go back and catch up on your previous posts.

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    1. ADRIAN6 April 2013 at 06:30

      Katherine, unbelievable is, I suspect, what you mean. Have fun, the further back you go the worse they get.

      Delete
  7. The Herald5 April 2013 at 12:53

    Adrian, you've sure given that old gray matter a good workout over the last few days!

    I hope you have(had) a safe journey over to Yorkshire, and you can now relax a little while tracking down those Barn Owls and Hares?...good luck!...[;o)

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    1. ADRIAN6 April 2013 at 06:32

      Trevor....Work out.....I'm worn out.
      Yes an easy run over. it' is an awfully slow run though.

      Delete
  8. Poppy (aka Val)5 April 2013 at 20:22

    Those photos are amazing!! The technical stuff goes right over my head but it looks an amazing piece of kit :)

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    1. ADRIAN6 April 2013 at 06:34

      Poppy, when I opened the box up I too was amazed. It was a few days ago now but I distinctly remember thinking Amazing Hell!

      Delete
  9. Friko5 April 2013 at 20:33

    Blimey Adrian, you are having fun! What a clever blighter you are, I am impressed. Have a grand day.

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    1. ADRIAN6 April 2013 at 06:35

      Friko, I'll be clever when I can get perfect results....any idiot can purchase the hardware.

      Delete
  10. grammie g5 April 2013 at 20:54

    Hi Adrian....Well I wasn't feeling well the last couple of days so just getting to see these!!
    Wow am I glad I waited ,I would have had my head in the crapper even worse
    whew that puts the old noggin in a spin!!
    You do act goofy at times, but there is a lot of genius behind all
    that ; ) You blow me away with this stuff ,amazing!!
    Grace

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    1. ADRIAN6 April 2013 at 06:37

      Grace, I've been feeling sick for about twelve hours now.

      You have diagnosed the problem.

      Delete
  11. ^.^6 April 2013 at 21:27

    Your pics are amazing ... Love always, Mr.A ...

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  12. Midmarsh John7 April 2013 at 09:53

    Fascinating stuff Adrian.
    Finally found the video demonstration I had lost
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11wWpKhx_Z8

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    Replies
    1. ADRIAN7 April 2013 at 12:37

      John, it's a good video. thanks for the link.

      Delete
  13. J_on_tour17 April 2013 at 19:28

    Impressive bit of kit helping to produce impressive images. I like the richness of quality in the first panorama.

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  14. ADRIAN20 April 2013 at 18:49

    Jay, that is due to several things. Taking loads of images with a good 30% overlap both horizontally and vertically, using cable release with mirror lock up, The rest is down to the software. I like the edges or the zenith images sharp or sharpish. Part of this process involves creating a square image....i keep the file size large and sort of average the width and height pixel count. Then I use the Flexify plug in. It is far superior to the PS polar co-ordinates algorithm.

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