Perfect video as always. What I like most about Mike's videos is that he doesn't miss any part of the issue. Many UA-camrs explain only a part and deliberately leave out some details because they explain them in their paid courses.
I just went on a weeklong road trip and shot multiple panos, only one of which I used my tripod for. Capture 1 had zero problems stitching any of them. I got some amazing shots of the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon on this trip! I think the biggest tip is the one you showed about getting the exposure right and switching to manual focus.
Great to hear about your experiences Judy! It definitely is a case of getting the right settings in the camera and taking your time shooting them. Thanks for watching 😁👍
Haha! Thanks very much Nick! It was very much a hard slog up Cribyn but worth it!! It's all good fun trying to get creative with the B-roll ... The tricky thing is to fly the drone whilst walking and trying not to look like I'm flying the drone!! 😆 Thanks for watching 😁👍
Hi Mike, thanks for a really excellent video, demonstrating and explaining the different options succinctly. I shoot a lot in forests, so am obliged to mainly use a nodal rail on a ball head. A tripod levelling base was a useful addition and speeded up my setup. For "normal" shots with a lot of detail, I often use a sharp prime lens taking 3-4 pano shots in portrait orientation than just a single shot with a wide zoom lens in landscape orientation.
Hi David, Thanks very much! In forests it's definitely a must to have a nodal rail, and like you said a leveling plate comes in really handy. I bet you get a lot more detail using the prime lens instead of a single shot with a wide angle lens. Thanks for sharing your process with us and thanks for watching 😁👍
Thanks so much Dan! It's well worth it, and as long as everything is in manual mode and you get good focus, it should stitch really easily. Thanks for watching 😁👍
The pano head Neewer Gimbal Head Panoramic Head $109 is so worth it. I use at night for Astro Milky Way's to do 200+ degree panos set at 15 degree stops using the base stepper. At night you can feel the next step and allows the NR function moving to next stop during NR and a pano at night where as looking at the camera screen and finding the next stop visually is very hard in the dark of night new moon. The other nice thing is there is there are 10 degree up and down prefect for landscape wide but 2 stops high for a vertical milky way. The 15 degree steps is great for lightroom NOW can stitch before the only program to do panos is/was PTGui Pro (once bought good for life of updates) it has more profiles to use. A 12 to 24mm can be used without a parallax rail so the new camera rotator landscape to portrait replacement for a L- bracket can be used without a parallax rail also.
Thanks for sharing all your findings. You're right about panos at night. It is so much easier to get the correct positioning with the tactile feel of the clicks from a pano head. A specialised bit of kit that is very much needed in that case. Thanks for watching 😁👍
No worries Joe, I do have a video on astro panoramas as well ... check it out when you get the chance! ua-cam.com/video/FxpGrfyAdrM/v-deo.html Thanks for watching 😁👍
Wow! Just found this video. I really enjoyed it. Very informative. It highlights the fact that we do not always need fancy gear, especially nowadays with the powerful features of post processing software. Just subscribed.
Thanks dude! They are also known as a panorama tripod head ... but aren't really needed these days as the editing programs are so sophisticated! Panos are fantastic and so satisfying when you get a good one! As always thanks for watching 😁👍
Loved the tutorial on this subject . I'm going to try both handheld and tripod . As always, I look forward to all of your videos because I learn from each of them and I can't say thanks enough.
That's great to hear Alonzo! They are definitely worth trying out with and without the tripod...and very satisfying when you get a good one!! As always thanks for watching 😁👍
Thank you Mike, very useful information. This morning I had to try it out and made a handheld camera panorama with nine images stitched together. Used LIghtroom and it came out perfect.
That's awesome to hear Reno! I love shooting handheld panos, got quite a few in my latest video! ua-cam.com/video/innjPOBeQvY/v-deo.html Check it out when you have a few spare minutes. Thanks for watching 😁👍
Hello Mike, thank you very much for this to the point demonstration and the comparison between the different methods by their results! Great location as well. I looking forward to my holiday in Wales beginning end of next week. We are going to see and walk the Pembrokeshire coast path first. Kind regards from Germany, Martin
Thanks so much Martin! The Pembrokeshire coast is a fantastic location to explore. If the weather stays as it is, you'll have a fantastic time!! Thanks for watching 😁👍
Great video and tutorial, Mike. I went down the nodal head rabbit hoe a while back thinking that it was a necessity. I borrowed one from a friend and worked out how to use it and took some pano's. Then I realized that for what I was doing, I was getting similar results that I really couldn't tell the difference of when shooting hand held. I am sure they have a use, but I passed and now just take my chances with my regular tripod head or hand held. The combination of my old back and any additional kit was also part of that decision. What a fantastic weather day you had for this one. Hope you and your bride are doing well.
Thanks so much dude! Yep, I went through that exact process ... but I bought all of the kit instead of borrowing it. 😩 It's funny how I get a comment on how I shoot my panos in nearly every video and quite a few people do ask whether I re-shot the pano on a tripod and pretended to do it handheld for the video... The weight really does add up doesn't it ... on those longer hikes, every gram counts...old age gets us all in the end!! 👴 We're all good thanks, I hope you and the family are good too!! 😀👍
Unique video! All I needed to know is the difference between a Nodal and a Tripod/Handheld! My bag is already extremely heavy, so I didn't wanna buy another gear (nodal equipment) just to make a panorama. Now I see no difference, so I'm happy with the result!
Most definitely! The nodal head is great where it let's you know the angle you're shooting at and at night when you can't see much in the viewfinder or you've forgotten your headtorch ... this is when it comes into its own 👍
@@mikesphotography my live view on my cameras is poop, so I just find a nodal head fab, I'm not great at working with angles and overlaps, it really helps me.
Yeah, late comment here; I came across this video researching fluid/ geared heads. I’m glad I did! What an extraordinary video, and beautiful location, and is Mike Smith talented or what?! Handholding those Pano shots like a Robot! Wow! 👍😊 Cheers!
Thanks Nancy! The indexing rotator with the 360 pano head is part of the whole unit ... As for the one I was using with the nodal plate, that one is very old ... but it is pretty much the same as this one amzn.to/3ssAdEM I hope that helps. Thanks for watching 😁👍
Most definitely Tim! I was tempted to go across to Fan Y Big on this outing but ran out of time ... the whole mountain range is such an amazing place to explore! As always thanks for watching 😁👍
Thank you for taking the time to share this information. I have lately started doing more panos and enjoy it very much. What is your 360 Nodal Pan Head model so I can look it up on Amazon?
Hi Richard, Here is a link to the 360 pan head I have: geni.us/360NodalPanHead It does a pretty good job and it's not too expensive either. I hope that helps. Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography Thank you Mike for getting back to me so quickly with the information. I will purchase one soon. I have a few newer products and the quality is excellent.
awesome, i loved this video, i shoot alot of panoramas amd do most of them handheld just as the areas i am in, dont have room for a tripod amd they usually turn out great :) and i also do what you do with the zebra feature as i set my camera up as you showed for the a7iii, love the results :)
That's great to hear Kipp! camera and computer technology is so good these days that they will almost stitch anything together if there is any kind of match ... which is great for us!! As always thanks for watching 😁👍
Nice video Mike. I shoot 360 VR panoramas, and for those, the 360 nodal head is essential, as there are always part of the image close to the camera for which parallax issues with be problematic with the stitching software without the 360 nodal head. I also shoot multi-row bokeh panoramas (Brenizer method) by hand, which include some fairly close foreground, and for these, rotating the camera/lens as close as possible around the nodal point is critical for good stitching. Excluding close foreground as you have in this video, rotating around the nodal point is not critical.
Thanks very much! You're completely right. There is a definite place for nodal Pano heads and 360vr panos are a perfect example of why you would need one. Bokehramas are a lot of fun aren't they...but really do slow my computer down...like you say, you definitely have to be more careful with them when moving the camera between shots when there are foreground elements close to the camera. Thanks for watching 😁👍
Can do focus stacking and pano- together? Guess then pan head would help computer. If nodal point moves significantly during stacking then guessing may need to readjust. Also guessing focus breathing may mess everything up unless do pano- first and then stacking? Have you any comment, advice, experience?
You can definitely do it, and with how good editing programs have become, it'll stitch together almost anything. I'd do it with a tripod, and probably with a Pano head. Then when editing, I'd focus stack each image of the pano first, and then stitch the piano together second. I hope that helps. 👍
Hello Mike, you must have super pano skills doing it hand held! I just got the Andoer ph-720b nodal gimbal rail like in your video. I can’t seem to get the camera in horizontal landscape mode. Is this possible with that Andoer kit? Did you use a L-bracket or fancy adaptors with your Sony on that Andoer multi-row pano equipment.
The nodal pano head is designed for the camera to be in portrait mode so you get a decent amount of vertical resolution. If you want to mount your camera in a landscape orientation, then you would need an L-bracket. Thanks for watching 👍
I tend to shoot most of my panos hand-held and move to my tripod in lower light conditions. Rarely do I have something close enough to worry about parallax.
That's the way I look at it ... and even when things are close, lightroom tends to do a really good job of stitching them together. Thanks for watching 😁👍
Nice debunk of the need for tons of gear. One point to add that I don't see in the first few comments is the need to remove your pol filter. The strength of the polarising effect varies with the angle to the sun and will result in varying exposures even when shooting in manual.
Most definitely Mike, I've made that mistake a few times and it really does make the stitching process a nightmare when you forget to remove the cpl. Thanks for watching 😁👍
Good addition to the pano series, Mike. Content on nodal pan head, a unique plus, not seen much on YT. Had to re-watch the nodal segment to let the concept sink in. Sound advice on uniformity of settings, worthy of mention that LR image tweaks should also be applied equally to each pano shot. Or do you hold off on LR edits and apply them only to the final merged pano? Impressive shots and drone footage.
Thanks very much Paul! I tend to hold off on editing until I have stitched the pano ... although sometimes with certain lenses you do see the vignette lines from each shot within the pano... that's when I'll drop in a lens correction and redo the stitch. If you do an aggressive edit, it can sometimes emphasis this vignette. As always thanks for watching dude 😁👍
Very interesting. I wonder if nodal point in not very usefull when the first plan in really straight. I made a handheld panorama from the beach. The final panorama was like I was on a creek, which means people who were on the straight left side became in FRONT left side and same thing on the right. Close to to me, there is a big monument with very large stairs, after handheld panorama, they become round. Does nodal point fix this issue ?
Do you have a resource on how to combine the images in light room? Is it a feature where lightroom processes the sequence of images automatically, or do you just copy-paste the various images together?
I shoot panos too, and often shoot hand-held. But such shots are only most likely to be successful with there is no overlap (literally one thing in front of another, such as the tree branches in your demo of parallax) in any of the subjects, or if the distance to the subjects is so great, and/or if the angle of view is wide (the wider, the less apparent is the parallax at the sensor plane), that the parallax is minimized to a degree that your stitching app can handle it. Hand-holding is fine under certain conditions, but if you're planning on shooting panos anywhere where foreground and background subject may literally overlap, a nodal rail is a great help. BTW, I do not level my tripod. I have a geared head, and I level only the camera platform on the head. There's a rotating mount on top, to which the camera and rail are attached. Rotation occurs on top of the levelled camera platform, without the need to fuss with levelling the entire tripod. Levelling is dialed in by adjusting just two knobs (pitch and roll - don't bother with yaw, as yawing will be done above the levelled head), and watching the two bubble levels associated with those knobs' use. When using a tripod with a ball head, levelling the tripod requires the user to also level the head. Why not level only one? (You could just level your head too. Put a rotating platform on top, level the tripod head, and you're done.)
When you angle the pano head down, do you change any settings or are they still continued from the same straight panoramic?
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Hi, Personally, I almost always photograph the panorama on at least two lines. It is also good to use bracketing. The main thing is to have a remote trigger. I understand a timer can help but a remote trigger is better.
The remote trigger will definitely speed up the process as you wouldn't have to wait for the 2-5 seconds with the timer... As for bracketing, that all depends on the dynamic range of the scene...when it's huge, bracketing is well worth it, but if the camera is coping with the highlights and shadows throughout the Pano, then there's no need to bracket. Thanks for watching 👍
About 35 years ago I shot a panorama with the Minolta 9000 (film) all on auto settings, of course they were all different shades when I got the print's back, I knew nothing about manual settings and the triangle at the time and couldn't understand it lol I cut them up and stuck them together with Sellotape on the back, crikey, how thing's have changed. All I had to do at that time was notice the settings for the first shot and dial them in for the rest durrr.
Haha! I remember those sellotape and scissors panos!! It's amazing how it has all changed ... I remember doing a pano sequence with a motocross rider in the 90s dropping off a huge hill ... took ages to line them all up right in the picture frame... now it's just a click of a button! Thanks for watching 😁👍
Hi Peter, You need to have a constant exposure over the entire sequence of shots. What I do is check the brightest part of the pano I am going to shoot and then set the exposure in manual mode according to that. Then I keep the setting exactly the same throughout the sequence of shots. This will ensure there are no changes between frames so the computer can stitch them together successfully. If you change the settings so it changes the light meter, you risk not having evenly lit skies and landscapes. I hope that makes sense. Thanks for watching 😁👍
Panos are my favourite images; yep, bought and used tripod leveller and ball head (and even mechanical head for even more accuracy). Manual : hand held and a quick sweep of scene for exposure levels. BB focus then (use focus peaking) then take my series of shots (where necessary I use a tripod etc and exposure bracket each shot > learned this from Henry Turners channel some time ago). Generally works every time. Also loosing from my back pack the other bits of kit lightens my load. I've just 👍 and subscribed ~ good advice from you. I also use LRc; but edit first of the images then select all and 'sync' before pano stitch. Occasionally due to too many images I need to stitch in Photoshop. This is where I could do with some help? How to get PS pano back into my 'working' LRc folder. > thanks for sharing.
Hi James, Panos are a lot of fun aren't they. I love printing out big panos and hanging them on the wall at home! I would create the pano in photoshop and then save it as a tiff file. Then just import it as if you were bringing it in for the first time to lightroom. I hope that helps. Thanks for watching 😁👍
You know it will be a large file size, can we shoot with compress raw to reduced the size a bit and it will easy for computer to work on that quickly or it is "no-no"
Most definitely. I've found that compressed raw files only really fall apart with really under or over exposed shots, so if you take your time to get a good exposure, or if there's good light, you can definitely shoot compressed raw...and if you shoot with canon cameras, they even have smaller sized raw files as well that you can select when doing this technique. 😁👍
Enjoyed the video. I have been pretty successfull with hand holding but I do like a number of you points. Here is my question. What is a good way to shoot a multi row pano. I have some thoughts but need to ask a pro. Your feedback is welcomed and thank you.
Another brill video Mike ,On the a nodal pan head I noticed there are different sizes on sale some longer or wider than other does this matter in any way ?
The longer ones will work on lenses that have the convergence point further from the sensor. The one I have is 200mm long amzn.to/3wfRlOW and it works really well with this indexing rotator amzn.to/3yqjINd and this arca swiss clamp: amzn.to/3kQFB08 I hope that helps Willie 😁👍
Thank you for this tutorial. Handheld, is it better to turn the camera or the body? BTW, how did you find the A7 iV performed? I am contemplating on purchasing one .....
No worries. I don't worry too much about where I turn. I'll just turn my body and make sure there is enough overlap and it seems to work just fine. I really like the A7iv it is a fantastic camera with a lot of amazing functions. I got it so I have a decent video camera as well as a great photography camera, but if I was just using it for landscapes ... I probably would go with the A7riii or A7riv instead. The focussing is amazing, especially the real time tracking but it is a bit of overkill for landscapes. If you also photograph portraits, sports and other genres, the A7iv is well worth it. Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography Thank you, Mike. I am using my current A7iii for a bit of all; Landscape, street, event, travelling .... What I like most about your channel is that you cover a vide range of genres for beginners and advanced photographers alike. Keep it up
15-degree rotation is suitable for a 70 mm full frame lens. 30% overlap, portrait angle of view for 70 mm is about 19.7 degrees, and 4.7degree is for overlap.
Hi Mike, great video! I have been playing around with panoramas a bit lately but have a problem when I am taking seascape panoramas. Often when I merge these together you can see the stitching in the waves. What is the best way to deal with wave movement when taking panoramas? Is long exposure to smooth everything out the only way to deal with this?
Hey James, That's when panos become a little tricky ... It all depends on how fast the waves are moving and how long your exposures are. Like you said, you could either go for a really long exposure, or take a really short exposure and take them all really quickly, starting at the closest frame first. However, this sometimes takes a round-trip to photoshop to get rid of all of the dodgy stitching the computer sometimes does. I might have to do a video on this soon. Thanks for watching 😁👍
Hi Mike. Always so informative yet simply explained. I only have an android tablet and the Lightroom App doesn't seem to have panorama stitching. Are you aware of any alternatives please that can handle RAW and 42mp? Thank you.
Hi David, I don't work much with mobile editing so I don't know of one ... With the 42Mp images, it does take a lot of processing power to stitch them together so I'm guessing it is a process reserved for the desktop version of lightroom. I will look into this though as I want to move across to using a tablet for editing whilst on the move. Sorry I couldn't help more and thanks for watching 😁👍
In theory it could ... I'd stand back and use something like a 50mm prime lens at about f8-f11 and shoot a lot of images of each section. I'd even practice with the chair setup before the kids are anywhere near the chairs, so I'd know where each shot will sit and how many shots I'd need to get the coverage. If you were using a flash, then that would really complicate things, but if you were using natural light it would definitely be doable. I'd also have a wide angle lens and get some backups as well so you have something to fall back on if it didn't quite work out. The best thing in a high stress shooting environment like that is to do a load of practice shots before hand. I was in Saudi photographing some of the CEOs of the big banking corporations a while back and that was a super high stressed shoot. 5 minutes to get the whole thing, but because I had a lot of practice beforehand, I knew exactly what I was doing so it made the job very manageable. I hope that makes sense and I hope it helps. Thanks for watching 😁👍
Well, spherical will do better (detection and results) for handheld because you will be moving up and down slightly, cylindrical will work best on one axis which is not 100% possible by hand.
Most definitely, keep everything manual for panos and you will get good results ... I did forget to mention white balance. I just keep mine in daylight all the time and then make my WB choices in post ... probably from those early digital cameras having really bad auto WB 😆 ... nowadays the auto WB is fantastic though! Thanks for watching 😁👍
I have the problem that my tripod has no spirit level for the horizontal. How do I always get the horizon straight? I often have the problem that I then have a shift in the image when I turn the tripod head.
The best way to get around that is to buy one of these plates that goes inbetween the tripod legs and tripod head: amzn.to/3TYclng I had one a while back and it did help. Thanks for watching 😁👍
My goal is to shoot some pano's and in preparation for doing this I have some of the kit you used. My problem is post production. Sadly my copy of Lightroom 5.7 does not stitch images together and I refuse to pay Adobe monthly just for this feature. May I ask if you know of any software that I can learn to use to create pano's?
It is unfortunate that 5.7 doesn't stitch panos together. I've heard that Hugin is a good program: hugin.sourceforge.io/ PTGui is also good but I think that is a paid option. ptgui.com/ I actually have a video planned about this very subject, of stitching images together without adobe ... so make sure you keep an eye out for that one later in the year. Thanks for watching Frank 😁👍
I have one very similar to this from smallrig. amzn.to/3YTVZzP The only difference is that my one has a red smallrig badge on the front whereas this new one has a white logo. I hope that helps. Thanks for watching 😁👍
No worries... it doesn't seem to be on the .com version of amazon. Here is the link for European amazon: geni.us/360nodalheadEurope and if you get things of amazon.com, here is an equivalent I have found: geni.us/360nodalheadUS I hope that helps. 😁👍
Nodal rails have no advantage with landscapes where everything is a long way away, I've never had a stitching problem doing handheld in that situation but as soon as there's something like a fence with vertical and horizontal parts or something within a few metres similar a Nodal is best but I only use Microsoft ICE for stitching
That is true...I made this one as a lot of people were asking me in other videos if I actually stitched the handheld panos together successfully or not ... it's amazing how many people didn't think it was possible without a nodal rail. Thanks for watching Rob 😁👍
When you are at a location, make sure you get about a third of the frame overlapping. once you work out what that angle is, then you can set the head to that angle and it will do the rest for you. Thanks for watching 😁👍
August 1990 Popular Photography article - parallax-free (single row) panoramas. No PTGUI, just prints, scissors, and tape, with a homemade camera vertical holding bracket and focusing rail. It is online.
I remember doing that in the 90s with my EOS 5. Cutting and gluing with some motocross event shots over big jumps ... great fun!! Thanks for watching 😁👍
Haha! Maybe less coffee in the morning?😆😆 When that shutter speed drops too low, I definitely switch to the tripod!! As always thanks for watching Villiam 😁👍
Lol, at least I have the ability to keep the camera steady for at least two seconds ... Your 2016 Visegrad Medieval Festival video felt like I was on a rollercoaster. 🙈 Good luck with the trolling in the future sig 😁👍
@@mikesphotography wow :) Good for you mate... It is something you should be really proud of. You can do a better job shooting a video than I did with a mobile phone made about 8 years ago :D Now be a godd boy and go shoot another video where you are spreading misinformation :)
Panorama demystified at last without so much talk and
with the authority of a professional... Thank you very much.
Thanks so much Alvaro!! 😁👍
Well said
Perfect video as always. What I like most about Mike's videos is that he doesn't miss any part of the issue. Many UA-camrs explain only a part and deliberately leave out some details because they explain them in their paid courses.
Thanks very much, great to hear you are liking my videos!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Well said
I just went on a weeklong road trip and shot multiple panos, only one of which I used my tripod for. Capture 1 had zero problems stitching any of them. I got some amazing shots of the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon on this trip! I think the biggest tip is the one you showed about getting the exposure right and switching to manual focus.
Great to hear about your experiences Judy!
It definitely is a case of getting the right settings in the camera and taking your time shooting them.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Thanks for the hike.. It's good for us, and it's good for you..
No worries Chuck, it definitely was worth it!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
You have a nice clear and informative way of explaining things without alot of non essential fluff.
Thanks very much Mark, great to hear you like my videos!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
great video, thanks Mike. Enough detail. good audio and not too much music. no flaff.
Thanks for your kind words John!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
First! 'Liked' before watching as always, look forward to all your videos!
Haha! Thanks so much Joe!! 😁👍
I really appreciate your effort to hike off and set up the camera for the engaging b roll! Pretty cool to see you get creative with no extra gear!
Haha! Thanks very much Nick! It was very much a hard slog up Cribyn but worth it!! It's all good fun trying to get creative with the B-roll ... The tricky thing is to fly the drone whilst walking and trying not to look like I'm flying the drone!! 😆
Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography incredible! I didn't realize those first couple shots were from the drone, especially cuz you were powering up that peak!
Haha! Well the great thing with editing is that I can cut out all the breaks and times when I'm completely out of breath!! 😆😆😆
Hi Mike, thanks for a really excellent video, demonstrating and explaining the different options succinctly. I shoot a lot in forests, so am obliged to mainly use a nodal rail on a ball head. A tripod levelling base was a useful addition and speeded up my setup. For "normal" shots with a lot of detail, I often use a sharp prime lens taking 3-4 pano shots in portrait orientation than just a single shot with a wide zoom lens in landscape orientation.
Hi David,
Thanks very much!
In forests it's definitely a must to have a nodal rail, and like you said a leveling plate comes in really handy.
I bet you get a lot more detail using the prime lens instead of a single shot with a wide angle lens.
Thanks for sharing your process with us and thanks for watching 😁👍
I do the same thing! It's like every lens can become a wide angle lens using this technique, but with far more detail!
Fantastic how-to video! I'm gonna give your hand-held method a try in a couple of weeks.
Thanks so much Dan! It's well worth it, and as long as everything is in manual mode and you get good focus, it should stitch really easily.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
The pano head Neewer Gimbal Head Panoramic Head $109 is so worth it. I use at night for Astro Milky Way's to do 200+ degree panos set at 15 degree stops using the base stepper. At night you can feel the next step and allows the NR function moving to next stop during NR and a pano at night where as looking at the camera screen and finding the next stop visually is very hard in the dark of night new moon. The other nice thing is there is there are 10 degree up and down prefect for landscape wide but 2 stops high for a vertical milky way. The 15 degree steps is great for lightroom NOW can stitch before the only program to do panos is/was PTGui Pro (once bought good for life of updates) it has more profiles to use. A 12 to 24mm can be used without a parallax rail so the new camera rotator landscape to portrait replacement for a L- bracket can be used without a parallax rail also.
Thanks for sharing all your findings. You're right about panos at night. It is so much easier to get the correct positioning with the tactile feel of the clicks from a pano head. A specialised bit of kit that is very much needed in that case.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Thanks Mike! I always wondered what is the difference, thanks for the detailed explanation!
No worries, thanks for watching! 😁👍
Thanks for simplifying a complex subject and making it understandable. Well done. 👍
No worries. Thanks for watching Thomas. 😁👍
Perfect timing on this video as I was thinking about doing an astrophotography panorama shot of the milky way!
No worries Joe, I do have a video on astro panoramas as well ... check it out when you get the chance! ua-cam.com/video/FxpGrfyAdrM/v-deo.html
Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography You're he Man Mike! 👍
Wow! Just found this video. I really enjoyed it. Very informative. It highlights the fact that we do not always need fancy gear, especially nowadays with the powerful features of post processing software. Just subscribed.
Exactly. It's all about getting out there and using what you have.
Thanks for watching and subscribing. 😁👍
Thank you for all the content that you have shared. Very useful and practical.
And thank you for watching!!
Interesting. Never heard of a Nodal head but that's neat! Always looking for a good pano!
Thanks dude! They are also known as a panorama tripod head ... but aren't really needed these days as the editing programs are so sophisticated! Panos are fantastic and so satisfying when you get a good one!
As always thanks for watching 😁👍
Loved the tutorial on this subject . I'm going to try both handheld and tripod . As always, I look forward to all of your videos because I learn from each of them and I can't say thanks enough.
That's great to hear Alonzo! They are definitely worth trying out with and without the tripod...and very satisfying when you get a good one!!
As always thanks for watching 😁👍
A great compilation! I thought I knew everything about this topic, now it turns out that I have learned a lot again. Thank you very much for this!
Thanks very much! Great to hear I could help!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Thank you Mike, very useful information. This morning I had to try it out and made a handheld camera panorama with nine images stitched together. Used LIghtroom and it came out perfect.
That's awesome to hear Reno! I love shooting handheld panos, got quite a few in my latest video! ua-cam.com/video/innjPOBeQvY/v-deo.html
Check it out when you have a few spare minutes.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Hello Mike, thank you very much for this to the point demonstration and the comparison between the different methods by their results! Great location as well. I looking forward to my holiday in Wales beginning end of next week. We are going to see and walk the Pembrokeshire coast path first. Kind regards from Germany, Martin
Thanks so much Martin! The Pembrokeshire coast is a fantastic location to explore. If the weather stays as it is, you'll have a fantastic time!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Excellent demo, I agree your handhelds were better than Nodal/tripod panos. Excellent tips 👍
Thanks so much Sue, great to hear you agree! I am glad this one turned out ok as my bags will be lighter for hiking!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Great video and tutorial, Mike. I went down the nodal head rabbit hoe a while back thinking that it was a necessity. I borrowed one from a friend and worked out how to use it and took some pano's. Then I realized that for what I was doing, I was getting similar results that I really couldn't tell the difference of when shooting hand held. I am sure they have a use, but I passed and now just take my chances with my regular tripod head or hand held. The combination of my old back and any additional kit was also part of that decision. What a fantastic weather day you had for this one. Hope you and your bride are doing well.
Thanks so much dude! Yep, I went through that exact process ... but I bought all of the kit instead of borrowing it. 😩 It's funny how I get a comment on how I shoot my panos in nearly every video and quite a few people do ask whether I re-shot the pano on a tripod and pretended to do it handheld for the video...
The weight really does add up doesn't it ... on those longer hikes, every gram counts...old age gets us all in the end!! 👴
We're all good thanks, I hope you and the family are good too!! 😀👍
Unique video! All I needed to know is the difference between a Nodal and a Tripod/Handheld! My bag is already extremely heavy, so I didn't wanna buy another gear (nodal equipment) just to make a panorama. Now I see no difference, so I'm happy with the result!
Hello Mike - I learn a lot from your video tutorials. Thanks for sharing!!!
Fantastic tutorial and very informative without being over the top. Great video!
Thanks very much, I'm glad you enjoyed it. 😁👍
Nice shots, you were brave walking up the ridge, I find the nodal head is great for night sky panos when's it's harder to eyeball the right overlap.
Most definitely! The nodal head is great where it let's you know the angle you're shooting at and at night when you can't see much in the viewfinder or you've forgotten your headtorch ... this is when it comes into its own 👍
@@mikesphotography my live view on my cameras is poop, so I just find a nodal head fab, I'm not great at working with angles and overlaps, it really helps me.
Thank you for the great video, Mike. Stay safe.
No worries, thanks for watching Lance!!
Thanks Mike, all the best 👍
And thank you for watching 😁👍
Yeah, late comment here; I came across this video researching fluid/ geared heads. I’m glad I did! What an extraordinary video, and beautiful location, and is Mike Smith talented or what?!
Handholding those Pano shots like a Robot! Wow! 👍😊 Cheers!
Excellent info, thanks for posting this video! Can you share what indexing rotator you were using, please? TIA!
Thanks Nancy! The indexing rotator with the 360 pano head is part of the whole unit ... As for the one I was using with the nodal plate, that one is very old ... but it is pretty much the same as this one amzn.to/3ssAdEM
I hope that helps.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Cant beat a bit of snow on PEN Y FAN, i think it bring the best out of the mountains especially from FAN Y BIG.
Most definitely Tim! I was tempted to go across to Fan Y Big on this outing but ran out of time ... the whole mountain range is such an amazing place to explore!
As always thanks for watching 😁👍
Thanks mike
And thank you for watching 😁👍
Will keep it short this week. Nice! 😂
Haha! Now UA-cam will allow you this one...😆
Thanks...very helpful Video on Panos!
Thanks Ken! 😁👍
Thank you for taking the time to share this information. I have lately started doing more panos and enjoy it very much. What is your 360 Nodal Pan Head model so I can look it up on Amazon?
Hi Richard,
Here is a link to the 360 pan head I have: geni.us/360NodalPanHead
It does a pretty good job and it's not too expensive either.
I hope that helps.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography Thank you Mike for getting back to me so quickly with the information. I will purchase one soon. I have a few newer products and the quality is excellent.
No worries at all, glad to be able to help. Neweer do produce some good accessories don't they. 👍
awesome, i loved this video, i shoot alot of panoramas amd do most of them handheld just as the areas i am in, dont have room for a tripod amd they usually turn out great :) and i also do what you do with the zebra feature as i set my camera up as you showed for the a7iii, love the results :)
That's great to hear Kipp! camera and computer technology is so good these days that they will almost stitch anything together if there is any kind of match ... which is great for us!!
As always thanks for watching 😁👍
Nice video Mike. I shoot 360 VR panoramas, and for those, the 360 nodal head is essential, as there are always part of the image close to the camera for which parallax issues with be problematic with the stitching software without the 360 nodal head. I also shoot multi-row bokeh panoramas (Brenizer method) by hand, which include some fairly close foreground, and for these, rotating the camera/lens as close as possible around the nodal point is critical for good stitching. Excluding close foreground as you have in this video, rotating around the nodal point is not critical.
Thanks very much!
You're completely right. There is a definite place for nodal Pano heads and 360vr panos are a perfect example of why you would need one.
Bokehramas are a lot of fun aren't they...but really do slow my computer down...like you say, you definitely have to be more careful with them when moving the camera between shots when there are foreground elements close to the camera.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Can do focus stacking and pano- together?
Guess then pan head would help computer.
If nodal point moves significantly during stacking then guessing may need to readjust.
Also guessing focus breathing may mess everything up unless do pano- first and then stacking?
Have you any comment, advice, experience?
You can definitely do it, and with how good editing programs have become, it'll stitch together almost anything.
I'd do it with a tripod, and probably with a Pano head. Then when editing, I'd focus stack each image of the pano first, and then stitch the piano together second.
I hope that helps. 👍
Hello Mike, you must have super pano skills doing it hand held! I just got the Andoer ph-720b nodal gimbal rail like in your video. I can’t seem to get the camera in horizontal landscape mode. Is this possible with that Andoer kit? Did you use a L-bracket or fancy adaptors with your Sony on that Andoer multi-row pano equipment.
The nodal pano head is designed for the camera to be in portrait mode so you get a decent amount of vertical resolution. If you want to mount your camera in a landscape orientation, then you would need an L-bracket.
Thanks for watching 👍
Hi Mike, great video. What make is your nodal pan head?
I tend to shoot most of my panos hand-held and move to my tripod in lower light conditions. Rarely do I have something close enough to worry about parallax.
That's the way I look at it ... and even when things are close, lightroom tends to do a really good job of stitching them together.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Nice debunk of the need for tons of gear. One point to add that I don't see in the first few comments is the need to remove your pol filter. The strength of the polarising effect varies with the angle to the sun and will result in varying exposures even when shooting in manual.
Most definitely Mike, I've made that mistake a few times and it really does make the stitching process a nightmare when you forget to remove the cpl.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Awesome video indeed
Thanks very much Suhail! 😁👍
Good addition to the pano series, Mike. Content on nodal pan head, a unique plus, not seen much on YT. Had to re-watch the nodal segment to let the concept sink in. Sound advice on uniformity of settings, worthy of mention that LR image tweaks should also be applied equally to each pano shot. Or do you hold off on LR edits and apply them only to the final merged pano? Impressive shots and drone footage.
Thanks very much Paul! I tend to hold off on editing until I have stitched the pano ... although sometimes with certain lenses you do see the vignette lines from each shot within the pano... that's when I'll drop in a lens correction and redo the stitch. If you do an aggressive edit, it can sometimes emphasis this vignette.
As always thanks for watching dude 😁👍
Great walkthrough. Thanks for the vid. 📷📸
Amazing. Thank you.
No worries Greg, Thanks for watching 😁👍
Fantastic video. Succinct, informative.
I find the nodal rail useful for woodland stuff but I probably wouldn't take it up a mountain, just excess weight that I'd almost never need.
Exactly. All those bits of extra weight really add up when out on a long hike!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Very interesting. I wonder if nodal point in not very usefull when the first plan in really straight. I made a handheld panorama from the beach. The final panorama was like I was on a creek, which means people who were on the straight left side became in FRONT left side and same thing on the right. Close to to me, there is a big monument with very large stairs, after handheld panorama, they become round. Does nodal point fix this issue ?
Do you have a resource on how to combine the images in light room? Is it a feature where lightroom processes the sequence of images automatically, or do you just copy-paste the various images together?
Hi Andrew, in this video at 6:19 I quickly show you how to stitch them together.
Thanks for watching 👍
I shoot panos too, and often shoot hand-held. But such shots are only most likely to be successful with there is no overlap (literally one thing in front of another, such as the tree branches in your demo of parallax) in any of the subjects, or if the distance to the subjects is so great, and/or if the angle of view is wide (the wider, the less apparent is the parallax at the sensor plane), that the parallax is minimized to a degree that your stitching app can handle it. Hand-holding is fine under certain conditions, but if you're planning on shooting panos anywhere where foreground and background subject may literally overlap, a nodal rail is a great help.
BTW, I do not level my tripod. I have a geared head, and I level only the camera platform on the head. There's a rotating mount on top, to which the camera and rail are attached. Rotation occurs on top of the levelled camera platform, without the need to fuss with levelling the entire tripod. Levelling is dialed in by adjusting just two knobs (pitch and roll - don't bother with yaw, as yawing will be done above the levelled head), and watching the two bubble levels associated with those knobs' use. When using a tripod with a ball head, levelling the tripod requires the user to also level the head. Why not level only one? (You could just level your head too. Put a rotating platform on top, level the tripod head, and you're done.)
When you angle the pano head down, do you change any settings or are they still continued from the same straight panoramic?
Hi,
Personally, I almost always photograph the panorama on at least two lines. It is also good to use bracketing. The main thing is to have a remote trigger. I understand a timer can help but a remote trigger is better.
The remote trigger will definitely speed up the process as you wouldn't have to wait for the 2-5 seconds with the timer...
As for bracketing, that all depends on the dynamic range of the scene...when it's huge, bracketing is well worth it, but if the camera is coping with the highlights and shadows throughout the Pano, then there's no need to bracket.
Thanks for watching 👍
About 35 years ago I shot a panorama with the Minolta 9000 (film) all on auto settings, of course they were all different shades when I got the print's back, I knew nothing about manual settings and the triangle at the time and couldn't understand it lol I cut them up and stuck them together with Sellotape on the back, crikey, how thing's have changed. All I had to do at that time was notice the settings for the first shot and dial them in for the rest durrr.
Haha! I remember those sellotape and scissors panos!! It's amazing how it has all changed ... I remember doing a pano sequence with a motocross rider in the 90s dropping off a huge hill ... took ages to line them all up right in the picture frame... now it's just a click of a button!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Mike do you check and adjust the light meter for each photo through the panning
Hi Peter,
You need to have a constant exposure over the entire sequence of shots. What I do is check the brightest part of the pano I am going to shoot and then set the exposure in manual mode according to that. Then I keep the setting exactly the same throughout the sequence of shots. This will ensure there are no changes between frames so the computer can stitch them together successfully.
If you change the settings so it changes the light meter, you risk not having evenly lit skies and landscapes.
I hope that makes sense.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Panos are my favourite images; yep, bought and used tripod leveller and ball head (and even mechanical head for even more accuracy). Manual : hand held and a quick sweep of scene for exposure levels. BB focus then (use focus peaking) then take my series of shots (where necessary I use a tripod etc and exposure bracket each shot > learned this from Henry Turners channel some time ago). Generally works every time. Also loosing from my back pack the other bits of kit lightens my load. I've just 👍 and subscribed ~ good advice from you. I also use LRc; but edit first of the images then select all and 'sync' before pano stitch. Occasionally due to too many images I need to stitch in Photoshop. This is where I could do with some help? How to get PS pano back into my 'working' LRc folder. > thanks for sharing.
Hi James,
Panos are a lot of fun aren't they. I love printing out big panos and hanging them on the wall at home!
I would create the pano in photoshop and then save it as a tiff file. Then just import it as if you were bringing it in for the first time to lightroom.
I hope that helps.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography TIF file ... thanks and I understand; I will do this on my next hike if I take a pano or two...
You know it will be a large file size, can we shoot with compress raw to reduced the size a bit and it will easy for computer to work on that quickly or it is "no-no"
Most definitely. I've found that compressed raw files only really fall apart with really under or over exposed shots, so if you take your time to get a good exposure, or if there's good light, you can definitely shoot compressed raw...and if you shoot with canon cameras, they even have smaller sized raw files as well that you can select when doing this technique. 😁👍
Enjoyed the video. I have been pretty successfull with hand holding but I do like a number of you points. Here is my question. What is a good way to shoot a multi row pano. I have some thoughts but need to ask a pro. Your feedback is welcomed and thank you.
Brilliant!
Another brill video Mike ,On the a nodal pan head I noticed there are different sizes on sale some longer or wider than other does this matter in any way ?
The longer ones will work on lenses that have the convergence point further from the sensor. The one I have is 200mm long amzn.to/3wfRlOW and it works really well with this indexing rotator amzn.to/3yqjINd and this arca swiss clamp: amzn.to/3kQFB08
I hope that helps Willie 😁👍
@@mikesphotography Thanks so much :)
Question sir, with the nodal pan head under a heavy camera and lens, will it be stable and likely not shake?
Thank you for this tutorial. Handheld, is it better to turn the camera or the body? BTW, how did you find the A7 iV performed? I am contemplating on purchasing one .....
No worries. I don't worry too much about where I turn. I'll just turn my body and make sure there is enough overlap and it seems to work just fine.
I really like the A7iv it is a fantastic camera with a lot of amazing functions. I got it so I have a decent video camera as well as a great photography camera, but if I was just using it for landscapes ... I probably would go with the A7riii or A7riv instead.
The focussing is amazing, especially the real time tracking but it is a bit of overkill for landscapes. If you also photograph portraits, sports and other genres, the A7iv is well worth it.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography Thank you, Mike. I am using my current A7iii for a bit of all; Landscape, street, event, travelling .... What I like
most about your channel is that you cover a vide range of genres for beginners and advanced photographers alike. Keep it up
15-degree rotation is suitable for a 70 mm full frame lens. 30% overlap, portrait angle of view for 70 mm is about 19.7 degrees, and 4.7degree is for overlap.
Thanks for the info
Hi Mike, great video! I have been playing around with panoramas a bit lately but have a problem when I am taking seascape panoramas. Often when I merge these together you can see the stitching in the waves. What is the best way to deal with wave movement when taking panoramas? Is long exposure to smooth everything out the only way to deal with this?
Hey James,
That's when panos become a little tricky ... It all depends on how fast the waves are moving and how long your exposures are.
Like you said, you could either go for a really long exposure, or take a really short exposure and take them all really quickly, starting at the closest frame first. However, this sometimes takes a round-trip to photoshop to get rid of all of the dodgy stitching the computer sometimes does.
I might have to do a video on this soon.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Hi Mike. Always so informative yet simply explained. I only have an android tablet and the Lightroom App doesn't seem to have panorama stitching. Are you aware of any alternatives please that can handle RAW and 42mp? Thank you.
Hi David, I don't work much with mobile editing so I don't know of one ... With the 42Mp images, it does take a lot of processing power to stitch them together so I'm guessing it is a process reserved for the desktop version of lightroom.
I will look into this though as I want to move across to using a tablet for editing whilst on the move.
Sorry I couldn't help more and thanks for watching 😁👍
Excellent audio!
Thanks very much.
. . . and perhaps a shutter release cable with the tripod?
Amazing video!!
Thanks very much Juan Carlos! Looks like you've been binge watching my videos today!! Thank you very much for your time!! 😀👍
@@mikesphotography oh, yes!! it was time very well spent, as ever I watch your videos.❤️❤️❤️
Awesome!! Thanks so much. 😁👍
does this work for a high school panoramic picture? What is the proper lens to shoot something like that?
In theory it could ... I'd stand back and use something like a 50mm prime lens at about f8-f11 and shoot a lot of images of each section.
I'd even practice with the chair setup before the kids are anywhere near the chairs, so I'd know where each shot will sit and how many shots I'd need to get the coverage.
If you were using a flash, then that would really complicate things, but if you were using natural light it would definitely be doable.
I'd also have a wide angle lens and get some backups as well so you have something to fall back on if it didn't quite work out.
The best thing in a high stress shooting environment like that is to do a load of practice shots before hand.
I was in Saudi photographing some of the CEOs of the big banking corporations a while back and that was a super high stressed shoot. 5 minutes to get the whole thing, but because I had a lot of practice beforehand, I knew exactly what I was doing so it made the job very manageable.
I hope that makes sense and I hope it helps.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography Thank you so much for your response! I will definitely apply that to the shoot!
Well, spherical will do better (detection and results) for handheld because you will be moving up and down slightly, cylindrical will work best on one axis which is not 100% possible by hand.
For panorama photography maybe I should go out of WB Auto (I normaly use WB Auto).
Most definitely, keep everything manual for panos and you will get good results ... I did forget to mention white balance. I just keep mine in daylight all the time and then make my WB choices in post ... probably from those early digital cameras having really bad auto WB 😆 ... nowadays the auto WB is fantastic though!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
I have the problem that my tripod has no spirit level for the horizontal. How do I always get the horizon straight? I often have the problem that I then have a shift in the image when I turn the tripod head.
The best way to get around that is to buy one of these plates that goes inbetween the tripod legs and tripod head: amzn.to/3TYclng
I had one a while back and it did help.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography this is awesome! Thanks man! Theres really nothing that the internet does not have!
My goal is to shoot some pano's and in preparation for doing this I have some of the kit you used. My problem is post production. Sadly my copy of Lightroom 5.7 does not stitch images together and I refuse to pay Adobe monthly just for this feature.
May I ask if you know of any software that I can learn to use to create pano's?
It is unfortunate that 5.7 doesn't stitch panos together.
I've heard that Hugin is a good program: hugin.sourceforge.io/
PTGui is also good but I think that is a paid option. ptgui.com/
I actually have a video planned about this very subject, of stitching images together without adobe ... so make sure you keep an eye out for that one later in the year.
Thanks for watching Frank 😁👍
You can do the other rows with only the rail too, can't you? Just have the nodal slide points for each row pre measured and annotated.
Hi. What camera cage are you using?
I have one very similar to this from smallrig. amzn.to/3YTVZzP
The only difference is that my one has a red smallrig badge on the front whereas this new one has a white logo.
I hope that helps.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Can you give me link for this panaroma head? I can’t find it
No worries... it doesn't seem to be on the .com version of amazon. Here is the link for European amazon: geni.us/360nodalheadEurope
and if you get things of amazon.com, here is an equivalent I have found: geni.us/360nodalheadUS
I hope that helps. 😁👍
Is it me or did that good morning sound a bit like Neil (Nigel Planter) from the young ones? “Good morning Vivian”.
Haha! Best show ever!! 😆😆😆
@@mikesphotography it was!!
Nodal rails have no advantage with landscapes where everything is a long way away, I've never had a stitching problem doing handheld in that situation but as soon as there's something like a fence with vertical and horizontal parts or something within a few metres similar a Nodal is best but I only use Microsoft ICE for stitching
That is true...I made this one as a lot of people were asking me in other videos if I actually stitched the handheld panos together successfully or not ... it's amazing how many people didn't think it was possible without a nodal rail.
Thanks for watching Rob 😁👍
What's the best way to determine how many degrees to pan your ball head for each shot for different focal lengths?
When you are at a location, make sure you get about a third of the frame overlapping. once you work out what that angle is, then you can set the head to that angle and it will do the rest for you.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Hi Mr Mike
Nice video. And a big thank you for keeping us motivated. I get motivated whenever you pushed us to do it.
That's great to hear my videos are helping!!
As always thanks for watching 😁👍
Hand pano is good if you exposure allow you to avoid handshake)))
One thing you didn't mention is to set the white balance. Don't use auto white balance.
🤩
😁🤙
August 1990 Popular Photography article - parallax-free (single row) panoramas. No PTGUI, just prints, scissors, and tape, with a homemade camera vertical holding bracket and focusing rail. It is online.
I remember doing that in the 90s with my EOS 5. Cutting and gluing with some motocross event shots over big jumps ... great fun!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
What lenses do you feel are best suited for panoramas.
If you have a very stable body and hands, yes 😉 but for most of us, tripod is better 😊
Haha! Maybe less coffee in the morning?😆😆
When that shutter speed drops too low, I definitely switch to the tripod!!
As always thanks for watching Villiam 😁👍
@@mikesphotography I don't drink coffee 😊 but had a too wild youth 😅
@@bamsemh1 Haha! Excellent! 😁
Handheld panorama shooting from 3:50
Why dont you show us an example with some trees or flowers in the foreplan. You will see the real difference with a nodal.
Thanks for your thoughts Gilles
Read this too fast- read paranormal photography
Haha!! I don't think there were any ghosts out there ... 🤔
wow... 100k subscribers... that is 100k people getting realy bad advise
Lol, at least I have the ability to keep the camera steady for at least two seconds ... Your 2016 Visegrad Medieval Festival video felt like I was on a rollercoaster. 🙈
Good luck with the trolling in the future sig 😁👍
@@mikesphotography wow :) Good for you mate... It is something you should be really proud of. You can do a better job shooting a video than I did with a mobile phone made about 8 years ago :D Now be a godd boy and go shoot another video where you are spreading misinformation :)
Haha!! OK Sigmund Troll. 😆👍
@@mikesphotography -Agree! Only got through about a minute of it.