My Autopano Pro forum

scott wrote:

Hi all

Please look at my first project posted on the gigapan site.

http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php? … width=1263

i especially need advice with the render settings. i dont intend to print any projects as i will upload anything i do to the gigapan website. i used Autopano Giga 2

Render settings used

. (i dont really understand the settings below)
Output size set to 51%
Depth: 8bits
Dpi: 300

Image info

245 input images.
Size: 108032 x 22068
FOV: 95.63 x 25.40
Projection: Planar
Colour: LDR

I don't understand why you would shoot at full/max. size then reduce the size to 51% when rendering? You might as well have shot at a lower res. in the first place, or shot fewer at full res. and less zoom.

WRT rendering settings, Dpi doesn't matter - that's a print 'thing'.

If you plan to do a lot of these, it's a lot easier to shoot such large numbers of images if you have a motorised pano head.

Last edited by mediavets (2009-05-19 12:51:14)

scott wrote:

Render settings used (i dont really understand the settings below.)
Output size set to 51%
Depth: 8bits
Dpi: 300

DPI setting is useless if you don't print and can be changed when printing: just ignore it.

8 bits depth corresponds to color accuracy: 16 bits is sometimes preferable for intermediary steps when strong post-processing is needed but as a rule 8 bits is enough (faster processing, smaller files.)

Output size do matter: only a 100% setting will ensure that the smalest details your camera recorded are visible in the final result. As the Gigapan site (contrary to most pano sites) enable very large images being displayed at full size, this 100% setting is highly recommended for Gigapan.

Test to see at which aperture your images are sharpest, or look online for a review of your lens.
The higher the f number, the greater your depth of field, meaning more is in focus.

Metering mode - doesn't really matter since you should adjust it manually anyway. You might want to use spot metering to expose for the brightest part of the sky, and then bracket for the darker ground. If you do not want to lock exposure, you might want to use multi.

wjh31 wrote:

a fail-safe to the black parts, other than what john_sauter said is to shoot just a couple of shots at a low focal length that take in the whole scene, either at the begining or the end of the shoot. Then if you do have any holes, you can use these images to fill them in in post processing. They wont have as good resolution, but it's better than having black holes. Its also an option for when you want to fill in sky, which often you probably wont want to zoom into alot

I've just got Photoshop Elements 7 and want to try what wjh31 wrote above, I've never used Photoshop before so would it be difficult for a novice to fill in the black holes as suggested above or is it pretty straight forward to suss out how to do it.

Scott

I’ve just got myself a copy CS4 because large files don’t open in Elements 7. I’ve learnt how to make the black bits transparent and I also have a low res image I can use to layer it underneath however I don’t actually know how to add a low res image to a layer and then layer it underneath my main image. Any help here would be very much appreciated.

Regards
Scott