Destiny's Thailand Adventure

[Destiny]

Destiny's Thailand Adventure

by Destiny » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:26 pm

Hi..

I will post a few of my photos I shot during my epic Thailand adventure where I visited some beautiful and amazing places.. APG handled some of my images really well but snuggled with others for some reason.. I think its the handheld images processed using Photomatix which is the issue.. The images where I used my NN4, APG seems to handle much better..

The black and white pano is of an old fishing village at Ko Samui. There was a huge buffalo wading in the swamp to the right but by the time I got my camera out it moved on.. I will remember this photo for the fact that my husband John dropped my D800 and cracked the metal casing.. He lost my footing to make way for an elephant.. Its ok, we had travel insurance..

The tower is of the Kuala-Lumpur-Public-Bank-Tower-By-Night... I was very lucky to capture this image since I was soon told that I could not use a tripod.. I wanted to capture the Twin Towers but I had to capture it hand held.. I will see how they process later.. This tower seem to admit a mist, not sure if it was in the air and the light of the tower made it visible or it was coming from the tower itself..

I posted the Prasat Hin Mueang Tam, 'stone castle of the humble city' in another post but I thought I would post it here too since I have many images of this city to process. Just amazing.. Over 1,300 years old as I understand it to be.. The king of Thailand or should I say, Siam in those days, lived in it...

Destiny..

[Destiny]

by Destiny » Mon Apr 01, 2013 1:34 pm

Hi, its not the the quality of the Twin Tower photo here I need advice on since I realise its not the best.. It would have been better if they hadn't stopped me using my tripod.. This is a single exposure hand held X 5 shots using a D800 with 14-24.. I was expecting apg to handle this easily but I am getting better results using PTGui.. I really do not know why the images are distorted using apg.. I have tried auto, flat and other settings but something is wrong..

Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong..

Destiny..

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Mon Apr 01, 2013 1:58 pm

Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong..

When you intend to do a geometrical (!) correction afterwards you need to shoot symmetrically.
That means: 1 row at 0° and an equal number of rows up and down - let´s say 3 up and 3 down.
Of course you don´t need the down-row´s image-content. But you need the geometrics for doing a
correction.

I wrote that several times here.

The way you seem to have shot you most likely wouldn´t get it corrected in acceptable quality.

best, Klaus

Last edited by klausesser on Mon Apr 01, 2013 1:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:21 pm

It would have been better if they hadn't stopped me using my tripod..

From a collegue - architectural photographer - i know that he contacts the authorities in advance and payes a rather small fee for being allowed to use a tripod in the streets.
He got a signed permission he could show to any police-officer. Usually they just want to have control and earn some bucks.

Anyway preferable to act this way in each major city around the world these days.

Nevertheless he always carry a monopod in the camera-bag - this has a small collapsable tripod-foot attached at the bottom which is barely recognizable.
http://www.outdooreyes.com/photo5.php3

best, Klaus

Last edited by klausesser on Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Destiny]

by Destiny » Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:49 am

Hi..

What I was asking is why apg distorts my handheld images where PTGui doesn't.. My Thai Castle is also fine using PTGui but apg squishes it down.. The first image of the Twin Towers above is PTGui, the second is using apg..

I really do not get the tripod thing.. I know they do not want video but I was just shooting stills. After all, photos enticed others to visit.. Not that I would bother with Kuala Lumpur Malaysia ever again.. Smelly place, just one big building site.. Many building so close to each other they go mouldy very quickly.. I would have thought to allow tourist to capture great photos would be to their advantage... I did not have any issues in Thailand.. I really wish I had a big zoom lens.. and next time I will take my VR Drive and use my 35mm... Not that I can process them with my Mac mem...

Destiny..

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:12 am

What I was asking is why apg distorts my handheld images where PTGui doesn't..

Different settings for projection?

best, Klaus

[Destiny]

by Destiny » Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:40 am

Tried that.. Still no good.. I made sure my lens was chosen too.. Often an ultra wide angle lens in apg is recognises as a fisheye... I have also tried the straightening tool but it was not good..

Destiny..

What I was asking is why apg distorts my handheld images where PTGui doesn't..

Different settings for projection?

best, Klaus

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:04 am

Tried that.. Still no good.. I made sure my lens was chosen too.. Often an ultra wide angle lens in apg is recognises as a fisheye... I have also tried the straightening tool but it was not good..
What I was asking is why apg distorts my handheld images where PTGui doesn't..

Forget what APG recognizes - set it manually then. Better: set "force to" each time you start APG when you used an extreme lens.

The straightening tool works well when you shoot geometrically. That´s what you´re doing shooting a sphere - here the straightening tool works best.

But besides a sphere it works also great on a part of a sphere - preferably shot symmetrical . .

Many people tilt the camera upwards only when they shoot a building for doing a stitching. That´s a mistake: when you´re shooting for a stitch you need to also tilt the camera downwards
the same amount as upwards.
This way you can do a geometrical correction very well - and cut away the redundant lower parts after rendering.

Just imagine that you shoot a part of a sphere when you shoot for stitching. No matter whether you really do a complete sphere or not.

best, Klaus

[Destiny]

by Destiny » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:36 am

I will play with the settings more..

It's when I begin to process my other images that I realise I should have created VRs. .but the issues was, the NN4 would not have been quick enough due to people moving about.. I had to wait all the time.. If I had taken my VR Drive I might have stood a better chance but I really did not want to risk taking it.. This Castle is just stunning..

Destiny..

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:51 am

I will play with the settings more..

It's when I begin to process my other images that I realise I should have created VRs. .but the issues was, the NN4 would not have been quick enough due to people moving about.. I had to wait all the time.. If I had taken my VR Drive I might have stood a better chance but I really did not want to risk taking it.. This Castle is just stunning..

Destiny..

I like this one very much:
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1243/777552385_fc683366b2_z.jpg

besides: you can shoot it vr-like also by hand with short lenses. I often do it with a 20mm on Fullframe and often did it with the same 20mm on 1,6 crop (20D) some years ago. It´s easy done even shooting a full-sphere.

best, Klaus

[marzipano]

by marzipano » Thu Apr 04, 2013 2:14 pm

I notice a similar effect when I process Canon Raw (CR2) files but of course this mey be a completely different issue to yours !

If I pass them direct from the camera into APG I get what looks like a similar type of distortion

I generally use the correction facilities in Lightroom (Or Canon's DPP) to correct the RAW images for spherical distortion before inputting to either Photomatix or APG

The images below show what APG makes of Lightroon corrected and non-corrected RAW data

best
Martin

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Thu Apr 04, 2013 2:28 pm

I notice a similar effect when I process Canon Raw (CR2) files but of course this mey be a completely different issue to yours !

If I pass them direct from the camera into APG I get what looks like a similar type of distortion

I generally use the correction facilities in Lightroom (Or Canon's DPP) to correct the RAW images for spherical distortion before inputting to either Photomatix or APG

The images below show what APG makes of Lightroon corrected and non-corrected RAW data

best
Martin

Guess you used a fisheye, right? So there´s a fisheye lens model in APG which it uses for stitching. If you give already undistorted fisheye-shots to APG it maybe nevertheless recognizes a fisheye from the EXIFs.
So it maybe try do undistort an already undistorted image . . and you expect it to be ok? :cool:

Leave the shots geometry-wise as they are when you use them for stitching. I NEVER ran a geometrical correction on images before stitching them - and i get good stitches nevertheless . .

best, Klaus

Last edited by klausesser on Thu Apr 04, 2013 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[marzipano]

by marzipano » Thu Apr 04, 2013 2:30 pm

These were taken on a Canon Powershot S100 with the standard lens which I think is rated at 26mm

[Destiny]

by Destiny » Thu Apr 04, 2013 10:22 pm

My lens is an ultra wide angle, no fisheye yet apg processes my images as if I used a fisheye lens...

Destiny..

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Thu Apr 04, 2013 10:25 pm

My lens is an ultra wide angle, no fisheye yet apg processes my images as if I used a fisheye lens...

Destiny..

Why don´t´t you set it properly by hand?

best, Klaus

[Destiny]

by Destiny » Fri Apr 05, 2013 1:11 am

I did...

Destiny..

My lens is an ultra wide angle, no fisheye yet apg processes my images as if I used a fisheye lens...

Destiny..

Why don´t´t you set it properly by hand?

best, Klaus