Stitch In Nine (Minus One)

UPDATE: OK, this blog doesn't want to cooperate when long images are posted. On some computers all one sees is a box with a red X inside it. I'm posting a shorter, smaller version, but if it doesn't work or if you want to see the panorama in a larger size, use this link.




Another experiment with the stitch assist/panorama mode with my Canon PowerShot A540. When you click on the image for the larger view, it might not fit on your screen. In that case you will have to use your mouse to slide the box on the bottom of your computer’s monitor to see the rest of the image.

I had difficulty placing an image file wider than the screen with this blog. If you click on this link, it will take you to my writog.com website where an even larger image can be seen.

The composite images were taken on Oak Street, downtown Plattsburgh, NY. Once again the overlap between each image is rough. I shot handheld, no tripod, and didn’t keep the camera exactly level between each one.

I do have a photo-stitch program but I haven’t gotten around to learning how to use it yet. I put this panorama view together in Photoshop, resizing each shot and then layering them together in a new file. The seams are obvious.

Another problem was the difference in light levels between the shadowy and sunlit areas. Even with one shot, getting a good exposure with such conditions is tricky. I was asking for lots of trouble when I did this panorama, the evening sun casting long deep shadows.

When using the stitch assist mode, the camera locks its exposure automatically to the first scene that it registers. One attempt didn’t work because the sunlit buildings were washed out. I had set the camera with the deeply shaded bricked building on the left. While that part was exposed OK, everything else in direct light was burned out. So I set the exposure with a brightly lit building and then started over with the shadowed building. This time all the shots came out somewhat too dark. The brightness level was adjusted in Photoshop so that every frame was more or less at the same level. But as you can see, the variance in brightness from frame to frame isn’t exact, adding to the rough look.

I’m still learning this technique. At some point I’ll end up discovering how to make such a panorama look more seamless. But the rough quality doesn’t bother me that much because I used to make panoramas the old-fashioned way, overlapping prints into one long scene.