Large Format Printing Questions

[Litz]

I came to this hobby from an RC flying background rather than a photography background and have been learning a lot lately. I've taken some photos that I'm very happy with, but now have questions about capturing larger images. I used Lightroom and have merged three photos horizontally, but is it possible to also somehow merge vertically? So three original images wide by three original images high for a total of 9 images merged?

Also, I've read merging more photos gives higher pixel density and for some reason I can't wrap my mind around that. If I want to just capture a pano, am I going to get a higher resolution image by panning 5-10 degrees between each image and then merge 18 photos into a single pano versus merging 3 images? Let's say they both cover approximately 150 degree field of view.

Last question for now: when capturing a pano I have been hovering and panning so all images are captured from that center point. Am I better off to "roll/slide" along the area I'm trying to capture? Example would be a shoreline...Is there benefit of moving along the shoreline taking overlapping images rather than staying in one spot and panning?

Thank you!

 

[480sparky]

How big your stitched image gets depends, in part, on your software. Some apps will stitch the individual frames full-stize, while others will default to a smaller output size just to save on computer resources.

Moving the camera laterally while taking images will cause huge problems while stitching. You are moving the 'nodal point' of the camera, and most apps can't handle that. You'll end up with stitching errors up the wazoo.

 

[Litz]

How big your stitched image gets depends, in part, on your software. Some apps will stitch the individual frames full-stize, while others will default to a smaller output size just to save on computer resources.

Moving the camera laterally while taking images will cause huge problems while stitching. You are moving the 'nodal point' of the camera, and most apps can't handle that. You'll end up with stitching errors up the wazoo.

Thanks for the information. I use Adobe Lightroom so I think it will merge as many images as I want. I did not know if merging a higher number of images (i.e. overlapping by 50% vs. overlapping by 20%) would yield a better quality image for large format printing. Thanks for the info on the nodal point. I'll check that out and continue to stay stationary and pan for my panos.

 

[480sparky]

I always overshoot the number of frames. If I take 25 images and only use 10 for the stitch, I'm good. But if I took 10 and needed 12 to pull it off, then I'm hosed. Better to have 'em and not need 'em than need 'em and not have 'em.

Sometimes, having excess images in the process produces stitching errors. In that case, it's a simple process to identify which is the offending image by looking where the error is in the stitch, and finding an image whose edge matches the error. Deleting that image from the process eliminates the stitching error 98% of the time for me. YMMV.

 

[KAOS Imagery]

I shoot multi row panos with a dslr and combine them in LR or Microsoft ICE (free). The same can be done with the Phantom. Check out this guy, his photos are great and here is a tutorial on how he does it
How I Shoot Multi-Layer Pano Compositions

There is also a free app called DronePan that will shoot 20 images automatically for you (www.dronepan.com) I haven't tried it yet, but will do so once the weather gets better.