articles/Landscape/PlanningPanning-page2

Planning and Panning - part 2 of 1 2

by Mike McNamee Published 01/06/2015

Back on land the issue is going to be the crowds especially if we attempt the planned multi-image stitch. The Gigapan requires a large tripod, a stable platform and no dogs, kids or adults bumping into it - this might be a tough ask! McNamee was despatched on his push bike a week ahead, to pedal the length of the Wirral seafront from the mouth of the river to the spot opposite where the liners will turn. At each location a shot of the road name and the view of the river was made. Normally we know within about 10 yards, where the location for a panorama should be but in this instance we have no clear idea of where the tidal conditions will push the liners and how they will line up. We also have only a vague idea of how tall they will be standing in relation to each other and the waterfront buildings (they can tower over them). Our long experience in the area teaches us that a few yards either way changes which buildings of the waterfront are visible and which are not but in this case moving might be impossible.

Stitching the Pan
The one thing that we do not have to plan any contingency for is the processing and stitching of any panoramas we manage to get. We have a background in this technology extending back to Fuji 6 x17cm film camera days, then moving right forward to creating panoramas at wall paper size. If the Gigapan has been used then it is best to employ the bespoke Gigapan software to perform the stitch. Depending upon the power of the computer used this can take quite some time, it all depends upon the number of images chosen. For simpler tasks we tend to use Photoshop although we most often break the process down into a sequence:

1. In Bridge select the pan images and Tools>Photoshop>Load files into Photoshop layers.
2. Select all the layers in the Photoshop Layers Palette then click Edit>Auto-Align Layers.
3. The click Edit>Auto-Blend Layers.
4. Finally repair any parts of the sea and sky needed with Content Aware Fill, crop, sharpen and we are good to go!
Using Photomerge is more successful if it works, but doing so depends upon your computer (laptops often crash), the version of Photoshop (they have got better at it) and finally the number of images that you need to stitch.

So that is where things stood as we went to press we will hopefully be able to show off some images in the next issue - there is just the small matter of planning 111 portions of food for the various relatives who are due to come and join us, it's going to be quite a party!

• Planning and Panning page 1
  
• Planning and Panning page 2
  

There are 37 days to get ready for The Societies of Photographers Convention and Trade Show at The Novotel London West, Hammersmith ...
which starts on Wednesday 17th January 2024