BS Photography: How to Make Cool Panoramic Pictures.

Scenario 1:
you've just climbed a mountain and the view is ridiculously gorgeous, you want a single picture capturing the 360 degree view.

Scenario 2:
you're on a narrow street downtown and want to capture the beautiful architecture across the street, but lack a wide angle lens, however, you want to capture the entire building into 1 image.

Scenario 3:
you're inside a really cool room and want to capture the whole thing into 1 picture.

Scenario 4:
Seriously, uh...you get the idea.

Requirements/Recommendations
--Tripod*
--Decently fast computer
--Autopano-SIFT
--Hugin
--Emblend (Should be included with Hugin)
--GIMP, or another image editing program.
--*panoramic head or other pano equipment optional*

Alright, you've found your scene, now take pictures that cover all that you want to, overlapping each image with the next one, pay attention lest you move the camera too much and leave a gap, this messes up the image.

It's also good to have the camera on manual settings so the exposure is consistent.

Now you've got the images you want to use, it's time to combine them on the computer.

First, open up Autopano-SIFT

Then click load images, navigate to the images you want, and select them, then click open and patiently wait.

The only thing I would recommend changing is the output name, instead of output.cto, change the name to something more descriptive.
Now click compute.
Then click "No" or else it will freeze.

This window will come up, most likely turning white and appear to be not responding, just be patient and you'll eventually get the above window. Then click OK and close Autopano-SIFT and open Hugin.

Hugin will ask you where Autopano-SIFT and Emblend are located at one point, cant remember when, go ahead and point it to the correct files.

In Hugin, click Open and then navigate to the ".pto" file created by Autopano-SIFT.
Then click align. The program will think, and you will be shown a preview of what the panorama looks like, or, if the auto sift program has a hard time finding similar points between pictures or groups of pictures, it will ask you to define "control points" Place those points as far apart as possible to insure correct alignment.}
When all images have sufficient "control points" defined, the program will show you a preview of the panorama.

With the preview, you can adjust the sliders to define your field of view, vertical and horizontal, it will also allow for different projections, choose the one that describes the shape you prefer, feel free to experiment, dont worry about the blackness, you can crop in an image editor later. Also, worry not about the seams, these will go away later, with the help of Enblend.

You may close this, and Hugin should default to the "Assistant" tab, that is, the first screen you saw, but "create panorama" will no longer be blurred, click this, and choose where you want the image to be saved, it's gonna take a lot of space to do this, as it saves in TIFF format. (you can convert it to a more manageable format later, but the TIFF is nice to have)

It'll think a while, and then bring up a command window, this is normal, this is the Enblend program running, removing and hiding seams, depending on how many pictures there are and how severe the seams are, and how fast the computer is, this may take a while.

Finally, you've got a TIFF file, you can now crop, color correct, and other edits you wish to do in your editing program of choice for a final product:
Cool huh?

Advanced stuff:
If you've got a wide angle lens or a conversion lens, you'll need to define the lens in Hugin, basically all you need is the equivalent focal length, so if you have a 35mm equivalent lens, and a .5x conversion lens, put 17.5mm focal length and leave everything else blank

If you're doing a super wide panorama, like a 360* x 180*, it's a good idea to minimize camera parallax movement, that is, rotate the camera around the lens....this is hard, a panoramic tripod head helps a lot, you can do it with a tripod, but when you get to the pictures of the sky and ground, you'll have some serious difficulty with stitching it later.

Nodal Ninja (I want one...please?)

Make your own panoramic tripod head:
Wood
Metal

My workflow also includes tonemapping the RAW files from my Digital SLR. Tonemapping is a function of HDR.

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Scenario 1: you've just climbed a mountain and the view is ridiculously gorgeous, you want a single picture capturing the 360 degree view. Scenario 2: you're on a narrow street downtown and want to capture the beautiful architecture across the street, but lack a wide angle lens, however, you want to capture the entire building into 1 image. Scenario 3: you're inside a really cool room and want to capture the whole thing into 1 picture. Scenario 4: Seriously, uh...you get the idea. Requirements/Recommendations --Tripod* --Decently fast computer --Autopano-SIFT --Hugin --Emblend (Should be included with Hugin) --GIMP, or another image editing program. --panoramic head or other pano equipment optional Alright, you've found your scene, now take pictures that cover all that you want to, overlapping each image with the next one, pay attention lest you move the camera too much and leave a gap, this messes up the image. It's also good to have the camera on manual settings so the exposure is consistent. Now you've got the images you want to use, it's time to combine them on the computer. First, open up Autopano-SIFT Then click load images, navigate to the images you want, and select them, then click open and patiently wait. The only thing I would recommend changing is the output name, instead of output.cto, change the name to something more descriptive. Now click compute. Then click "No" or else it will freeze. This window will come up, most likely turning white and appear to be not responding, just be patient and you'll eventually get the above window. Then click OK and close Autopano-SIFT and open Hugin. Hugin will ask you where Autopano-SIFT and Emblend are located at one point, cant remember when, go ahead and point it to the correct files. In Hugin, click Open and then navigate to the ".pto" file created by Autopano-SIFT. Then click align. The program will think, and you will be shown a preview of what the panorama looks like, or, if the auto sift program has a hard time finding similar points between pictures or groups of pictures, it will ask you to define "control points" Place those points as far apart as possible to insure correct alignment.} When all images have sufficient "control points" defined, the program will show you a preview of the panorama. With the preview, you can adjust the sliders to define your field of view, vertical and horizontal, it will also allow for different projections, choose the one that describes the shape you prefer, feel free to experiment, dont worry about the blackness, you can crop in an image editor later. Also, worry not about the seams, these will go away later, with the help of Enblend. You may close this, and Hugin should default to the "Assistant" tab, that is, the first screen you saw, but "create panorama" will no longer be blurred, click this, and choose where you want the image to be saved, it's gonna take a lot of space to do this, as it saves in TIFF format. (you can convert it to a more manageable format later, but the TIFF is nice to have) It'll think a while, and then bring up a command window, this is normal, this is the Enblend program running, removing and hiding seams, depending on how many pictures there are and how severe the seams are, and how fast the computer is, this may take a while. Finally, you've got a TIFF file, you can now crop, color correct, and other edits you wish to do in your editing program of choice for a final product: Cool huh? Advanced stuff: If you've got a wide angle lens or a conversion lens, you'll need to define the lens in Hugin, basically all you need is the equivalent focal length, so if you have a 35mm equivalent lens, and a .5x conversion lens, put 17.5mm focal length and leave everything else blank If you're doing a super wide panorama, like a 360* x 180*, it's a good idea to minimize camera parallax movement, that is, rotate the camera around the lens....this is hard, a panoramic tripod head helps a lot, you can do it with a tripod, but when you get to the pictures of the sky and ground, you'll have some serious difficulty with stitching it later. Nodal Ninja (I want one...please?) Make your own panoramic tripod head: Wood Metal My workflow also includes tonemapping the RAW files from my Digital SLR. Tonemapping is a function of HDR.	—