How to shoot...

[klaas123]

Hello,

I am starting with spherical panorama's, i am using the following ;

nikon d200
tokina 12-24
Nodal ninja mk3 + rd8 rotator.
tripod.

I have some questions,,,,

1. Must i use the AF mode, or do manual focus ?
2. if i use manual focus, where to focus ? (close or far away)
3. What diafragma to use ?
4. sometimes I see examples of a spherical panorma, with people on it ! How do they do that ? (or do i just need a more fisheye lens ?)

I saw a sigma 4.5 mm for sale, is this a good lens for making spherical panorama's ?

[John Houghton]

1. Must i use the AF mode, or do manual focus ?
You should use manual focus - the same setting for all the shots.


2. if i use manual focus, where to focus ? (close or far away)
Set the focus at the hyperfocal distance. (See: http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/guides/dof/hyperfocal2.html).


3. What diafragma to use ?
f/8 is usually a good aperture to use. Smaller apertures (bigger numbers) give greater depth of field but less sharpness, owing to diffraction effects.


4. sometimes I see examples of a spherical panorma, with people on it ! How do they do that ? (or do i just need a more fisheye lens ?)
A wider angle lens helps, but you can also take more shots and make fine adjustments to the seam lines in the panorama by editing a layered file (.psd format) in Photoshop.


I saw a sigma 4.5 mm for sale, is this a good lens for making spherical panorama's ?
You will need to take only 3 shots around but will waste a large proportion of the camera's pixels as you will have a complete image circle surrounded by an expanse of black space. This limits the resolution of the final panorama.

John