My first 360x180 from London (3 pano's)

[Serhan]

Hi All,

I bought new Sigma 8mm F3.5 for my 5D and I started to take 360x180 panos in the end... Here is the my first 3 shots from London: http://www.fethiyeholidayvillas.co.uk/360.html

But I am having a big issue with sharpness; I never used really wide lens especially as fisheye... I need some advise to fix my sharpness issue for in&outdoor...

Regards,
Serhan

[Serhan]

Should I use f22 or f18 all the time..? I took some test shoots and obviously higher (f) is sharper...

Regards,
Serhan

[slerman]

I tried a similar combo, Sig 8mm with 5D Mark II and was not happy with the sharpness or resolution of the panos. Returned the lens and got the Canon 15mm fisheye and have been very pleased. However, it is a tradeoff as the 15mm requires more shots around to do the 360x180--so moving objects are trickier.

[nick fan]

the panos look very good. As I remember the recommended F number is F8-11. Besides, the focus distance is very important. You can use live view to set the focus distance
see this
http://www.panoguide.com/forums/tipsntricks/4940/



Nick

[John Houghton]

Yes, use f/8. You will lose sharpness at f/22 owing to diffraction effects. I use the Sigma lens with the focus ring taped down at 1m. Only two of your panoramas worked for me, and the fullscreen button (on one only) was inactive, so it's difficult to judge the quality of the panoramas. You need an equirectangular file size of around 5000x2500 to 6000x3000. There is chromatic aberration visible, so I suggest you shoot RAW images and correct that in Photoshop's ACR (if you have it) when converting to tiff format. With careful sharpening, the Sigma lens yields good quality images. E.g. http://www.johnhpanos.com/monument.htm. The mirror ball would be more convincing if the image was rotated to bring the sky to the centre.

John

[Serhan]

Hi All,

Nick; thanks for your answer and I'll take your advise and will try to take some test shots with F8.
My first panos looks acceptable good but after touched with PS and in small size, I'll try take better ones soonish...

John; thanks for your advises... Let me tell you how I am took & processed those panos...
Firstly, I used f3.5 and f5.6 and for focusing firstly I use AF then disable it then started to take photos...
When I transfered all my pano photos to my computer, strait I stitched them by PTGui...
Then before I converted to flash I took 360*180 jpg file to PS and used "Topaz Labs" plugins for sharpening and cleaning...
Then I've used Pano2VR to make flash...
Actually those panos were my first ones outside... Everywhere was so crowded so it was a bit hard to take pano photos while too many moving abjects around...

So John, would you recommend to use PS before stitch the photos or after..?
I want to take sharp indoor photos so should I stick to f8 all the time..?
And BTW, could you tell me where you took that pano in monument, its very good..! I couldn't take any pano like that because I don't like heights..!

[Terrywoodenpic]

Yes, use f/8. You will lose sharpness at f/22 owing to diffraction effects. I use the Sigma lens with the focus ring taped down at 1m. Only two of your panoramas worked for me, and the fullscreen button (on one only) was inactive, so it's difficult to judge the quality of the panoramas. You need an equirectangular file size of around 5000x2500 to 6000x3000. There is chromatic aberration visible, so I suggest you shoot RAW images and correct that in Photoshop's ACR (if you have it) when converting to tiff format. With careful sharpening, the Sigma lens yields good quality images. E.g. http://www.johnhpanos.com/monument.htm. The mirror ball would be more convincing if the image was rotated to bring the sky to the centre.

John

John How did you take the monument shots.... There is a grill all around ....Did you poke the lens through and move around the platform Then do another shot....?

[John Houghton]

For the Monument, I took shots from near to the corners of the viewing gallery on all four sides. I poked the camera and my arms through the railing to take the shots. Even so, the railings and parapet below were very obstructive, as you can see from this sample:

http://www.johnhpanos.com/monim.jpg

John