Joel Rosen's Posts
Panoramic Portraits
Many newer digital cameras have a cool, new feature for creating panoramic images. The software helps with shooting three overlapping pictures and then it automatically 'stitches' the three pictures together to create one seamless 'superwide' picture. It works great for those scenic overlooks which is how most people use it.
Back when digital was 'new', I'd played around with panoramic images (remember Apple QTVR?), lots of trial and error, and manually stitching the images together in Photoshop. When I discovered that my new M753 did panoramas automatically, I was excited to try it out. It really is amazing!
I was just shooting test shots at home and my kids, seeing the camera in my hands, kept jumping into the shots. I was initially focused on how the software joined the images, but I quickly became distracted by the striking impression made by the recurring presence of the same person in a single image.
First attempt with Olivia. (click image to enlarge)
We've all become accustomed to questioning the truthfulness of images. Photographic trickery has existed as long as photography itself. Digital photography has made image alteration completely ubiquitous.
Leah's turn. (click image to enlarge) Shifted position a bit. Note how the chair too close in the foreground is not aligned.
Nonetheless, I was still surprised that seeing the same person appearing three times in a single image made such a striking impression on me, so I started exploring, directing my kids to stand here, smile, now move here, now over there, etc.
Hannah was next. (click image to enlarge) Moved chair out of the foreground. The table edge is still a challenge.
There's a world of possibilities in here. I realized later that the room I was using forced a certain arrangement of the subject being closer (and therefore larger) in the side shots and further away (and therefore smaller) in the center. This help create a sense of depth in the image.
I tried some images the other way, subject further away on the sides and closer in the middle, but didn't like them as much.
Next day, outside (really windy). (click image to enlarge) No problems with the overlaps, but not as much connection with the subject
Remember, this is digital. Experiement, explore, have fun!
Comments
Posted By: Jenny Cisney (8/5/2009)
Comment: Lois, Gallery says they've helped you with the settings on these prints. Let me know if you need anything else. @KodakConnect
Posted By: Lois Schmitt (8/4/2009)
Comment: <<In rebuttal to statements like this:>> ""You can print your panoramic pictures on Kodak Gallery if you order an 8x10 and trim it down. Not a perfect solution but it works!......"" NOT ALWAYS !!!!!!!!! I had this work for me, Nov 08, but Aug '09 all I got was a useless 8X10's of the middle of the panorama, too trimmed to be of any use or interest. $9. for 3 pano's down the drain. Phone calls to Customer Service got me nowhere, Signed,: Truely Dissapointed!!! Why offer it on camera's if they don't /won't print it???? STUPID.
Posted By: Lowell McMahan (6/23/2009)
Comment: Thanks for the nice article and all the comments. Especially Richard Walker on Photoshop Elements. I have just started learning to use it. I tried a few panoramas recently. For printing I took one to a FedexKinkos nearby and they printed a high quality 6"x25" for about $12. They can go as wide as 60" and as long as you want. Probably not all stores have that large a printer but check stores in your area. If you are printing a large picture you probably want good quality to mount and frame. It's best to take it in on a flash drive or cd and explain to the operator exactly what you want. If they mess it up they will reprint it. There are also nice tutorials online for mounting your prints.
Posted By: DeeJay (6/21/2009)
Comment: I love panoramic photos! I am a novice; fortunately, I have a teacher who is a professional photographer and instructor. He taught us how to take consecutive pictures, how to merge them and he gave referrals for printing them. Initially, I did not use a tripod so my ground was uneven; then, I didn't overlap each picture enough. Finally, with the help of my instructor and Canon's technical support.....I, now, have a beautiful, 6" x 22" panorama that shows a large body of water with a waterfall and a swan (that happened by). It cost $10.99. I encourage anyone interested in panoramic photos to move forward with your interest. Check with local camera shops for the printing.
Posted By: Joel (1/19/2009)
Comment: I must say that I am really inspired by the dialog that this topic has started. Thanks everyone for contributing your knowledge and experience with panoramas. Keep it up! I, too have experienced problems with printing panoramas depending on where I have gotten the work done.
Posted By: Keith (1/19/2009)
Comment: In my line of work, I take pananoramic photos on a near daily basis. Most of these are either viewed on the computer or printed on legal paper only. However, for those pans that I have taken (either professionally or personally) that really capture something special, I take to a digital offset printer. Every town has one, they are the printshops that print posters, catalogs, posters and ad material. I can get a 8" x 38" print for less than $30. That's a high-quality inkjet print on good quality photo paper. You just need to provide them with a digital file and be specific about the size of the finished print (A good rule of thumb is to use the 4"x6" standard print as your guide. Therefore a stiched pan of 3 photos is going to be approximately 4" by 18") They have the right equipment to print it properly and, armed with a little info first, you avoid the pitfalls of trying to get your corner photomat to print something their equipment isn't set up to do.
Posted By: Charles Rahn (1/18/2009)
Comment: You have a spelling error. You mis-spelled Experiment, you spelled it as Experiement.
Posted By: Richard A. Walker (1/16/2009)
Comment: This is a great use for the panorama. Wait there's more! You can stitch your shot together without automation. Use any picture editor that will allow you to erase and assemble on create a wide canvas. 1. Put the camera on a tripod oriented for a portrait, shoot from one point, and always level. (Then try the handheld shots.) 2. Works great for group shots. Assemble your subject on steps and tightly packed with all faces showing (and smiling). 3. Orient the camera in Portrait mode to allow you to get as close or vertical as possible. 4. Orient the sunlight to your left or right. Shoot in the early morning or late afternoon for out door shots. Side light shows people's faces best. For indoors, ensure the light is even. Use extra lights of the same color, bounced off the ceiling if needed. Do not mix lights of different colors, unless you want that effect. 5. In Photoshop Elements, etc, create a new empty image as tall as one portrait image and as wide as the span of your panorama. 6. Open all of your shots in the order that you shot them. 7. Copy and paste each shot into the empty image file in the same order that you shot them. Use Control + A to select the image, Control + C to copy the image. Then paste it with Control + V. 8. Slide each image to the left or right to place it in the correct position. Each image should match in the zone of overlap. There will always be differences. 9. Adjust the levels of each image so the colors match, i.e. grass, and sky. 10. Move each image up or down in the layers palate in order to put the best facial expression or arm position on top. If your image has to be on top of the best expression in the lower photo, simply use the erase tool to remove the top image so the best expression or arm position shows through. 11. When you are satisfied that the image is free of flaws, save a Photoshop image of it leaving all of the layer intact. You may want to change something. 12. Save a copy of the image that you can have printed, such as in a JPG, BMP or Tiff file format. Burn it to a CD or copy it to your flash/thumb drive. 13. Take your image to a shot that can print images large enough to fit your panorama. I created an 8.5" x 16" family portrait, copied it twice into an 18"x 20" image, which I had printed and cut into two prints.
Posted By: D THERRIEN (1/16/2009)
Comment: I had the same experience with panoramic prints, then I discovered ezprints.com and ordered some spectacular prints. Only disappointment was when I got the bill to frame the 1 ft x 4 ft prints.
Posted By: J Carver (1/16/2009)
Comment: This option is really fun to play around with, but when I went to the photo shop to print, I only got a 4x6 in return. The photos should automatically print whatever setting you had it on, pano being one of them. My old APS did better at this option than this new digital camera. Both Kodak. Good luck for all who have this option....I hope you have better luck than quite a many of us I've already read about.
Posted By: J Carver (1/16/2009)
Comment: This option is really fun to play around with, but when I went to the photo shop to print, I only got a 4x6 in return. The photos should automatically print whatever setting you had it on, pano being one of them. My old APS did better at this option than this new digital camera. Both Kodak. Good luck for all who have this option....I hope you have better luck than quite a many of us I've already read about.
Posted By: S. SAVANNAH (12/30/2008)
Comment:
Posted By: Digital Camera Skins (12/25/2008)
Comment: I've never attempted any panoramics. I don't think my camera has the option, but I still haven't figured it all out yet. It seems odd that these big companies aren't printing panoramic photos. From what some of the people here are saying, it seems like they make it out as if its impossible. Sounds like their equipment for printing photos taken from a digital camera is very limited.
Posted By: Jenny Cisney (11/11/2008)
Comment: Angie- you can print your panoramic pictures on Kodak Gallery if you order an 8x10 and trim it down. Not a perfect solution but it works!
Posted By: Angie (11/11/2008)
Comment: Don't wast your time on taking Panoramic pictures unless you just want to view them on your computer screen. I took several pictures of The Grand Canyon, and called Wal-mart photo lab and asked if they printed panoramic from a digital camera and she said yes. I did my order of all my pictures and had around 7 panoramics of different views of the Canyon. When I recieved my pics, the panoramics were a 4x6 of the center! I went in and complained and they called kodak and fuji and I was told they weren't ABLE to print panoramic pitures from a digital camer!
Posted By: Bob (8/17/2008)
Comment: I am glad to see that Kodak employees are enjoying the panoramic feature of their cameras. I have been using commercially available software to create panoramics for several years, but mostly printed my own (4x11 or 6x14). I use Kodak for printing many of my photos, but have been disapointed that Kodak does not offer a usable print size. I even e-mailed them twice over the last year with no luck.
Posted By: http:// (7/1/2008)
Comment: I used the throw away panoramic camera for a car race that I went to with my husband and the pictures came out phenomenal. The best use of it was when we went to Niagara Falls. I have the most awesome picture of the Maid of the Mist underneath a rainbow with the falls in the background. I even had it enlarged and framed. It is a shame that Koday did not keep selling them.
Posted By: dickbarton@mac.com (6/27/2008)
Comment: Kodak (and a few others) used to sell great APC film cameras that faked panoramas (they just cropped out the top and bottom parts of the frame) but did it with ONE press of the shutter button. The process coupled seamlessly with prints, so the customer got (about) 4x10 paper. Third-party companies even made albums to hold the oddly-sized prints. I guess it wasn't a big seller, because Kodak (and the others) dropped the whole idea when they went digital. It does seem incredibly stupid that a company like Kodak would now "re-invent" panos, but market cameras that are harder to use (but take wider panos), and FORGET THE WHOLE DELIVERY END. Jeez, no hardcopy? No print option on their own site for checking a "panorama" box? I, too, considered the "order a big print and cut it down" option; but decided that it was unacceptable. My wife used to shoot whole rolls of panos, and get a nice bundle of prints from the photo shop; neither of us is now going to get out an X-acto knife and whittle down a bunch of prints.
Posted By: Heather (6/27/2008)
Comment: Very interesting. I used to take photos with a camera that had a panoramic setting, but most times could never see the differenc. I have a digital camera that I really love, but my lovely husband has recently bought me a bigger camera, (wrong word, but can't think of the right one at this point in time) it also does the video/still pictures, I am still learning how to use it, it's very compact has its own tripod
Posted By: Heather (6/27/2008)
Comment: Very interesting. I used to take photos with a camera that had a panoramic setting, but most times could never see the differenc. I have a digital camera that I really love, but my lovely husband has recently bought me a bigger camera, (wrong word, but can't think of the right one at this point in time) it also does the video/still pictures, I am still learning how to use it, it's very compact has its own tripod
Posted By: Heather (6/27/2008)
Comment: Very interesting. I used to take photos with a camera that had a panoramic setting, but most times could never see the differenc. I have a digital camera that I really love, but my lovely husband has recently bought me a bigger camera, (wrong word, but can't think of the right one at this point in time) it also does the video/still pictures, I am still learning how to use it, it's very compact has its own tripod
Posted By: Marilyn (6/27/2008)
Comment: I use an EasyS Share camera and I really like the panoramic on the other Kodaks. I used to have a non digital camera that took panoramic and have a beautiful shot of Lisbon.
Posted By: Lenny (6/26/2008)
Comment: I am new to photography and was fascinated by the panoramic features decribed. My question is, how to splice the photos together to create a panoramic view
Posted By: ken (6/25/2008)
Comment: with more consumer digitals with panarama features --the need to print them on photo papers will dictate Kodak and others to go back and make prints. Fuji just came out with their 1000 series digital with this great feature. KEEP THE FAITH--we will again have prints from Kodak in panarama size!
Posted By: Judy (6/25/2008)
Comment: I have had good luck in getting my panoramic pictures developed at Sam's Club, but I have to specify the width with the photo clerk first. They have to make an entry on their computer system to print the entire photo, which I believe is 15" wide, as opposed to the original panoramic sized photo, where you would lose a portion of your entire picture. Ususually best to work with an experienced photo clerk, tho! (Hey, they are the ones that sold me the camera in the first place, so I pretty much expected them to also be able to print it right!) Not all stores have the wider panoramic option, so I have been told.
Posted By: Joel (6/25/2008)
Comment: Gardner - you can upload your panoramics to Kodak Gallery and get prints from there. They don't specifically offer panoramic prints, you just order a print of the size you want the width to be, and then trim off the extra paper on the top and bottom. You need to specify that you want the prints that 'fit' the frame, not 'fill' the frame.
Posted By: Gardner (6/25/2008)
Comment: I took some terrific panoramic shots while visiting some National Parks recently. The problem is that Kodak does not offer anywhere on their websites the ability to upload to Kodak these panoramics to have them enlarged!!
Posted By: Judy (6/25/2008)
Comment: A neat idea for panoramic shots is to take Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall panoramic photos of your home, and frame them -- the sepia tone, or black and white are nice for a country home place -- Place the framed photos in a creative display on a wall in your den, for your "home in all seasons" collection!
Posted By: mark (6/25/2008)
Comment: This should be a feature on the Kodak software suite and not deligated to the camera. I have this software from another camera company and it will allow for me to choose my stitching points if I don't like the way the auto stitch came out. Kodak really needs to add more features to the software bundle!
Posted By: steve (4/15/2008)
Comment: Everyone should boycott Kodak, they are supporting adware companies like zango, who infected my PC http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=80609&Nid=41543&p=432351
Posted By: Joel (4/10/2008)
Comment: Alison - Panoramas are one of the scene modes, you can find it listed on the Features and Benefits page for the M753
Posted By: Alison Boncha (4/10/2008)
Comment: Is the M753 that you took the panoramic pictures with, the Kodak Easyshare camera? I tried googling "M753" and thats the camera it came up with - only taking panoramic images isn't listed as one of its features.