NEX Sweep Panorama

[John Mitchell]

This is a feature of the Sony NEX cameras that I have yet to experiment with. Just wondering, do "sweep panorama" shots pass QC?

 

Any hints on how best to shoot using "sweep panorama"?

 

Thanx

[Imagery by Charly]

Well John, I don't have a NEX, but do have a Sony Alpha DSLR which has the pano feature. I don't use it that often and just uploaded a couple of panos, so have to wait to say if they're accepted. That said though the pano feature takes a bit of practice. I take a steady stance, elbows tucked by side, firm hold on camera, tight against eye/face, parallel to scene, then move at the hips to the start point (left or bottom) and with smooth movement with precise timing take the shot. The latter bit is the real tricky part; too fast it stops, too slow it stops, slow up at any point of the image is gets cut off or leaves a line within the image. Just play with it and you'll soon get the gist. Of course it goes w/o saying a pano is only taken in JPEG.

[PatrioticAlien]

Hey There, the panorama function does pass QC, i Have many which have passed. I have been using the a77 until its downfall four months ago.

[John Mitchell]

Thanks for the feedback. I've never done any of this type of photography, so I'll have to do some experimenting. Does using a tripod with a pan head help?

 

I remember seeing very expensive panoramic cameras with rotating lenses back in film days. It's amazing to now have similar technology available in regular cameras

[Imagery by Charly]

Glad to help. I've never tried a pano on a tripod, as I don't have a pan head and handheld seemed to work for me. Of course have lots of bad ones, but I have one of the an Irish estate home and ocean landscape that I like.

 

Edit: Whoops almost forgot, the panos don't like all lenses, on my camera anyway

[John Mitchell]

Glad to help. I've never tried a pano on a tripod, as I don't have a pan head and handheld seemed to work for me. Of course have lots of bad ones, but I have one of the an Irish estate home and ocean landscape that I like.

 

Edit: Whoops almost forgot, the panos don't like all lenses, on my camera anyway

 

Do you have any of them on Alamy -- i.e. do they pass QC?

 

P.S. Just had a peek at your collection. Didn't see any panos, so I guess you haven't submitted any.

[Imagery by Charly]

I have 2 awaiting QC; the estate has slight grain and glow added, the ocean landscape is a wee bit altered to look painterly. I really don't like JPEGs as it removes too much texture/tonal contrast for my taste.

[Imagery by Charly]

John here's an update: Both panos were accepted, though it might not be till the weekend that I have them up for sale. Have a busy week ahead and not sure how much time I'll have for keywords. 

[Lionel]

Glad to help. I've never tried a pano on a tripod, as I don't have a pan head and handheld seemed to work for me. Of course have lots of bad ones, but I have one of the an Irish estate home and ocean landscape that I like.

 

Edit: Whoops almost forgot, the panos don't like all lenses, on my camera anyway

 

I'm not familiar with the Sony DSLR's at all, so I found this "the panos don't like all lenses, on my camera anyway" a very interesting comment - do you have more information to share, please?

 

Regards

Lionel

[Imagery by Charly]

Haven't really used the pano feature much since my '10 trip to Ireland and '11 to Italy and really need to shoot some now. In a couple of weeks, I'll be making a short trip and will try to remember to use the pano feature with different lenses to give some recent qualitative details. Though do bare in mind, that I'm still pretty new to photography.

 

But if memory serves, it worked horribly with my 75-300mm lens, but was ok with either the kit lens or the 28-85mm and not sure I tried the 50mm prime. My Sony is mirrorless and I mainly use old Minolta AF A-mount 35mm film lenses on it, as they bought out Minolta some time ago and the lenses fit my DSLR/Minolta Maxuum 7 film camera.

 

Edit: Fairly certain back then I never used MF much if at all, so I'll try also both AF and MF.

[John Mitchell]

Encouraging to learn that "sweep panorma" images can pass QC. Thanks for all the hints. I tried a couple this weekend with my Sony NEX, and I can see from the results -- had several two-headed monsters in one of them -- that I need more practice.  September is usually a very nice month here in Vancouver, so I should have plenty of opportunity to get out there and work on my sweep pano-ing skills.

[John Mitchell]

Oh, just one more thing. Has anyone actually sold a sweep panorama image on Alamy?

[Lionel]

Haven't really used the pano feature much since my '10 trip to Ireland and '11 to Italy and really need to shoot some now. In a couple of weeks, I'll be making a short trip and will try to remember to use the pano feature with different lenses to give some recent qualitative details. Though do bare in mind, that I'm still pretty new to photography.

 

But if memory serves, it worked horribly with my 75-300mm lens, but was ok with either the kit lens or the 28-85mm and not sure I tried the 50mm prime. My Sony is mirrorless and I mainly use old Minolta AF A-mount 35mm film lenses on it, as they bought out Minolta some time ago and the lenses fit my DSLR/Minolta Maxuum 7 film camera.

 

Edit: Fairly certain back then I never used MF much if at all, so I'll try also both AF and MF.

Thanks for the response.

 

As I said, I don't know the Sony DSLR's at all, but I have many large panoramas (not on Alamy); on the basis of that experience:

• I shoot all panoramas except for close-up macro work using manual focus and manual exposure
  • Manual Focus:  Keeps the focal plane constant, preserving detail in the overlapping areas in neighbouring shots, improving image alignment and hopefully pano quality.
  • Manual Exposure:  Is the first step in getting consistent lighting across the whole pano, but it's not the whole solution when moving clouds are busily changing your lighting
• The big panorama killer is parallax, and I assume the Sony DSLR's face this challenge too.  It is most noticeable in scenes with subject matter boith "near" and "far", and there are at least two choices:
  • Choose scenes where there is no important subject matter "near" the camera.  You can choose appropriate scenes, learn to use the ultra-low budget Philopod (look here http://www.philohome.com/tripod/shooting.htm ), or one of the more costly spherical heads.

If you're the curious type (i.e., me), you might be interested in the work that Factum Arte is doing, especially the video of their shot for restoration of the Sala Bologna in the Vatican (start here http://www.factum-arte.com/pag/23/Digital-Restoration-of-the-Map-of--span-Bolog--span-na )

 

In general, if the subject matter in your pano is "nearby" you need a wide-angle lense (Fisheye in 6mm to 15mm range for the extreme case is spherical pano inside a room in your house), longer lenses for more distance subjects.

 

Regards

Lionel

[John Mitchell]

Here's one from my Sony RX100. Tried some others which failed to give good results (especially when shooting stuff that moves, like leaves on trees). The Sony "sweep panorama" technique seems like a hit-and-miss feature.

I have far better results with the combination Nikon D700 + 50/1.8 or 70-200/2.8 and Photoshop CS6. Little trick: figure out an average lighting metering over the whole scene, set your camera to Manual mode and take the shots while making sure they overlap by 1/3.

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

Nice shot. I believe that with my Sony NEX-3, I can't use the Manual and Sweep Panorama shooting modes at the same time. The camera appears to default to some kind of auto mode in Sweep Panorama. Perhaps the setup is different on the RX100.

[John Mitchell]

 

 

Here's one from my Sony RX100. Tried some others which failed to give good results (especially when shooting stuff that moves, like leaves on trees). The Sony "sweep panorama" technique seems like a hit-and-miss feature.

I have far better results with the combination Nikon D700 + 50/1.8 or 70-200/2.8 and Photoshop CS6. Little trick: figure out an average lighting metering over the whole scene, set your camera to Manual mode and take the shots while making sure they overlap by 1/3.

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

Nice shot. I believe that with my Sony NEX-3, I can't use the Manual and Sweep Panorama shooting modes at the same time. The camera appears to default to some kind of auto mode in Sweep Panorama. Perhaps the setup is different on the RX100.

 

Hi John,

 

My RX100 also uses some kind of auto mode in Sweep Panorama. It's when I use my Nikon D700 that I set the camera to "Manual".

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

On second thought, I can fit an old manual focus lens on the NEX. Shall experiment with that as well.

[Imagery by Charly]

John, one thing I remember is steady smooth motion (from the hips everything moves together) and keep moving through even after it's done, as there's less chance of cut off that way. I really didn't have much doubling so much as I would not compose it correctly and get too close to the frame edge. Though I've gotten a bit better with compo the last year or so.

[Imagery by Charly]

Lionel, as was stated prior; it's fairly auto and only does JPEGs. So pretty much at the mercy of the camera, but one I'm working on is from the Causeway in N. Ireland. Rocks in the foreground, cliff in the background, crashing waves in the center inlet. All is good except too tight at the top, so actually gonna try layering in another I have that cut off the bottom too much. Not sure how it will turn out, as I'm new to that kind of stuff. 

[PatrioticAlien]

You can do manual panoramas on the sony alphas, i shoot manual panoramas, on my a77. However, I am not to sure what you can and cant do on the nex systems but its a great system. 

[Lionel]

Lionel, as was stated prior; it's fairly auto and only does JPEGs. So pretty much at the mercy of the camera, but one I'm working on is from the Causeway in N. Ireland. Rocks in the foreground, cliff in the background, crashing waves in the center inlet. All is good except too tight at the top, so actually gonna try layering in another I have that cut off the bottom too much. Not sure how it will turn out, as I'm new to that kind of stuff. 

 

Well, I guess my ignorance of Sony cameras shines brightly, and I overcooked this one.  Parallax may cause you some trouble with those foreground rocks, but if there's an alternate vantage point you can still do very well.

 

You may still find the Philopod interesting - I've seen some rather nice panoramas shot with small P&S cameras and a philopod.

 

Regards

Lionel

[Imagery by Charly]

I don't have an A77 yet, but on my A33 you cannot choose the f/stop or shutter speed. So to clarify, I'm speaking only to what my camera can and cannot do; not NEX or other Sony's

 

Lionel, we all know there is an abundance of cameras out there and each works the way they were made to. Even in my Menu there are many things grayed out that I cannot adjust, probably due to mine being a lower end model.

[Bryan]

Not used the sweep feature on NEX, but presume that the output would be a JPG, rather than raw?

 

Have taken a few manually without a tripod, stitching in PS. Passed QC OK, but no sales to date.

 

Good looking shots from Philippe, understand how they have been commercially successful, and not necessarily subject matter that I would have thought of for the technique,  thanks for posting.

[John Mitchell]

Not used the sweep feature on NEX, but presume that the output would be a JPG, rather than raw?

 

Have taken a few manually without a tripod, stitching in PS. Passed QC OK, but no sales to date.

 

Good looking shots from Philippe, understand how they have been commercially successful, and not necessarily subject matter that I would have thought of for the technique,  thanks for posting.

 

Yes, the output is JPG with sweep panorama. My sewing skills are mediocre at best, so I'll probably stick with sweeping for now. I agree, Phillipe's shots are refreshing. Big city skylines seem to be the main subject of choice for a lot of pano photographers. Guess there is probably a good reason for this. But they can all start looking similar after awhile.