panoramic photo--would this work?

[powerdog]

OK, here's a puzzle for you.

I need a panoramic photo of the citizens of a rural town, assembled on the town green -- the hope is, about 2000 people, who'll be in once place anyway for a Memorial Day parade.

The photogs who do this work charge more than I want to spend...yes, quality is important, but it's pro bono, and I'm doing it to raise awareness of a paying project.

No rental houses within 4 hours' drive of me...so bottom line, I need a cheap but decent solution. And I have a good Canon digital SLR with a zoom.

I figured I line them up, left to right, maybe 200-300 ft. in front of the camera, but I position them in groups that are small enough to completely fit within the frame. Between groups I allow maybe 12 feet of plain background...field, trees, whatever... and keep the DOF shallow so bkgr is somewhat out of focus. So you have Group 1, bkgr, Group 2, bkgr....

Then I stitch the separate photos together digitally into one panorama, and print it on an Epson inkjet that takes roll paper.

Even if the people move, the bkgr won't, and the groups won't be close enough that anyone on the edge of one group would partly appear in the next.

What do you think? Any obvious problems?

[MrG]

I don't think that will look right even if you can backfocus the lenses that far.
If I had to do this I'd just take a few pictures and spend more time in PS.

[William_Robinette]

Yeah, just take it with everyone lined up normally and stitch in PS. It really shouldn't be too hard especially if you have a lot of room to work with.

[Petrus]

Line up the people in a (semi)circle around the camera same distance from the camera. Shoot with fixed focal length like 35 or 50mm from a tripod. Take shots with enough overlap. Manual exposure to make sure exposures are identical. Tell people to be absolutelly still while you shoot. Connect in PhotoStich or similar. This way you get a shot which looks like it was shot far away of a straight lineup.

(this is the classical way of shooting large groups with a turning lens panorama camera)

[powerdog]

Petrus, what does that semi-circular method do to the background? I'd think it would distort significantly, since its sort of a flat plane. Or do you just blur it as much as poss?

[Petrus]

Backround is a flat plane only if they stand in front of one, like a building. I would not call a field or something free outside area a flat plane in this sense.

If the people are in front of a building the wall would bulge out in the middle. If they are standing in a field or something then nothing special would happen there and the picture looks just normal.

Normal camera projects the picture to a plane. A circular panoramic camera with a turning lens asembly projects the picture to a cylinderical surface. Both distort the picture, but in a different way.

When you combine plane projection pictures to a panorama shot in PhotoSticht or something you turn a series of plane projections into a cyliderical projection. There is really no other way to make a panoramic picture (of over 100 degrees wide).

I have seen plenty of old group photos shot with turning lens cyliderical panorama camera. Everybody just faces the camera square on at the same distance (draw a circle line with a piece of cord and stick), picture is scanned. The end result is a photo which looks like it was taken really far away (angular perspective) everybody facing the camera. Same thing can be done with digicam and PhotoStich (new photoshop has the same effect somewhere).

[powerdog]

Well, that's what I'll do then. Field as background, everyone in a semicircle, lots of overlap between shots, and stitch them in Photoshop. Thanks!

[Petrus]

If you can get Canon Photostich from somewhere use that. It is almost automatic.

New photoshop can also do the required bending, but I have found Photostich faster and automatic.

And ask everybody to be absolutelly still...

[vidled]

And ask everybody to be absolutelly still...

...or shoot it with several cams, all firing at the same time, with identical settings and lenses. Unfortunately, that's an expensive option, and probably not necessary.

[powerdog]

I'm afraid, with no revenue from this job, the equipment options are limited to what I have on hand...one Canon 20D with one zoom lens and a good tripod. No fixed focus lens, no multiple cameras, and (fortunately) one assistant to wrangle people into position.

With the advice given here, I'll hope for acceptable results. Thanks.

[CharlieG]

Simple photo, (non costly) shoot with the Canon 20D and Photostitch software that came with the camera.......
The setup will take you more time than the actual photo taking....
Line everyone up, tell everyone not to move (really helps in the stitching)
Shoot with the same zoom setting (ie: 28mm) same exposure etc..... Use a good tripod that pans well, start snapping away (it will take up less than 15 seconds) Re-shoot the scene 2-3 times and use the best sequence
The blured bkgnd comes in post production after its stitched in PS....mask/layer it etc.......
I do 360's a lot and its simple and easy to do......
I use a "pro" photo lab that prints 5x30 and 10x30 inch prints at a reasonable price. I've found that it cost less than ink jetting and far better quality (less hassle too)

[powerdog]

Great. Can you give me the name or URL of the lab? Thanks!

[CharlieG]

Great. Can you give me the name or URL of the lab? Thanks!

White House Custom Colour

www.whcc.com


Nice people too.......