Wide Angle vs Standard

[HK Photographer]

For my drone I have two lens options: Wide Angle, Standard. 

Provided I can capture the same data (i.e. 3 shots with wide angle vs 6 shots with standard), which lens is preferred for creating panoramas with PTGUI? 

Why? 

[PTGui Support]

Hi,

You can get the same panorama with any kind of lens. The only
differences are the number of images required to cover the entire
panorama, and the resulting resolution of the panorama.

If you need a very high resolution image, use the standard lens. But you
will need to take more images (more rows and more columns) to cover the
same area. Stitching might be more work.

If you don't need the resolution, it gets much easier by using the wide
angle lens.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

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[Barney Meyer]

Hi HK Photographer

The way that I handle any panorama shoot preparation is to calculate the pixels/degree of the sensor/lens combination.

If you tell us which drone/ sensor spec lens diagonal FOV then I can calculate the exact size of panorama which you can achieve.

As Joost said, you can get the same panoramic view with any sensor/lens combination.

The amount of detail that you can see depends on the  pixels/degree (resolution) AND the visual acuity of the atmosphere.

Kind regards, Barney

[Bob Kaufman]

I've read this multiple times and am still a little confused. Here is a side-by-side of the same scene:  . The top was shot with a 55mm (medium format) lens, the bottom with a 40mm lens. I wanted a longer lens (55mm) to bring in the distant mountains, that is to increase their size relative to the foreground objects. But, the 55mm didn't enable me to capture enough sky. So then I shot it with the 40mm which did enable me to include enough sky. Resolution is not an issue since each frame is 150mP. 

You say "you can get the same panorama with any kind of lens." But isn't the relationship between the background objects and foreground objects different with the longer lens? 

Related, since I have all the pixels I need,  are there parameters for transforming a stitched image (such as in Photoshop) to make it appear more like I saw it with the naked eye? Or is that something I should be doing in PT Gui before outputting the image? 

My default tends to be the Cylindrical projection. 

Thanks so much for helping me understand this!

Bob 

[John Houghton]

On Friday, September 22, 2023 at 1:06:02 PM UTC+1 Bob Kaufman wrote:

 

You say "you can get the same panorama with any kind of lens." But isn't the relationship between the background objects and foreground objects different with the longer lens?

 Bob, The focal length of the lens used makes no difference to the relative sizes of foreground and distant objects.  That just changes the angle of view captured.  It's the viewpoint that controls the relative sizes.  If you want to increase the size of the mountains relative to the near objects, you need to position the camera further back  from both.

John

[PTGui Support]

On 22-09-2023 11:42, Bob Kaufman wrote:
> I've read this multiple times and am still a little confused. Here is
> aside-by-side of the same scene

> <https://www.dropbox.com/s/sptzbjm7vadzeem/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-22%20at%201.34.07%20AM.png?dl=0>:  . The top was shot with a 55mm (medium format) lens, the bottom with a 40mm lens. I wanted a longer lens (55mm) to bring in the distant mountains, that is to increase their size relative to the foreground objects. But, the 55mm didn't enable me to capture enough sky. So then I shot it with the 40mm which did enable me to include enough sky. Resolution is not an issue since each frame is 150mP.

>
> You say "you can get the same panorama with any kind of lens." But isn't
> the relationship between the background objects and foreground objects
> different with the longer lens?

No, this only depends on the viewpoint. The thing is: with a longer lens
you're used to taking a step back in order to fit the same content in
the image. This step back is what's changing the perspective, not the
longer lens.

> Related, since I have all the pixels I need,  are there parameters for
> transforming a stitched image (such as in Photoshop) to make it appear
> more like I saw it with the naked eye? Or is that something I should be
> doing in PT Gui before outputting the image?

A flat image will never give the same experience, because the scene was
all around you and your eyes have a wide field of view. You would need a
VR headset to replicate that.

> My default tends to be the Cylindrical projection.

Yes that would probably work the best for these kind of scenes.

Joost

[Bob Kaufman]

Now I get it! Thank you both for that explanation. My instinct has always been to get closer to the subject, because the subject appears larger to the naked eye. But that actually makes the background smaller relative to the subject! 

I'm trying to create panos where there isn't a lot of dead space--areas without interest--in the finished pano. If the elements of interest in the scene are all the same distance away, I can just use the right length lens to fill the frame with them. If they aren't, you're saying get further away and use a longer lens to compress them together. How about in situations where I can't stand further away and some elements of interest are close, others farther away? I think you're saying that's just not going to be a good pano composition...Is that right? 

[Barney Meyer]

Hi Bob, John & Joost

Thanks for those amazing image comparisons Bob! Well done, what a great scene! Also looks bloody cold to a boy from Australia😅

I opened your images on my 1.2m wide curved screen and they blow me away.

However, the 40mm lens shows more sharpness and clarity than the 55mm, both in foreground and the distant mountains.

I think that you may be able to bring out more clarity in the 55mm pano using Topaz Photo AI?

May I ask, what drone are you using and what are the camera and lens models?

Joost & John, I must also congratulate you on PTGUI Pro. This has been such a solid workhorse and I am using it (and recommending it) to members of the Melbourne Camera Club for the new Panorama/Drone group that we are forming. This 1890's camera club will be dragged into the modern era screaming and shouting with glee! They're still fixated on Adobe solutions which give you no control over stitching.

Bob, you have posed an interesting new challenge: Using mixed lenses in a panorama. This is specially an issue when using a longer lens like 200mm and trying to avoid the problems of out of focus near objects.

Start with this 3Gpx panorama captured with Inspire 2/X7/50mm lens:

https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/aerialviews/xavier-college/

Best viewed on a wide screen, not a mobile phone...it is 3Gpx!

Click on the hotspot to see the DOF problem in this 500,000px wide panorama from Heidelberg Town Hall.

https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/melbourne-from-heidelberg-town-hall-4gpx/

( A BIG PLUS for PTGUI Pro to be able to stitch this size. Also a BIG THUMBS DOWN to Photoshop, which can't post-process a pano this big. AFFINITY Photo did a great job). Apologies for one blurred frame - that was my error!🤔.

The Virtual Tour was created in Pano2VR, which also has no problems with very large panoramas.

Apologies for the long-winded explanation, but I think that a virtual tour with mixed resolution is not yet possible.

BUT, you can capture that excellent clarity and resolution with a 40mm lens, then use a longer lens to capture smaller panos of distant objects and bring those out in an iFrame using virtual tour technology. 

I have some examples of that if you think it may work for you.

I like a 50mm lens on SonyA7R4 very much to capture 3Gpx panoramas using Nodal Ninja Mecha and I am happy to sacrifice sharpness in very close objects and get a great depth of field for objects further away. Another example of this, created with PTGUI Pro of course!:

https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/hotham-from-clocktower/

Best Regards

Barney Meyer
We create Virtual Reality for you

Digital Technologist
Professional Panographer
Virtual Tour Creator
E:   barney....@gmail.com
W:  hiddenmelbourne.com.au
M:  0409 522093

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[John Houghton]

On Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 1:28:08 AM UTC+1 Barney Meyer wrote:

Apologies for the long-winded explanation, but I think that a virtual tour with mixed resolution is not yet possible.

For shooting landscapes with multiple rows, I have tried setting the focus differently for each row so as to get the near foreground and far distance at the horizon in focus.  You then assign each row its own lens profile.  Masking is used to select the sharp bits.  That works reasonably well, but I have often considered using focus stacking to overcome the problems.  I have a Canon camera and should be able to do this with the open source application Magic Lantern, which provides additional useful features to the standard set provided by Canon.  I must get round to trying this sometime.

John