Learn Panoramic Photography

THE TRAINER, Arnaud Frich
Arnaud Frich is a professional photographer and trainer specialising in panoramic photography in all its forms. He has written several French and English books about this subject. His website at www.arnaudfrichphoto.com is also a mine of his experience.

TRAINING CONTENT

Elephorm trainer
Author’s introduction

DEFINITIONS
Introduction to panoramic photography

• What is a panoramic photograph?
• What is a stitched panorama?
• Principles of stitched panoramas

Understanding projection types

• The types of geometric projections
• Geometric projections by stitching
• Projections when tilting the camera

What makes a good panorama?

• A closer look at overlapping areas
• Definition of the « entrance pupil »
• Overlap

HANDLING YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT
Panoramic heads

• Locating the entrance pupil
• Camera settings
• Can you use a standard tripod head?
• Two types of panoramic heads
• The parts of a panoramic head
• How to proceed if you don’t have a panoramic head?
• Transporting camera equipment
• Setting up your tripod

In the field...

• Panoramic head settings
• Framing
• Measuring exposure time
• Final tips
• White balance
• Taking the pictures

USING THE PROGRAM
Preparing elements

• Stitch quality
• What about optical faults?
• RAW v JPG
• Preparation of JPG images

Corrections before stitching

• Chromatic aberration correction
• Vignetting correction
• Distortion correction
• White balance and luminosity correction
• Importation, organisation and saving photos

A STITCHING PROGRAM : AUTOPANO PRO
Program overview

• Stitching programs on the market today
• Program preferences
• Autopano Pro’s interface
• Help in Autopano Pro

• First steps with Autopano Pro
• Opening and analysing a folder
• Detection parameters
• Detection and strong distortion
• Editing a panorama

Aesthetic choices with panoramas

• What type of geometric projection is desired?
• Planar projection
• Cylinder and spherical projections

Autopano Pro’s tools

• The control point editor
• Reframing your panorama
• Defining the center point
• of your panoramas
• The horizon line

Geometric and tonal correction

• Luminosity correction
• Colour correction
• Image rotation
• The zoom tool
• Correction of roll
• The history tool

Panorama rendering

• Rendering: output settings
• Rendering: batch rendering and memory use
• Night photos and blending modes

Recipes for improving your panoramas

• Dealing with dynamic contrast

Retouching and finalising

• Retouching images in Photoshop
• Final retouching of a stitched panorama
• Finishing an image for a specific use

Going further

• An introduction to virtual tours
• Some principles for creating virtual tours
• Conclusion

MINIMUM CONFIGURATION PC

• Compatible Win 2000/XP/Vista
• Resolution : 1024x768
• Processor : 1,2 GHZ minimum
• DVD-ROM drive required
• Sound card required