First let me say to steiner, sorry for hi-jacking this thread
I do hope that it may help someone down the road though.

Dave,
When shooting panos I was told to shoot at f/8 maybe f/4 but nothing smaller than f/8. That information was given to me here on this forum (by you if I remember correctly) ? But again that would have been a long time ago.

What I am planning on now is to use f/8.0 meter the scene and set an average speed.

tturner,
I have not tested the globe on the flash with my fisheye. The photos in the link are a normal lens.
As far as moving the light...
If I put the light and globe on a monopod and keep it just between me and the back of the camera on the rotator head, it will not really move all that much...? thoughts?

All I know is that if we (pano driven junkies) could use a set up such as this, work load would be drastically cut.

I actually have the ABR800 ring flash for my studio and wished there were some way of incorporating this while doing panos. There is just no way this configuration would work.

All I can say at this point (until I test) is that the globe idea is the closest thing I've seen yet to pull off lighting with a flash while shooting panos.

Again steiner, my apologies.

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Dave,

Changing the aperture is affecting the "Depth of Field" and this is what is effecting the sharpness. Simply the Sigma 8mm has a sweet spot for best depth of field of F/8.0 if you are shooting a normal scene where you want focus both near and far.

Sticking with f/8.0 is correct for 95%+ of all panorama shots. Where as the non circular fisheye lenses like the 10.5mm Nikkor, Tokina 10-17mm, Sigma 10mm, Sigma 15 and Canon 15mm fisheye seam all to be better suited to f/11.0 Possibly shooting within a car where everything is much closer you would use f/4.0 or as large as you can open the lens for the extra close up (objects) sharpness.

Pixel,

Re Flash: I have never seen and real successful method. I have seen OK to good results but the amount of crap you need to carry and sort between shots and all the other things you need to be aware of like heavy reflections, glare of class and shiny surfaces just make all seem way too hard. Simply bracketing and fusing the images still seams to me a better way to go about it. But I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing any progress you make.  

One more point on shooting manually:

It is expected by "all" image fusing programs that each full set of images all have matching f/stops, shutter speeds and ISO settings. 

Re manual lens setting:

Infinity is not the optimal position to have the lens set at. The Sigma 8mm is a very forgiving lens and is basically in focus from near to far at just about any setting. That said, you can always get more from the lens. What you really need is the Hyperfocal setting for the scene being shot and the aperture being used. This requires the use of a Hyperfocal calculator (many of these online) Basically you will find that the lens position focal setting is short of the Infinity mark on the lens.

Regards, Smooth

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What, have you forgotten about me? Tour with flash

I shoot all of my tours with a flash, a Nikon Coolpix and a fisheye lens (Fc9).
At one point I was going post how I did it, but then another person from my neck of the woods started posting here and creating all kinds of drama, so I decided not to. Interestingly enough, a mod deleted all his post, making reading those threads a very odd experience. Dave, and anyone else that may want the info, I will be happy to P.M. you some tips, but I would rather that you not repost them in an open forum (feel free to pass the info on via P.M. to any of the other "good guys" ) It will take me a day or two to get something together.

As for setting the aperture, changing the aperture changes the depth of field (the distance from a point close to you to a point away from you) that is in focus. It does this by changing the size of the hole created by a set of blades in side the lens larger or smaller. A smaller hole lets in less light, but creates a larger depth of field. So in theory, you should set your lens at the smallest aperture and you would get the largest depth of field.
The problem with that is two fold. First, your shutter speeds would need to be very long to adjust for the smaller aperture, which can create a issue with subject movement, and second, most lenses are actually produce the sharpest image when opened up about three stops from "max aperture." For all intents and purposes, for most of us that will be about f8. Nice how that works out!

ETA: darn! Smooth types faster then me!

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Quote: Originally posted by Vince on December-10-2008

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What, have you forgotten about me? Tour with flash

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No Vince I hadn't forgotten about you.  It was you I was referring too when I stated the OK to Good. Your results where the better of the flash results I have seen but I was a long way from being convinced it was a better method than fusing. Still, I'm open to having my mind changed.

Regards, Smooth

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The original context for the comment is a little different, but I was once told "It's a poor craftsman that blames his tools." That being said, don't forget what I shoot with, a Nikon Coolpix 5400, a FC-e9 lens and a Kaidan rotator, are hardly "state of the art!" I have done some test with my Sigma SD-14 and a browed Cannon XTsi, sadly neither with the correct lenses, and have gotten some promising results shooting RAW. I have never thought that the way I shoot produced the best results possible, just that it it produced *better* results *faster*.
Oh, and I'm still rocking with T.W. 1.25. Without a camera that will produce image quality that will go full screen, I don't see much point in upgrading.

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Not sure how shooting at F.4 would help out in the close confines of a car interior.  A smaller stop yields a smaller depth of field is what I learned in school.  Learning to use the hyper focal distance can be a good trick.  If you set yours lens at the hyper focal distance than everything half way between the camera and the hyper focal distance and infinity will be in focus.  However, the hyper focal distance is f-stop and lens millimeter specific. 

 

Pixel - I look forward to your test results with the globe.

 

TTurner

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Quote: Originally posted by smooth on December-10-2008

It is expected by "all" image fusing programs that each full set of images all have matching f/stops, shutter speeds and ISO settings.

Regards, Smooth

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? hhmmmm, should I open Photomatix and merge "fuse" the images with these settings I'm not going to get the results I need...it's the same exact image.
I bracket my shots to -2...0...+2 which in turn is giving me three different shutter speeds...Right?

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Quote: Originally posted by Vince on December-10-2008

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At one point I was going post how I did it, but then another person from my neck of the woods started posting here and creating all kinds of drama, so I decided not to.

anyone else that may want the info, I will be happy to P.M. you some tips

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Ah yes, I just done a search on your area code to see where your neck of the woods is located...drama that included completing a tour in less than 35 minutes (sarcastically lol on that one)

I'm very interested in doing flash panoramic photography, please shoot me a pm.

Question, why are you not willing to put here to help others? I will test my globe and put all the information here for others to build upon. It's your call and I'll respect that, just wondered?

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Quote: Originally posted by tturner on December-11-2008

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Pixel - I look forward to your test results with the globe.

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I'll give it a try and you guys here will be the first to see the results.

I would not be looking for mind blowing results at this point

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f-stop explained.

Some folks refer the aperature as a large or small iris hole.  Other folks call it f/4 or f/22.  So why is f/22 a large value but a small iris hole.

Imagine that your fisheye lens is physically measured 65 millimeters across the face of the front glass [diameter].  Inside the lens barrel [behind the glass] is a multi leaf iris that when configuring the f/stop value will open and close the hole size.

Set the aperature to f/4 and the mechanism will adjust the opening to be 1/4th the 65mm lens diameter or  65 * .25 = or 16.25mm or a rather large hole which lets more light through to the film plane or sensor.

Set the aperature to f/16 and the mechanism will adjust the opening to be 1/16th [1/16 =.0625] the 65mm lens diameter or  65 * .0625= 4.06mm or a rather small hole which lets less light through to the film plane or sensor.

So the

larger the f-stop value the smaller the iris opening = less light more depth of field in focus.
smaller the f-stop value the larger the iris opening = more light less depth of field in focus.

 

Yes I had to ask my photography professor how that worked too.

Hope that helps.

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/s/
Dave
Forum Moderator for
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Pano2VR


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