Affinity Photo Panorama Stitching

[@MOAB-UT]

Thanks David. I'm sure you know a lot more than me. In preparation for a soon to come trip to Death Valley and Zion NP, I've been brushing up- read two good books, watched lot's of videos and listened to 2 audible photography programs. Many say that for landscape panos have a focal length between 70-105mm'ish. I don't all all the technical reasons. They also say not to use wide angle lenses if planning to stitch. Maybe that is why you have an issue with more than 3. I also definitely adjust for my nodal point and for each focal length. I made a chart using my lenses. I had a focal slide laying around that I use for my macro shots. I stuck that on my tripod ballhead and it works great to help avoid the dreaded parallax error when doing pano's. Basically, the longer my focal length, the more I slide the body of the camera back. It's not much, maybe from 1" to 3" back from the center of my tripod mounting plate. That and overlapping 35%-40% seems to help. I have a leveling base head so I know that I am level- not just the camera- the base must be level or it will creep and be off as you pan. I also shoot raw and in a vertical orientation using my L bracket. Other small things that add up- I lock my mirror, adjust my white balance, turn off VR and use a timer or cable release. I also use the ETTR technique. I don't use a polarizer filter but I did just buy a 6 stop ND filter. One book says you can use it to not only blur water (via a longer exposure) but also point it up and blur the clouds- enhance the clouds look of movement. Editing is a whole other animal- still trying to learn about layers in Affinity. Slowly getting it. Downloaded Gimp but could not figure it out. Cheers!

[@mattlewis5865]

What a delightful tutorial. I'm getting closer and closer to making the switch you have. I would love to see a workflow video where you show how you handle a batch of photographs. I usually end up with a few hundred every time I go out and I can't imagine how I would deal with them without lightroom.

[@DavidTothill]

And there you have hit the nail on the head Matt ... But let me explain. When returning from a shoot, you process your RAW images first in Lightroom and then pop over to photoshop to do any needed 'Editing' of the keepers. Affinity is an editing software package that compares favourably to photoshop and has a very capable Raw processing module, but it can not compete with Lightroom as a batch processing and organising software. For me, breaking free of the monthly subscription was very important. For many others it is not an issue, so why throw all the balls in the air ... ?

[@curtiswrigley]

You really seem to have an affinity for this stuff. Love the landscape and framing of your shot. Bonus points for the choice of music.

[@DavidTothill]

Thanks as always for a fun comment Curt

[@MOAB-UT]

Nice. How do I edit the original RAW files (10 in my Pano) first globally (all at one vs one at a time.) I would rather do this before dragging them into a merge where I believe editing options to the rendered file are limited. I have Affinity photo and NEO. Thanks!

[@DavidTothill]

Hello 'D' What you are looking to achieve as far as I'm aware can not be done with Affinity and I have no knowledge of NEO. IT can however be done with DxO software which I use in conjunction with Affinity.

[@MOAB-UT]

@@DavidTothill Thanks David. I just want to edit and create a nice pano. It's surprising that a powerful software like Affinity cannot do that. It seems fairly basic and it does everything else- many things that are not even needed. I would prefer to not have to download and/or buy another program. So just to clarify- I will have e.g., 10+ images. I will then want to edit so they look nice, then merge them into a single Pano. In Affinity, I think you can edit the pano after you create it but it is only to a very limited degree. I don't think it is a raw file at that point. I can edit BEFORE I do the merge but then each of the 10 images will look different. So you are saying DxO has a global raw edit feature?

[@DavidTothill]

@@MOAB-UT Yes, I got your drift, although for me a “Ten Photo Pano” is a bit surprising, your business not mine. Depending on when you purchased ’Affinity’ you will have paid between 30-50 $, £, €, That is astonishing value for a lifetime licence of an enormous and capable piece of software. However, it can’t do everything ! That is why I reluctantly use the expensive, excentrique and often infuriating DxO software. It would allow you to import your raw images and edit one, whilst applying all adjustments simultaneously to as many others you choose ! It can’t then stitch them into a pano. Life’s a beach DG

[@MOAB-UT]

@@DavidTothill Thanks. I'm still fairly new and learning perand learning. Can you tell me how many images you use for your panos? One person posted up to 20 is great others I've seen do 5 or 6. I practice today with 10 and my computer handled it fine I just figured more is better

[@DavidTothill]

@@MOAB-UT I don’t recall ever shooting a pano of more than four shots, three is the more common for me, using a wide angle lens 14-24mm BUT, every photographer works out what works for him/her. I personally find after about three shots even with say 25% overlapping for the stitch, the composition starts to get polluted with stuff like pylons, telephone masts or other non photogenic elements I don’t want. “more is better’” DG and some say less is more. Enjoy the little hurdles you encounter on the way and certainly don’t listen to anything I say because like you, I’m still learning