PanoTools:
Re: Need help stitching my helicopter panorama!
Piotr Popik 2005-Jun-08 19:10:42
I wonder what the guys who did that sucessfully would say. Is the use of
GPS critical? Was that due to the difficult conditions (like the wind,
etc)? Sounds like a tough job, anyway.
Reagrds, Piotr
On Wed, 8 Jun 2005, James Coffee wrote:
> If nothing else this thread is making me much more appreciative of shots taken from a helicopter. I'm the kind of guy who when someone asks "can you do..." I say yes. I hope no one asks me to photograph from a helicopter and then stitch. I'll have to try to remember to say no.
>
> -Jim Coffee-
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Edward Fink
> To: #removed#
> Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 9:37 AM
> Subject: RE: [PanoTools] Need help stitching my helicopter panorama!
>
>
> Well, I got another chance at the helicopter panorama on Monday,
> but so far I haven't had any better luck stitching than last week.
>
> The helicopter company decided not give a discount for retakes -
> it cost the same $500 per hour as the first time, so I STRONGLY
> emphasized to the pilot AGAIN the need to maintain position.
>
> We went with what we thought was the easiest, simplest way:
> having the pilot pirouette in position while I sat behind him and leaned
> out as far as I could, shooting continuously around the circle. We went
> with Bernhard's suggestion to try and rotate as fast as possible, hoping
> I could finish a set before he drifted too far.
>
> We didn't move as much as last week, but we moved off center -
> it looks our circle covered about a one block radius. So far I haven't
> got a good stitch out of it.
>
> Out of desperation I finally used one of the photos as a map,
> and I drew arrows showing our location, and the direction the camera was
> facing. I made each arrow a separate Photoshop layer and named it the
> same as the image name so I can use the map to select what images to
> try.
>
> That really helped a lot to understand our movement, and by
> stacking up the different passes on top of each other I was able to find
> some places where a shot from the second pass better matches something
> on the first pass, and vice versa.
>
> Unfortunately, I found at least a couple of places where I had
> three of the compass points (4 shots with my D70/Sigma 8mm) fairly close
> together, but then the shot for the last compass point was two blocks
> away. I haven't yet tried to stitch some of the new combinations that
> I've found because of the map, but that's the next step.
>
> It took many hours to create the map. The hardest part for me,
> without any flying experience, was looking at the images and trying to
> figure out EXACTLY what the helicopter is over. Sometimes I thought I
> was looking at the west side of a building, but when I looked again
> later, I realized that it was just the shadow, and not the actual side
> of the building, meaning I was really at least slightly east of the
> building instead of west.
>
> The taller the building, the more perspective clues, but our
> wide circle went over several parking lots and small buildings that make
> it a lot harder to judge exactly where we were.
>
> Anyway, I just thought I'd pass that info along while I continue
> trying to stitch different combinations of the pictures. If anyone
> wants to see the flattened version of my map with all the location
> arrows to show how much the drift was, they're at:
>
> http://new-eden.com/temp/MapLowPasses.jpg
> http://new-eden.com/temp/MapHighPasses.jpg
>
> We really want the lower altitude (2500') shots, be we tried
> some at a higher altitude too, thinking that would give me more slack
> even if the pilot drifted. No such luck so far.
>
> (The arrow point is the estimated helicopter position, the direction is
> the camera direction. The really long arrows on the low altitude map
> indicate nadir shots that don't extend to the horizon. It's faster to
> draw a long arrow than change colors. The landing skids are so visible
> in the nadirs that to use them you'd probably need a pair almost
> perfectly 180 degree apart.)
>
> Thanks again to everyone for the many tips and suggestions! If
> the client doesn't dump me instead of the pilot, I may eventually have a
> chance to try ALL your suggestions!
>
> If I get another pilot, I'd like to show him everyone's
> suggestions and see what he'd prefer.
>
> Right now my tentative plan, if I get a third chance, is to try
> and take more responsibility instead of leaving so much to the pilot,
> and put the camera on a pole horizontally and (hopefully) rotate it
> before the pilot can drift so far. (The way Willy shoots out over a
> railing.) I've got a heavy duty, 12' telescoping light stand, and I'm
> going to stick my camera on that and do some tests out the window. That
> should also help me better deal with the landing skids. This time I
> leaned as far out as my seat belt would let me, then I held my camera
> out as far as the neck strap would allow, and I STILL got a lot of
> landing skid in the pictures.
>
>
> Ed
> #removed#
> http://www.new-eden.com/
> No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.
> -- Jim Morrison --
>
>
>
>
>
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