PanoTools:
Re: Need help stitching my helicopter panorama!
Douglas L. Urner 2005-Jun-08 20:04:42
Here's a thought. Around here a D70 rents for around $150/day +
about $20/day for a fisheye. Perhaps you could build a simple mount
for 4 D70s and dangle them below the hovering helicopter and trigger
them with a remote (or use the 's' models instead and use a wired
remote). The camera rental would be about a wash with the helicopter
time (assuming you only have on D70) and you'd be pretty sure to get
a good sequence. Paralax would only be due to the difference in
camera positions (probably less than a foot).
If you did this, you'd probably be able to be way more productive
with the chopper, so you could probably get quite a few different
shots and you'd save a ton of stitching time.
Doug
--
Douglas L. Urner <#removed#> Port Orchard, WA +1 360 769 5565
On Jun 8, 2005, at 10:10 :42, Piotr Popik wrote:
> 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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