Playing with ice

[BobS]

Thanks to Andy, I have discovered ICE and here is my first attempt using the program to stitch together 4 shots taken in July. The two small shadows in bottom centre are my better half and me. I can see an obvious join about 40% in from the left so will have to do better next time. The program was incredibly easy to use but I reckon it'll take a bit longer to get it right.

Swanage, Dorset

[Zuiko]

Re: Playing with ice

Hi Bob, for a first attempt that's excellent - very impressive.

[BobS]

Re: Playing with ice

Thanks John. However, having had another look at the original unreduced version, the join is very obvious. As 'Sir' used to say, "Could do better".

[Greytop]

Re: Playing with ice

That's a pretty good result for a first attempt Bob, nice job
Water and especially the sea can be a real challenge when stitching images just because of it's dynamic nature. Mind you it is possible to catch it just right on the odd occasion

I use too use ICE and find it to be a very good stitching program. The general ground rules I apply when preparing for some shots to be be stitched are:-
Set focus to manual then lock the exposure to brightest or near brightest part of the area to be photographed then take a series shots panning steadily and overlapping by approximately 20-30% of each image. Using a tripod makes this easier but steady arms and hands work just fine (I find).

Here's one stitched with ICE from the same neck of the woods as your shot (Lyme Regis in this case). I seem to remember this was is made up of three shots and I managed to get lucky with the sea some how



Edit: Sorry Bob, of course Lyme Regis is pretty much the other end of Dorset from a coast line perspective. Not sure why I thought it was closer because I do know the area reasonably well (must be my age )

[BobS]

Re: Playing with ice

Thanks Huw. The four shots I stitched weren't taken with the idea of creating a pano so I didn't take much care with them. We'd stopped off in Swanage for a very brief visit on the way back from a wedding in Somerset and was the result of a quick swivel on the right foot 'without much care and attention'. More like a dance step leftover from the celebration!

I'll try and remember to always pack a tripod and spirit level in the car in future now that I've discovered ICE (thanks to Andy's post). I'll have a go with Elements 8 too now that I've got the bit between my teeth so thanks for your advice.

[shenstone]

Re: Playing with ice

Very nice overall image. I like the corners being dark as it frames the scene above.

Your obvious problem has (as been said before) partly due to exposure differences, but also partially due to waves moving which are always a problem and if your shots include waves there is often no other way than getting into the detail with photoshop (or similar) and correcting the problems by hand with detailed cloning

Regards
Andy

[BobS]

Re: Playing with ice

Very nice overall image. I like the corners being dark as it frames the scene above.

Your obvious problem has (as been said before) partly due to exposure differences, but also partially due to waves moving which are always a problem and if your shots include waves there is often no other way than getting into the detail with photoshop (or similar) and correcting the problems by hand with detailed cloning

Regards
Andy

[Greytop]

Re: Playing with ice

Hi Bob,

Helicon filter http://http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconfilter.html is a neat and quite powerful photo editor (Jpeg, Tiff or RAW).
The last release of version 4 is available as a free unrestricted download, look for the link to Download Helicon Filter 4.93.2 Free (32.4 Mb) on this pagehttp://www.heliconsoft.com/filter_downloads.html

I've used it for quite a while and find it to be a very good and useful package.

[shenstone]

Re: Playing with ice

Thanks Andy....Do you know of any more brilliant 'freebie' programs?

Bob

I stated a thread on that quite some time ago ... probably a few updates need mentioning

http://e-group.uk.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4792

Regards
Andy

[BobS]

Re: Playing with ice

Thanks Huw and Andy, I've had a quick look at the Helicon Filter site and will download the program. I've been using FastStone Image Viewer for a while which quickly resizes, crops and adjusts contrast etc., and found it worth a donation to the authors. Much faster than Elements 8 for those operations.