Help - Keeping camera level whilst shooting panoramas

Steven001

Steven001

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Steven
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Hi,

I take quite a lot of panoramas and I always struggle keeping the camera level as I pan the camera around. I always start with the camera completely horizontally level, but the moment I turn the camera on A horizontal access (using the pan feature of the ball head), the angle always changes and ends up unlevel. This means that when I come to stitch the photos I end up loosing a lot of the image around the edges. Is there anything I can do to improve my technique? I'm planning a summit camp tonight to take a panorama of the Milky way and I'd like to sort out this issue!

I should say I shoot most of my panoramas in portrait mode if that makes a difference.


Thanks
 
I reckon you need to get the tripod exactly level. I have little round bubble levels built into a couple of mine and they allow me to get the tripod level before I need to worry about getting the camera level. You can either fiddle with the legs to achieve levelness or use a separate gizmo like this - https://www.manfrotto.co.uk/ball-camera-leveller .
 
I used to struggle with this. Then I modified my tripod and things became a lot easier - I put a panoramic head on top of the ball head. Now I level the camera with the ballhead and rotate the panorama head horizontally about the vertical access.

25740186874_bc843076da.jpg


Edit: Since then I've removed the original clamp from the ballhead and the panaramic head is bolted directly to the ball.
 
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ball heads are not Ideal for pans as @Alistair says they pan in the wrong place.
I have a Nodal Ninja pan bracket which I attach straight on t my manfrotto legs. I find it far easier to level the camera with the legs, rather than using a Ball or three way head. or even my levelling head.

Nothing is more accurate than the Bubble you use for levelling,

And the less you have between the legs and the camera the better, as every thing you add adds to sag or vibration.

However in practice 99% of my outdoor shots are now taken hand held or semi hand held on a monopod. It is extremely rare that I get stitching errors, and never ones that I can not correct.

Some cropping, when doing pans, is inevitable because of the stitching projections used. But getting wavy stitches through poor rotation technique is not something I have suffered since the earliest attempts.
 
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It sounds as though your problem is being caused by the centre column not being vertical. This then means that when you rotate the ball head, it's not moving in a horizontal plane. You need to ensure that the centre column is vertical, either by a bubble level on the centre column itself, not on the camera, or perhaps even taking a spirit level out with you!
 
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Tobers said:
I use one of these. You level things up to start with, then you are guaranteed a level panorama as the head is locked in place for up & down movement, but allows left/right movement.

http://www.uniqball.eu/ubh35
Click to expand...
For £300 does it make coffee too? :eek:

It seems a somewhat over-engineered/-designed solution to the problem of levelling and rotating a camera about the vertical plane. When for £20-40 you can adapt any ballhead to do the same.
 
Thanks for your replies. My tripod doesn't have a spirit level on it but I usually have one attached to my camera, but that won't tell me if the tripod is level.

A panoramic mount or similar seems to be the way to go, but there's no way I'm paying £300 for one! [emoji44] I'll have a look and see what my options are.
 
Steven001 said:
Thanks for your replies. My tripod doesn't have a spirit level on it but I usually have one attached to my camera, but that won't tell me if the tripod is level.

A panoramic mount or similar seems to be the way to go, but there's no way I'm paying £300 for one! [emoji44] I'll have a look and see what my options are.
Click to expand...

Have a go at getting some of these and stick one on your tripod.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Roun...hash=item4b0486f476:m:mt_o3et2cj8-H9SRpAaTEug
 
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Seems like a leveling base and panoramic head from amazon would make a good starting point for not a lot of money.
 
I'm a dedicated geared head shooter but my wife much prefers ball heads. We went to the recent NEC Photo Show wanting to get our hands on a Uniqball to see what they are like having heard some good reports. I have to say that they seem very well engineered and certainly worth the investment. I (just) got away without shelling out for one as Sarah had spent enough on the other stands :eek:
 
One of these is all you need.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360-Panor...081261?hash=item418fe5e02d:g:tZ4AAOSw2s1U0LDF

either mount it directly on the legs. or on a tripod head.
Problem solved and cheap as chips.

If you have clip type adjusters on your legs like a Manfrotto. use it directly on the legs, ( I can re-level them when setting up in under 15 seconds.
Other types of leg locks are not so easy, and it is then easier to level with a tripod head such as a 3 way. Balls are more difficult as you are setting all axis at once. and even good ones tend to sag a little when locking up.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
One of these is all you need.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360-Panor...081261?hash=item418fe5e02d:g:tZ4AAOSw2s1U0LDF

either mount it directly on the legs. or on a tripod head.
Problem solved and cheap as chips.

If you have clip type adjusters on your legs like a Manfrotto. use it directly on the legs, ( I can re-level them when setting up in under 15 seconds.
Other types of leg locks are not so easy, and it is then easier to level with a tripod head such as a 3 way. Balls are more difficult as you are setting all axis at once. and even good ones tend to sag a little when locking up.
Click to expand...

That's brilliant, thank you. I think I'll buy one of those and see how well it works.

I have a Red Snapper tripod which has twist-lock style legs.
 
Might try one of those myself

Just got in to panoramas and had the same levelling problem so I can see how this could help getting the Tripod level to start with
 
Or you could get a Pentax K-3 ii which has levels in the viewfinder and displays.
 
Awgydawg said:
Or you could get a Pentax K-3 ii which has levels in the viewfinder and displays.
Click to expand...
But you ideally need to level the tripod as well because otherwise you need to level each shot as you rotate round. There is still the potential of cropping out a wanted part of the image if you haven't framed loosely enough.

If you want to level any brand of camera then a hot shoe level is a cheap way of doing it
 
But he started this by not having to use the tripod, that was suggested later. If you don't have a tripod with you, the finder level will keep you straight and steady.
 
Yet again I prove myself to be an idiot. Keeping the camera level won't stop you dropping the horizon when hand held. I use the grid overlay and the in-camera levels on panorama hand held.

As the pervious posters have stated, the best results would be from a tripod.
 
Like @Tobers i too use the uniqball but it wasn't purchased specifically for panos, it was because I wanted one head for both landscapes and wildlife. I found panos to be difficult with the uniqball (both the pan and tilt of the inner ball moves when it's released) until I added a special pano clamp like the one @Alastair uses. This has not only made panos easy but also solved another uniqball issue of turning the mounting clamp direction to suit camera or lens mounted options. The uniqball is as near to an one head solution that you can get, it works like a ball head without the sideways flop, once levelled the pan and tilt stay level even when it's loose, and long lenses are a breeze too giving near gimbal like function (i.e. It can't be left at any angle unlocked).

The pano clamp from eBay @Terrywoodenpic has suggested it nearly exactly the same as the one I use. Couple that with a hotshoe spirit bubble (3 way axis) and you should be all set. The key part is setting the tripod perfectly level so that the pan is perfectly level and he camera is not tilted forwards or backwards. The pano clamp attached to a ball head should let you do this as the bubble spirit on the pano clamp will indicate a level base. Depending on focal length used you may still see some curvature in the final stitched image but it's likely to a lot less than produced tilting the camera. To get rid of that would need a no dial rail to ensure the lens is over the centre of the pivot point of the tripod head.

Edit: The problem here most of us have been talking about landscape panos where you keep the the camera level in both the horizontal and vertical axes level like @Alastair photo in post 3 and shoot a landscape that's in front of you. As soon as you tilt the camera backwards to shoot something like the milkyway and pan hoziontally you you are going to get curvature of the edges in the stitched image (I'm guessing vertical panning may exhibit some curvature too). The only thing I can think of here is to shoot the image wider than you need to take account of the cropping that will be needed later.

Do you have any examples to show the problems you are encountering, it may help us give you advise.
 
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rob-nikon said:
Like @Tobers i too use the uniqball but it wasn't purchased specifically for panos, it was because I wanted one head for both landscapes and wildlife. I found panos to be difficult with the uniqball (both the pan and tilt of the inner ball moves when it's released) until I added a special pano clamp like the one @Alastair uses. This has not only made panos easy but also solved another uniqball issue of turning the mounting clamp direction to suit camera or lens mounted options. The uniqball is as near to an one head solution that you can get, it works like a ball head without the sideways flop, once levelled the pan and tilt stay level even when it's loose, and long lenses are a breeze too giving near gimbal like function (i.e. It can't be left at any angle unlocked).

The pano clamp from eBay @Terrywoodenpic has suggested it nearly exactly the same as the one I use. Couple that with a hotshoe spirit bubble (3 way axis) and you should be all set. The key part is setting the tripod perfectly level so that the pan is perfectly level and he camera is not tilted forwards or backwards. The pano clamp attached to a ball head should let you do this as the bubble spirit on the pano clamp will indicate a level base. Depending on focal length used you may still see some curvature in the final stitched image but it's likely to a lot less than produced tilting the camera. To get rid of that would need a no dial rail to ensure the lens is over the centre of the pivot point of the tripod head.

Edit: The problem here most of us have been talking about landscape panos where you keep the the camera level in both the horizontal and vertical axes level like @Alastair photo in post 3 and shoot a landscape that's in front of you. As soon as you tilt the camera backwards to shoot something like the milkyway and pan hoziontally you you are going to get curvature of the edges in the stitched image (I'm guessing vertical panning may exhibit some curvature too). The only thing I can think of here is to shoot the image wider than you need to take account of the cropping that will be needed later.

Do you have any examples to show the problems you are encountering, it may help us give you advise.
Click to expand...

Multi row pans where the camera can point up or down can be achieved with a simple L bracket, however a proper pan bracket makes the Job far easier as they are detented to give various standard rotations.
It might be thought that this would result in a curved horizon, but if used with software like PTGui or PTAssembler it does not.
The stitching is actually plotted on a sphere centered on the lens. It is obvious that a sphere has no set horizon and, any horizon can be chosen and the image levelled in any direction. ( imagine the imagis sliding in the surface of the sphere till they are in the required position..... This spherical stitched image is then plotted onto a flat surface using various Projections, such as cylindrical, rectilinear, recti-perspective or any one of countless others.

Such software can also use a mixture of portrait or landscape images and of various sizes in to the same stitch, as long as they all overlap. the software has no difficulty placing them.

This shot was taken hand held two shots wide and two vertical, as there was no way to get it all in, within the width of the road.It was stitched in PT assembler.
I should perhaps have stitched using Recti-perspective projection as it should have kept the roof line straight.

TA3X3186C-TA3X3185C by Terry Andrews, on Flickr


This one was taken handheld 3 shots wide to avoid potential parallax issues.

TA3X3131C-TA3X3134C by Terry Andrews, on Flickr
 
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