some panorama portrait orientation advice please

If I want to take a series of images to stitch for a panorama and turn my tripod head to fit the camera in a portrait position thus gaining more foreground etc. the camera and lens is now no longer pivoting over the turning centre of the tripod, and in fact is, I think, moving away from the subject and I assume that this is not a good idea due to the creation of parallax problems. Am I correct or does the average panorama software as included in PS or Microsoft ice etc. sort this out?
There seem to be various bits of kit around at some fiendishly expensive prices that will get the camera back over the tripod centre but are they necessary is really my question

I've only done panorama's handheld which, if I understand you correctly, would be more of a shift than on a tripod i.e. pivoting round the waist. After stitching shots together using "Panorama Maker 3" i don't think you can see any difference

Barrie, yes I think so as well but to I think where it will go pear shaped is in a interior panorama with, for example, a tiled floor.I think for a mountain range type panarama it will not be a problem.

Could you keep the camera in landscape and do Two sweeps, the second pointing the camera down to capture the forground?

Dunno never tried and its dark now and I dont have a tile floor!!

The tutor at my digital class suggested it the other week as a way of getting pixels into an image. 2up 2down=4x10MP=40MP. As you say though never tried it.

No. This was taken with 16-45 on tripod and the untouched files were fed into PS. Manual focus and exposure were used.That is a full 180 deg inside Durham Cathedral. I think you will have problems with a tiled floor.I have used the method Barrie describes outdoors and it worked well.



John

Is that two rows or from the waist John?

Hi Barrie,One row of five images on tripod at 16mm.

John

This two up and two down method I understand how to take them, but does the software stitch them automatically just like a single row?
The reason for my original question was to get more in top to bottom in a one row set by using portrait mode but I am concerned about then not being central over the tripod pivot centre and I wonder what effect that might have.

I have done it before but with 35mm film. You would need a tripod head that is either 'geared' or that is able to show you the angle and degree you take the picture with. You then have to write down every picture you take with the degree and angle taken plus if you do it with natural light you will have to be fast so that the light does not change.
Best is an assistant who takes down the shots and degrees and you just work the camera as quick as possible.
Without a head that has no gears or degrees it is nearly impossible to do the 'up and down' shots.
Have a go, you have nothing to loose and eventually you will be able to pull it of and it does not cost you a fortune as it has me with 35mm film.
Hope that helps a bit

Turning the camera in portrait orientation won't matter IF you don't have anything in the (close)foreground. If you do have something in the foreground, it will either be "fuzzy" or double, depending upon the proximity of the foreground and stitching program used.

A very good program to assemble pano, and it's free, is Microsoft ICE.

I found a site about stitching and it has set of sample images to down load taken in two rows and microsoft ice and PS pano stitcher both take the two layers and combine them fine.
so now to try tomorrow in daylight and see what effect being off centre of the tripod has [if any]

Hey! That Microsoft ICE works great, just tried it on a handheld pano which PSE7 had failed to line up perfectly. ICE nailed it, although the slight vignetting of the lens has resulted in a slightly uneven sky.

9 vertical images, handheld...




Full-screen: link

Just found this post after having been away for a couple of weeks...

Some of the forum members that have been around a while will remember that I used to and still occasionally shoot using a Fuji GX617 for pano's. Over the last year or so I have slowly been weaning myself off this film eating beast and doing more and more digital pano's...

About 3 months ago I invested in one of the manfrotto panoramic heads. It certainly does make a difference, even with regular outdoors distance scenic landscapes. For any shots where there is anything closer to the camera it really does help the stitching process to get the nodal point sorted so that you rotate the camera around the 'correct' axis.

It's not night & day differences but enough to notice and enough to make it worthwhile doing if you are going to do lots of stitching. For info I'm using CS4 for the stitching work. Examples can be seen on my website, look at the "East Coast" .link galleries.

I did some hand-held panos while on holiday recently and it's clear to see the difference.

I'll see if I can find time to post some examples as I've shot Cromer pier with the GX617 and both with and without the proper pano head