Focal Length for Multi Row Panorama’s

For my Utah/Arizona trip next year I want to shoot some multi row pano’s in all the scenic wonders in that area. I’ve bought an RRS pano set up and I’m wondering what is a good focal length to shoot the multi row pano’s. 

I was also considering using the built in focus stacking capability of the D850 in conjunction with the multi row shots. Is that feasible do you think?


Thanks

First question:  I would go with 50mm or more.  The longer you can go, the easier it is to stitch without having to warp any of the frames.  If you are looking for a single focal length prime that has uncompromising quality, one of the 85mm prime lenses would be hard to beat.

Second question: Is it feasible, absolutely but take into consideration the amount of time it will take to take all of the subjects - if there are clouds, they are probably going to move significantly through the time it takes to do that.

You do need to ask yourself what the ultimate use for this panorama is.  Unless you are planning on doing large murals or billboards that will be viewed at close range, you may not need, you may not need to take more than a few frames in your pano but I do get the alure of a gigapixel type panorama and have done them myself even though I'm never likely to need that many pixels

Thanks E.J.

I’ve been watching the RRS videos on Nodal Points, Slides and all the other good stuff to do with panorama’s. I agree with your thought about D850 Focus Stacking and clouds. I think it might work depending on location. If for instance I did a 3 row set, Foreground, Middleground both focus stacked but without sky and a Background with sky not stacked. The other thing I thought of was using the A7RIII Pixel Shift providing there was no wind on vegetation that might work too. I haven’t tried the Pixel Shift yet though so I’m not sure. I have a Batis 85mm for the Sony but nothing in that range for the Nikon, closest is a 135mm.

I’ll have to have a practice before I head out there.

Would it be worth renting the Nikon 85mm PC-E?

I’ve never used one so how easy are they to use for landscapes?

Yeah, 85mm is a great FL for pano's -- tele enough there's not much barrel to require lots of warping but not so tele that you'd need several dozen frames to capture a sufficient FOV. OTH, if there is a smaller region using a 150mm or even longer is not a bad choice. It really depend on what the FOV you want is and what the ultimate resolution you're looking for.

I have a couple tripods with leveling base and ballhead and when I plan to do a pano I use the leveling base to get things level so I can more quickly pan and tilt from shot to shot. I'd guess it takes me about 4-6 seconds to take each shot. If the clouds are moving fast that can be an issue but it's not like you can't clone and heal you're way around that and when the clouds are not moving fast you should be good to go with few if any tweaking.


Brian

Mega size files are unusable tho one advantage shooting in the pano format is that the "look" of the final image will lack the distortions that would be apparent in a single shot wide angle lens image...it's why I do single row with a 85mm. I make 13 X 40-50 inch prints that are great but because I don't have a projector, I have no other way of seeing them. Shooting panos required me to develop a methodical camerawork routine so to not goof up. I shoot raw + jpeg and stitch the jpegs in the field to maintain awareness of my efforts and what the camera is doing.
Arizona has 330 sunny cloudless days per year. The light is very challenging, you will likely be shooting early and late and need to find some other activity during the day.
GL

Brian Stirling wrote:Yeah, 85mm is a great FL for pano's -- tele enough there's not much barrel to require lots of warping but not so tele that you'd need several dozen frames to capture a sufficient FOV.  OTH, if there is a smaller region using a 150mm or even longer is not a bad choice.  It really depend on what the FOV you want is and what the ultimate resolution you're looking for.

I have a couple tripods with leveling base and ballhead and when I plan to do a pano I use the leveling base to get things level so I can more quickly pan and tilt from shot to shot.  I'd guess it takes me about 4-6 seconds to take each shot.  If the clouds are moving fast that can be an issue but it's not like you can't clone and heal you're way around that and when the clouds are not moving fast you should be good to go with few if any tweaking.


Brian

Thanks Brian. One of my must visit areas is Monument Valley. I think that will make an ideal Pano scene. I've been doing the odd pano here and there for years but I want to have a serious attempt while in a really scenic area like Arizona/Utah.

Cheers

stevenmajor wrote:Arizona has 330 sunny cloudless days per year. The light is very challenging, you will likely be shooting early and late and need to find some other activity during the day.
GL

I'll have to make sure I take my sun hat and Infrared A7R  

Thanks for the advice.

MND wrote:

stevenmajor wrote:Arizona has 330 sunny cloudless days per year. The light is very challenging, you will likely be shooting early and late and need to find some other activity during the day.
GL

I'll have to make sure I take my sun hat and Infrared A7R  

Thanks for the advice.

Well that kind of depends on where in AZ - that statistic is pretty much true for the Sonoran Desert half of the state but the northern and eastern part, especially closer to the mountains is nothing like that

I live in the Phoenix Metro and it has rained once in the last 4 months.  And yes it is a cloudless sunny day