How to determine lens nodal point for panoramic photography
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- Опубликовано: 10 июл 2024
- In response to requests from viewers of my panorama video "How to Create a Multi-row Pano", this video explains how to determine the nodal point(s) for your lens(es).
lesterpickerphoto.com
The equipment I use and shown in the video is as follows: Gitzo 3541 tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head, Really Right Stuff leveling base (Item Code: TA-4-LB-HK), Really Right Stuff Multi-Row Pano Elements Package, LR.
I now use Really Right Stuff tripods exclusively
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Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ball Head
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For those saying this is too long, please understand that this is the level of detail someone would go into when you're in a workshop and a professional photographer is teaching you. The fact that Lester is putting this up for free on RUclips is very kind of him. I certainly learned a lot. Thank you Les!
Vaibhav, thank you for understanding. I do tend to go into detail and in today's world there are many people who have little time and patience. I understand that my videos are not for everyone. Fortunately, nearly 3,000 people "liked" the video so far and only 85 gave it a thumbs down. I hope you have subscribed and will continue to watch. Please let me know if there are any photography subjects you would like me to cover.
Amen ! Loved it and learnt a lot. Thanks Lester !
It is even simpler that this. You only need to do it once if you use the same camera and lens. After you find the point you can mark your lens where it is and refer to the mark next time to set it up in seconds.
When you go to a "workshop" you have paid for a verbose trainer to make you think you are getting your money's worth by taking 5x the time a concise person needs to communicate an idea. People like this is why RUclips has 1.25/1.5 playback speeds.
@@johnsmith1474 : probably the best advice regarding this video "workshop" - LOL!
Extremely helpful! Very well done, clear and concise with many useful hints and tips. Thanks so much!
Hands down one of my favourite videos on RUclips. Legend.
Thank you!
Clear, well organized and entertaining. Not an easy task with a subject as clear as a politician trying to explain, well, anything. Cheers …
Thanks Dave. Glad you enjoyed it.
12:15 - this is where he shows how to find the nodal point on the tripod.
(not a criticism, but that's all I was looking for)
Yep, 3 minutes of info in 20 minutes!
@@forkitover1 For someone who has a basic understanding of the subject matter - a lot of people don't and they can benefit from the whole video, so I wouldn't judge too harshly.
I would say 16:16
@@forkitover1 you bitch
Lester, I just found you and your videos... This is the first one that I've watched. I must say that it was very informative and well produced. Thank you and your team, I'm looking forward to watching the rest.
Les,
Great job on this tutorial. Very clear, concise and enough variation for people that it's usable in a lot of ways. Thank you for putting it together!
Tim, thank you for your kind comments and best of luck with your panos.
Finally someone who explains well!!!!!!!
Pavel, thank you!
Thank you very much. People say it is to long, it isn't this is the best tutorial I ever have seen on RUclips about setting up the equipment to make panorama photos and everything is well explained in detail ( finally) again thanks.
Thanks, Mark. Just glad it helps and hope that you'll capture some terrific panos.
Lester, first time I have come across your videos. Also, today I received what I thought was the final piece of gear for my new tripod. I now stand corrected. I need at least a focusing rail to do the nodal point stuff you just taught me. Very straightforward and properly explained. Thanks very much.
Great explanation, I love the story with the thumb to explain parallax. Also an easy way to do the trick with live view. Thank you very much!
You made the process so easy to understand and set. Great teacher as well as a pro photographer. Subscribed.
Many thanks Lester, this is the clearest, most user-friendly explanation of the parallax phenomenon and how to overcome it that I've ever seen!
Wow! What a nice compliment. Thanks, Mark. Glad it was helpful.
That was an amazing lesson. I made my first attempt at a pano today, and after seeing how Photoshop struggled with it, I clearly didn't know the information in this video. Many thanks Lester!
Finally, some one explains this process well. thanks Mr Picker !
Hi Lester, Thank you for putting this together. Excellent clip, simplicity at its best. You have cleared the forest from the trees (Y)
Absolutely phenomenal instruction! Really trying to get into landscape photography, and for the weeks of "instructional" videos I've watched, this is hands down the most thorough in picking a technical topic and explaining the reasons behind and methodologies for achieving desired results.
HI! Thank you so much for your very kind review. Much appreciated and wishing you the best of luck with your panos.
Wow! That was amazing. I've never heard that before. Great tutorial, thank you so much for sharing this.👍🏾
Phelix:
Thanks for the compliment. If it helped I'm happy.
Excellent instructions on how to find the proper adjustment. For what it's worth, I enjoyed your conversational style of presenting the subject, you came across as very friendly.
Thanks so much. I appreciate that!
Thanks, Tom. Much appreciated and best of luck with your panos.
I am definitely an amateur but found this expanded my understanding of the lens / camera interaction and well worth the time spent. I think there's enough movement on the gimbal head mounts to facilitate this technique. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for taking the time to put up this video. I look forward to using the info to take my panos to the next level
Lester, Thank you very much for your video! Very well explained and demonstrated!
Damn! That's one of the most usefull videoinstruction I have ever seen! Thank you so much Lester!
Thank you, Romunas! I hope it helps you get great panos! And stay tuned for our new RUclips channel launch later this Fall.
Thank you Lester for your details explaining. It’s a very informative video. I hope you’re well and still making beautiful photographs!!!
You are very welcome. Thank you for your kind comments. I’m well and still photographing and teaching photography. Wishing you the very best.
Wonderful tutorial !!! Your one of my best teacher from whom I learned new skills about landscape photography on youtube.
Thank you !!!
best regards
Thank you, Kamran! Best of luck with your photography.
Thanx . Greatly. Unlike many educational video offerings, you are complete and concise.
Thanks so much, Dave. Best of luck with your panos.
Sir: Thanks you made my Day. You’re the best Teacher I found in RUclips
Thank you, Daniel. What a nice thing to say. Best wishes to you with your panos!
A really helpful, easy to understand video - on a subject that can otherwise get confusing in a hurry. Thanks much.
Bob, you are welcome. I hope you get some wonderful panos.
Well organized, clear and easy to understand explanation. Well done!
Thanks, Alessandro. Now go out and nail some wonderful panos!
Thank you. I lost the paper I had all my calibration info on so this "refresher course" was helpful. This time, I'll add it to a note on my phone.
Best explanation of a seemingly complex procedure. You have made the complicated easy to understand and I thank you for that. This is a brilliant tutorial.
Tom: Thank you for your nice comments! Happy shooting!
Thank you a hundred times! A simple and well explained tutorial. I finally get it1
Thank you, Lucy! And best of luck with your panos.
wasted a solid hour trying to set up the nodal point on a nodal ninja. then watched this video. then set up the nodal point in 20 seconds. HUGE thanks!!
I would like to thank you for taking the time to explain in detail and for the tremendous effort you put into the shooting.
Fantastic video and love the way you've got the information across!
The best explanation on how to find the nodal point so far that I`ve come across. Thanks for taking time to do this. Hope i get some good shots this time around
Thank you, Satrajit! Best wishes and feel free to share your results with my viewers and readers of my blog. Send it to me via email from my website (lesterpickerphoto.com).
Wow this video was the best most detailed video I’ve seen yet. Thank you for sharing such great content and expert knowledge.
What a cool wall with the panorama! I once thought I'd take a huge panorama by walking down Main Street about 1/4 mile, taking a shot across the street about every 10 steps. It took quite a bit of time and effort. Of course, it didn't work out because of the parallax. So I put all the frames into a neat hyperlapse video.
Thanks, Miley! Why not send us a link to that video?
A wonderfully thorough explanation.
Thank you very much for this tutorial. It was immensely helpful.
Thank you for your kind comment, Shai. Best of luck with your panos.
Brilliant explanation Lester. Thanks a million for putting this together .........Thank you
Thanks, Solo. So nice of you to leave a nice comment. Best of luck with your panos.
Nice and clear explanation, for the more techy ones just make sure that the rotation point coincide with centre of the aperture leaves. Some principles as to to set up a gimbal head where you use the centre of gravity instead of the centre of the shutter leaves to balance the camera for two completely different shooting purposes, hence two different tripod heads; one to eliminate parallax and the other to make the camera/lens unit feel weightless, 99% of cases the two setup points are different as the two centres do not reside in the same place, the “C” bracket head can be used as a gimbal with great results whilst the gimbal can be set to pivot on the nodal point but it will be awkward to use.
Not as awkward as your prose.
Thank you for these clear and detailed explainations. All words were useful in my opinion.
So many videos only talk about level adjustment or right angle marks and say nothing about the let's say "nodal point" fine adjustment.
I am on my way to shoot some panos in the french Bassin d'Arcachon.
So many nice views and skies to shoot there.
Al, good luck with your panos. What a lovely area the Bassin d'Arcachon is!
Lester, great demonstration. Using live view function makes this so much easier. Many thanks!
Glad it helped, Andrew. Best of luck with your panos!
outstanding. the clearest explanation of this topic I've seen so far. Typically by the time someone is done explaining what the 'nodal point' is you really have no idea what they're talking about.
good job.
Thanks, Trevor. I really appreciate your taking the time to send this. Best wishes for some great photography!
Very good presentation with great information presented in an easy to comprehend manner - thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge
Well, well done! Panorama is one of my favorite landscape forms and the one on your wall (seen at 2:16) is truly impressive. I started out carrying a 35mm camera and a Fuji GX617 , which I remember Galen Rowell kidding me about how much I carried with me. Now it is a Nikon D800 and the Really Right Stuff pano heads - and it's a LOT faster and lighter! Great Job!
Thank you, Gary. So, it's me who is impressed! Galen Rowell, one of my very favorite photographers. I still get sad at his untimely death. Anyway, that pano on our studio wall is 15 images across and 3 rows. It spans 25 feet. Taken in Iceland.
Thank you Lester. Very informative and useful. All the best. Simon
Thank you, Simon. Glad you found it useful. Good luck with your panos.
Thanks Lester! Great video and a reference for all of us.
Lester, Thanks for the tuition, your video is brilliant and easy to understand, I put the information into practice and I am now producing better images, thanks very much for sharing.
Fantastic and detailed explanation! Thank you for sharing,
That is the best explanation on model I have ever seen. Thank you. I now know!
Thank you for the comment. Glad it was helpful.
Hi! Very good videos! I use to make panoramas with the Ninja Nodal and a wide angle lens. I'm interested to try pano with the 70-200 like you do. Do you a website to see some of your work? Thanks, cheers for Mexico!
lesterpickerphoto.com
Just what I was looking for. Thank you so much for putting this together.
You are welcome! Glad that it helped. Stay tuned for more videos coming in the Fall.
You're a very good teacher and very kind for sharing your knowledge and time.
Marcellus Kimontait Thank you Marcellus!
I can hardly believe that I was getting away with my "don't worry just take lots of overlaps " ever stitched together in photoshop. Then all of a sudden in the 2021 version of photoshop everything sopped working. This was a wonderful talk, and I thank you very much Lester..Outstanding. I only have a standard tripod so I am going to be up against it, but panoramas is where I am so I must resolve things .Most of my panoramas are about eight frames wide and I usually have a3 rows, and I have been using focal length far too wide at maybe 50mm equivalent. .
Hi, Lester! Thanks for your way of finding a nodal point! It's awesome! I set up my panoramic head in a few seconds. And this after a week of wandering on the Internet. Tnx a LOT!
You are so welcome! Glad it helped. Good luck with your panos!!
Hello Lester, Appreciate your time and sharing the knowledge with simple explanation and the tips to hold on to the measurements.
You are most welcome, Sivakumar. Now go out and make great panos! Best of luck.
Superb! ...And, as always, fine equipment makes a big difference. Add to that, waiting for the ideal time at exceptional locations and you're a pro. Thanks so much.
Thanks for your comments, Michael!
A first-rate presentation, Lester. Thanks !
Thanks! I'm thinking of using this strategy a lot in the future. And as I noticed the key way to actually just set the nodal point with the two stick, it may actually be possible to put it up every time on the field using two strings attached to branches in line with the center of the position of the tripod where it is going to shoot the panorama! So this way you are capable of using this technique randomly with any lens at any focal length! You also can set it up with a more inexpensive tripod head. Yet it still need a specialized camera support to make it rigid, convenient and fluid. Amazing pictures on your walls!
Thanks, Marc. Here's wishing you good luck with your panos. Please feel free to share a few with me and I'll post them if you wish.
Thank You for a very well explained process for finding the nodal point!
Wonderful Video!! Great explanation of the Principles of Parallax, and Nodal Points, as well as the how to determine them for lenses. Thank you for teaching us all!
Thank you! Glad it helped. Feel free to write if you have any questions. Also, please share one or two of your panos by sending to my website address. Full credit to you and my viewers love to see others' efforts. Good shooting!
The best explanation I have seen on this topic!
Thank you, a very easy explanation of the procedure. All my questions on the proper way to find the nodal point answered.
You are most welcome, Tony. Glad it helped.
Many thanks for this. It was most helpful and now I own even more RRS gear! I will be mounting on a pano clamp and BH40.
This is the most helpfull video about the Nodal point. Thank you Mr.Picker
You are welcome, Alain. Best oif luck with your panos. You may want to check out this blog: lesterpickerphoto.com/2020/02/13/span-classwhitemulti-shot-panos/span/
Super helpful Lester!! Great and simple explanations. Everything was straight forward following your instructions. Nice video and useful additional info. Thanks and greetings from Spain.
Thank you, Marcos. I'm pleased that it helped. Best of luck with your panos. Feel free to send me an email with an example of a good pano you did.
Hello Mr. Picker. I watch your videos whenever I find time. These are very useful and instructive videos for us. I would like to thank you for sharing your experiences that you got with many years. There is an idiom that says: If the tree has a lot of fruit, it bends. I wish I had met and worked with you before.
Shukran, Sadeeki. Thank you for your very kind comments. I also thank you for the idiom. It is always good to keep this in mind as we walk through life. Now that we have met we can work together from now on... still a blessing.
You are a gifted teacher! Very clear and to the point! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!!!
Thank you so much, Terry!
I am at the point of learning panoramic photography and you explained this fantastically clear and understandable. Thank you.
Thanks, Eddie and best of luck with your panos.
The best explanation of. a practical method of finding the nodal point. Thank you.
WOW... What a fantastic video Lester!! I have a 7.5mm fisheye arriving tomorrow, and will be purchasing a nodal head soon. This has been such a huge help.
Thank you, Nick. Stay tuned for some other videos we will be doing this year. Good shooting!
I must say humbly: Thank You & Tim W. I certainly appreciate your time and respect your information. Very precise/detailed exactly what I was looking for. (What my clients ask of me) Such an awesome class for us!
Thank you, Carlos. I'm pleased that it helped.
So well explained. A trully lesson on photography. Thank you very much for sharing such important knowledge and most important explaining it in a simple manner. Huge fan from now on.
Thank you for your comments!
Awesome video! Lengthy but never boring. Thanks!
Thanks, Michael. Glad you got something out of it. Wishing you good shooting!
Very interesting and well explained point: most useful. Thank you for the lesson Lester.
Thank you, Natale. I'm pleased you found it helpful.
Very good explanation. You have some very nice equipment. Thanks for taking the time.
Thank you, Graham. You are most welcome. Good luck with your panos.
After watching your video I thought you're so logical, I mean your mind is. Absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for the explanation of what the nodal point is and how to achieve it.
I am flattered, Hoang. Thanks for your kind words.
An excellent explanation of how to ascertain the nodal point for a given lens. Thank you, Lester! Your beautiful panoramic photography wall enlargements are stunning indeed, and certainly expemplify the Image Quality obtainable using the technique you describe.
As I don't have the photographic equipment in this video, I was lucky to be able to create highly detailed panoramas, but much smaller enlargements (10"x36", for example), using 4 stitched 24 MP .tif images with a very sharp Fujinon XF35mm f/2 lens on an X-Pro2 vertically mounted on a decent Oben Carbon Fiber tripod. Of course, your technique and recommendation to make use of the lens' nodal point, besides beneficial for printing large, as you stated, also avoids the unfortunate necessity of losing image information in post-processing when cropping top-to-bottom across the image! Happy Holidays to you, sir!
I was just curious about the term "nodal point". No interest in Panos or the equipment necessary. However once you started teaching I was in for the full video. VERY WELL DONE.
Great, thank you - a clear step by step explanation and the tip about live view is going to be very useful.
Thanks for the comprehensive information. It has been very helpful to me.
Very useful piece of information. Loved panorama picture on your wall
This is still one of my favorite videos on youtube for setting the nodal point! 👍👌
Thanks so much for those kind words, Chris.
Thank you for the information, you took your time to explain but for me it was worth watching. Most of the time quick doesn't mean best, and you made me understand it better how to do it. 👍
Thank you, Luis. Please visit again as we will be adding new videos later this year. I promise to try to get to the point sooner in my new videos!
Fantastic video, thanks for all your help, Bob,
Great demo ... have a monfroto 303plus and forgot how to determine the nodal point ....you nailed it for me ... cheers
Thanks, Toby. Happy that it helped. Now go out and capture some great panos!
Thank you very much for very detailed and well explained video. Thanks again for your time and effort.
It was a very helpful tutorial for me! Best Wishes from Brazil! And Merry Christmas!
Professor Rafael, boa tarde! De fato, essas instruções foram as melhores que vi sobre parallax! Abraço
Hi Lester, your video was wonderful. I found the explanations easy to understand and will certainly help me a lot in this new phase of producing 360 panoramas. What I found coolest was the fact that I knew that you prefer to use telephoto lenses, I thought wide-angle ones would be better. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.
Thank you! So glad you found it helpful.
Great explanation! Many thanks! Awesome images around your place!
Thanks, Roman, for your kind words. Best of luck with your panos.
Wow, I had no idea but after your explanation, it all makes perfect logical sense. Thanks for your video. I know this will be very helpful.
Thanks, Tom. Just glad this was helpful.
Thank you for posting this in-depth explanation.
Wow! I had no idea about nodal points but I have just recently become interested in panos. I do real estate photography and some houses call for a pano. Not able to justify a tilt shift so panos have been a lifesaver.
Hi Les, fine explanation but it is only for 100% correct for a single row horizontal panorama and not for a multi-row or for a vertical panorama. For a multi-row you will pan your camera up/down to go from one row to another. This means that the horizontal axis where the camera turns around has to go exactly through the nodal point. In order to achieve this the central axis of your lens and the central axis of the nodal slide you use to move the camera forward/backward have to go both through the same plane that is vertical to that nodal slide. This is a little bit tricky since you have to estimate it and there are no marks on the L-bracket you use to fix the camera on the rotator to pan it up and down. Once you have determined the exact position, put a mark on your L-bracket for consistent later use. If you fail to do this, you will introduce a parallax error while panning up/down. Sorry for the complex geometric explanation.
Thank you very much i had a feeling that somthing was needed. You made it xtal clear.
Excellent. Exactly what I was looking for. Beautifully explained. Thank you.
Thank you, Silvana. Good luck with your panos!
Awesome video! Great presentation and explanation!! Thanks alot!!!
And thank you for taking the time to leave such a nice comment. Much appreciated.
Excellent, Lester well done!!
Thanks, Stan. Good luck withy our panos.
Thank you so much, what a fantastic video and gorgeous pano on your wall.
Thanks, Rebecca. FYI, that pano is 15 images across and 3 rows (45 images total). Using the correct nodal points allows for excellent stitching and tons of pixels. Best of luck with your panos!