Hudson love the way you show step by step how to do things. I’ve watched other pro vids however they ASSUME things and jump over tidbits that we miss. When you take your time and show every little thing no matter how insignificant it may seem to a pro, it really helps the rest of us. I live in southeast alaska and have access to a mountain top and really want to shoot a big lens at a far away range in a pano. Very hard I’m finding out. Thanks again for taking the time toteach
Yes Hudson's pano course is the best and gear is greatest, got me on the fluide head years ago! I know Hudson loves to view in the in live view for stop points or use the degree settings. I have found at night for Milky Way arc capture using a click step rotator under the L arm (Novoflex), All you do is use your IR trigger for camera then rotate counting the clicks you need for the degree coverage you want, I use a 7 1/2 and two clicks for 15 degrees. No turning on a headlamp or turning on bright monitoring to set next spot with live view. If Henry got for his rig as an add I would be first in line. Also mention if you want a landscape pano turn rig to other side and attach to cameras L bracket, did a test for not so much foreground one night off a boardwalk with rail and steps. Henry ALL your gear is tough as angle iron and videos are simple and to the point, and today ON1 will stitch a pano as good as PTGui and quick!!!
This is explained much better than your last video on this subject. I spent hours carefully relooking at the video and conversing with others here, to get mine set up like yours. With the additional video shots you take of the LRP-3 nodal rail adjustments, it is much clearer and should help many others that come after us!
Hudson, your presentations are outstanding! From you, I've learned how to create panos. Have a question. Shooting a multi-row pano that has objects in the foreground - can't you use a perspective-control lens (centered on a Kirk LRP-3 nodal rail) and shift the front lens element down for your next row of images? Obviously, you have to be careful that your front lens element doesn't touch the rail!
Mine is still backordered from b&h. I checked out adorama last week and order one and it will be here tomorrow! Finally after a year of waiting. I'll just cancel my b&h order
Looks like a nice setup and solution. I got into this pano gear years ago, early in my landscape photo journey, even buying Nodal Ninja equipment etc.. After a while, I realized, that while I shoot many panos, I almost never ran into a situation where I got artifacts from stitching, unless the nearest object was a couple feet or less in front of me. In cases where I had items that close I am usually shooting with a wide angle, and for those compositions, I am almost never going to be panning anyway. With 42mpx on my camera, its not like I need to pixels. Just a thought: It might be more compelling if you including some images in your video you have taken that demonstrated examples of some great shots you took that would not have been possible without the extra equipment and precise adjustments. On the other hand, I am amazed at the number of landscape photographers that do not have a leveling base....
I've a number where there are quite close subjects. The Maple pano on this page hudsonhenryphotography.smugmug.com/Print-Galleries/Prints-For-Sale/PanoramicPrints/ is likely the best example. That's 8 vertical 12mm shots on a D200 12 years ago. It's a small tree and some leaves are inches from the front element. I'd agree that 90% of the time you don't need to worry. I've been doing panos since the film days, scanning and hand stitching. I agree that the software has gotten awfully good. Despite that when I'm in doubt in a spectacular spot, I go with the no parallax point to be safe. Megaixels are rarely the point anymore. It's the different perspective and scale for me.
Gonna throw a challenge your way. Last year I cycled in the Dolomites, and the scenery was spectacular. I needed to take massive HDR pano images, so I made a mini pano kit. It consisted of the LeoFoto LS-223CEX as my tripod and leveling base, the Sunwayfoto DDP-64 index pano head, and a Lumix GX9 with the Sigma 56mm lens. It all packed into my LowePro Flipside 200 (the original, which I helped design). This summer I’m heading to Switzerland where the climbs are even higher and the days longer. I want to significantly reduce the weight. There are endless videos about rock climbers reducing weight of their gear, nothing about photographers doing that. What do you suggest?
@@HudsonHenryPhoto Really? From a guy who says he likes fluid heads because he went on an expedition where weight and gear was so limited that everyone had to share one? I would have guessed that you had all kinds of tricks to reduce the weight. The funny thing about building an ultra light pano rig is the cost - it keeps going down. That feeling of quality that you get from some camera equipment is weight. My new 2 axis pano head is an L bracket with an arca Swiss panning head mounted, the nodal offset is built into the base plate on the camera. The whole thing isn’t that much bigger than the camera itself. I may have to send you a copy to play with.
I have a new Really Right Stuff MPR-192. I am looking at your cheat sheet to find out where to put my camera and am a little confused. I can adjust the slider itself on the tripod, and I can adjust the camera above on the slider rail. Your measurements refer to which one? And where does the other one go? I am assuming I put the slider in a fixed position on the head, but I don't know what position that is? Thanks for your super helpful videos!!!
Great addendum to your excellent class. Can you talk a little about focus stacking panoramas. Do you shoot the stack then move or build s couple of complete focused sets and then stack the merged final stitched images. Thanks
I've been waiting months for RRS to get the pano gear again. I guess they are not going to. On one rail that is in stock, the website says, "last chance."
Thanks Hudson for the great lessons. So appreciate what you do! I have the Kirk LRP 3 and am wondering if you can do multi row panoramas with it and have some points in the picture not at infinity by for example if you tip the camera forward and down, pulling back the camera so where the no parralax point was is over the center of the tripod. For raising, push the camera forward so that same point when level is over the axis of rotation. I'm sure not as precise as using the vertical rails, but could that possibly work? Thanks for anyone's input.
Hey Dorian, I think you're fine itsy of the time without the vertical rails or moving the camera forward and aft I wouldn't move the LRP-3 between rows. I think unless you tilt a lot with a very close subject, you'll be good nearly every time. :)
I just emailed RRS. They said 8-12 weeks, but I feel like that timeline is still very rough. I put in a backorder directly through RRS. When they do come out, you won't have to wait as long versus buying from B&H.
The fluid head does not have any degree markers and in doing multi row without the RRS PG-01 is it important to have each of the bottom row match up with the top row as this is very difficult when just using the view finder for your overlaps.
It's so easy now with live view on your lcd. Just activate the rule of third grid overlay and watch where the intersecting lines hit the landscape. I haven't used a degree marker in the decade plus since live view appeared in the dslrs. :)
Hello Hudson, Just a question about the multirow part of your video: why do not get rid of the heads (Manfrotto fluid 500h or Acrateck) ? Why do not mount the RRS GP-01 just on top the leveler (Leofoto LB 60n) . Do I miss something? thank you.
You could, but the rig is miserable for anything but panoramas. It's a tool I deploy quickly atop my working rig. Removing the head first is actually much more work and to be honest... As rarely as I do multirow with close enough subjects to worry about, I generally just stick with the pan and tilt of the fluid head or acratech panorama head I normally use. I only deploy this when 1) I need to tilt and 2) I have a very close element in the frame. Close enough that focus becomes a concern requiring significant care for depth of field concerns. Otherwise my tripod setups need no additional pano tools for multirow work. Www.hudsonhenry.com/tripods
I'm planning a multi row pano with lots of close foreground, any advice on z mount lens with no focus breathing? I'm thinking standard to tele. The 14-30 f4 S at 14 is great but too wide
@@mekore focus breathing isn't the issue unless you're focus starcking, it's really parallax you'd worry about. There's a free download video on my website for how to ascertain your chosen lens's no parallax point that will help.
If the LRP-3 settings are 50 & 147, it appears in the video that the end at 147 extends only part way into the clamp. Wouldn't you achieve the same effect (no parallax point) if you used 40 and 137 as your settings and get a much more secure clamp on the end? (I know this is poorly worded, but I hope you know what I mean.)
Is there any benefit to shoot multi row panos with more than three vertical shots throughout ? What I have seen in the field so far is following the rule of thirds grid, coverage is complete from top to bottom with three shots. Is there any reason to go to more rows to make the final image greater in megapixels or no ? It just seems especially when shooting upwards, you are going to get a lot of empty space (blue skies) or dark, dead space (bottom of most landscape photos).
It totally depends on the usage and needs. Nowdays with such high megapixel sensors I rarely shoot more than single rows, but I've done work for clients to print over 100 feet wide at tradeshows where I shot five rows with longer glass simply for extra resolution.
2 questions, on a few panoramic's I've done it turns out more horseshoe shape than flat what am I doing wrong, and how to fix it? The 2nd thing is do you have any experience with the sliders or automated panoramic devices? I do not remember the company off the top of my head but basically, you set the bottom corner and then the other upper corner, and the system does the rest.
There's really no need to carry a cumbersome, expensive electronic head. It's not that complicated with lighter, more durable gear and your own brain. The horseshoe thing is a result of panning above a titled head instead of below it I demonstrate that with the ball head in this video. With a ball head alone you can't tilt the camera up or down without issues. Even with a panning clamp on top as I demo here. There's a lot more at www.hudsonhenry.com/pano
Hudson, I couldn't find your email but BH Photo now has the RRS PG-01 in stock as of 4pm CST on July 28, 2022. I have waited over a year for this to come to stock. I've placed my order. Are you still recommending this set up or have you gone on to something else?
Way back when I used degree markers, but since the age of live view in DSLRs and now mirrorless I simply activate the grid view and take a shot every time a rule thirds line passes the same point in the frame. I prefer a 66% overlap to use the center sweet spot of the sensor for the entire image and ensure redundancy. There's really no need anymore in my work for taking notes about how many degrees I need for this lens or that. I just watch it.
@@HudsonHenryPhoto gotta ya. I was just trying to have a measure of accuracy for when I try to do some Milky Way panoramas at night when moving by a fixed point is a bit harder.
Fair enough. I really don't do milky way panos without some foreground I can see in the starview mode on the Z9. Spoils you fast that mode does. I can still use my grid method with the Z8 and 9.
Could you not simplify it even more with just the base leveler and put the pano rig right on top of that? Eliminate the ball head/ fluid head, causing less possibility of a secondary unit causing an unwanted tilt or unleveling..
Sure, but that would involve getting an alan wrench out and removing the 3 set screws that lock on the fluid head I adore working with for 99 percent of my shots. The head that also does perfect mutirow panos itself when parallax isn't an issue. It introduces no error leaving it in place and in actuality is much more of a pain to remove than leave on. :)
@@HudsonHenryPhoto I'm using the same Leofoto legs and Manfrotto fluid head, love the setup. I was thinking more of if it was a new pano exclusive setup, would it eliminate an extra cost/possible failure point.
Hudson love the way you show step by step how to do things. I’ve watched other pro vids however they ASSUME things and jump over tidbits that we miss. When you take your time and show every little thing no matter how insignificant it may seem to a pro, it really helps the rest of us. I live in southeast alaska and have access to a mountain top and really want to shoot a big lens at a far away range in a pano. Very hard I’m finding out. Thanks again for taking the time toteach
Yes Hudson's pano course is the best and gear is greatest, got me on the fluide head years ago! I know Hudson loves to view in the in live view for stop points or use the degree settings. I have found at night for Milky Way arc capture using a click step rotator under the L arm (Novoflex), All you do is use your IR trigger for camera then rotate counting the clicks you need for the degree coverage you want, I use a 7 1/2 and two clicks for 15 degrees. No turning on a headlamp or turning on bright monitoring to set next spot with live view. If Henry got for his rig as an add I would be first in line. Also mention if you want a landscape pano turn rig to other side and attach to cameras L bracket, did a test for not so much foreground one night off a boardwalk with rail and steps. Henry ALL your gear is tough as angle iron and videos are simple and to the point, and today ON1 will stitch a pano as good as PTGui and quick!!!
I think this is the best video I never seen in my life!!!! really really congratulation
Wow, this was awesome, the CLEAREST explanation and set of instructions I have ever seen. Appreciate you doing this for ballheads as well. THANK YOU!
This is explained much better than your last video on this subject. I spent hours carefully relooking at the video and conversing with others here, to get mine set up like yours. With the additional video shots you take of the LRP-3 nodal rail adjustments, it is much clearer and should help many others that come after us!
Hudson, your presentations are outstanding! From you, I've learned how to create panos. Have a question. Shooting a multi-row pano that has objects in the foreground - can't you use a perspective-control lens (centered on a Kirk LRP-3 nodal rail) and shift the front lens element down for your next row of images? Obviously, you have to be careful that your front lens element doesn't touch the rail!
It's much, much easier to just use a pan and tilt head and tilt. :-)
Just wanted to say thank you. Excellent explanation and just what I needed to begin doing multi-row pans.
Congratulations Hudson, excellent video - very well explained. Big value for me!
Highly recommend Hudson’s pano course.
Thanks for the great video! Really appreciated the walk through of the nodal point cheat sheet-now it makes perfect sense to me.
Thank you very much Hudson for another very informational video. I've been waiting for the back-ordered RRS pano gimbal from B&H.
I think Hudson has bogged down the supply of the RRS pano setup. Maybe he can call RRS and warn them about the upsurge in demand!
Mine is still backordered from b&h. I checked out adorama last week and order one and it will be here tomorrow! Finally after a year of waiting. I'll just cancel my b&h order
@@dave.abernathey cool. I cancelled mine from B&H as well. I’ll check Adorama. Thanks.
Thank you, Hudson. Valuable additional info to your pano course.
Looks like a nice setup and solution. I got into this pano gear years ago, early in my landscape photo journey, even buying Nodal Ninja equipment etc.. After a while, I realized, that while I shoot many panos, I almost never ran into a situation where I got artifacts from stitching, unless the nearest object was a couple feet or less in front of me. In cases where I had items that close I am usually shooting with a wide angle, and for those compositions, I am almost never going to be panning anyway. With 42mpx on my camera, its not like I need to pixels. Just a thought: It might be more compelling if you including some images in your video you have taken that demonstrated examples of some great shots you took that would not have been possible without the extra equipment and precise adjustments. On the other hand, I am amazed at the number of landscape photographers that do not have a leveling base....
I've a number where there are quite close subjects. The Maple pano on this page hudsonhenryphotography.smugmug.com/Print-Galleries/Prints-For-Sale/PanoramicPrints/ is likely the best example. That's 8 vertical 12mm shots on a D200 12 years ago. It's a small tree and some leaves are inches from the front element. I'd agree that 90% of the time you don't need to worry. I've been doing panos since the film days, scanning and hand stitching. I agree that the software has gotten awfully good. Despite that when I'm in doubt in a spectacular spot, I go with the no parallax point to be safe. Megaixels are rarely the point anymore. It's the different perspective and scale for me.
Hey Hudson. Are you planning an update Sheet with Z9 for Nodal Points &
the mirrorless Lens? Thank you so much
I will soon.
Gonna throw a challenge your way. Last year I cycled in the Dolomites, and the scenery was spectacular. I needed to take massive HDR pano images, so I made a mini pano kit. It consisted of the LeoFoto LS-223CEX as my tripod and leveling base, the Sunwayfoto DDP-64 index pano head, and a Lumix GX9 with the Sigma 56mm lens. It all packed into my LowePro Flipside 200 (the original, which I helped design). This summer I’m heading to Switzerland where the climbs are even higher and the days longer. I want to significantly reduce the weight. There are endless videos about rock climbers reducing weight of their gear, nothing about photographers doing that. What do you suggest?
My featherweight: Www.hudsonhenry.com/tripods that or handheld for me. :)
@@HudsonHenryPhoto Really? From a guy who says he likes fluid heads because he went on an expedition where weight and gear was so limited that everyone had to share one? I would have guessed that you had all kinds of tricks to reduce the weight. The funny thing about building an ultra light pano rig is the cost - it keeps going down. That feeling of quality that you get from some camera equipment is weight. My new 2 axis pano head is an L bracket with an arca Swiss panning head mounted, the nodal offset is built into the base plate on the camera. The whole thing isn’t that much bigger than the camera itself. I may have to send you a copy to play with.
I have a new Really Right Stuff MPR-192. I am looking at your cheat sheet to find out where to put my camera and am a little confused. I can adjust the slider itself on the tripod, and I can adjust the camera above on the slider rail. Your measurements refer to which one? And where does the other one go? I am assuming I put the slider in a fixed position on the head, but I don't know what position that is? Thanks for your super helpful videos!!!
Great addendum to your excellent class. Can you talk a little about focus stacking panoramas. Do you shoot the stack then move or build s couple of complete focused sets and then stack the merged final stitched images. Thanks
If you focus stack, shoot each stack before moving, blend each stack before merging.
kind of you to share your experience, many thanks.. Do you have a link to the l bracket that you're using? thanks
You bet. They're with the camera bodies at www.hudsonhenry.com/atslinks
Great Vid! Thanks for putting this together!
I've been waiting months for RRS to get the pano gear again. I guess they are not going to. On one rail that is in stock, the website says, "last chance."
Thanks Hudson for the great lessons. So appreciate what you do! I have the Kirk LRP 3 and am wondering if you can do multi row panoramas with it and have some points in the picture not at infinity by for example if you tip the camera forward and down, pulling back the camera so where the no parralax point was is over the center of the tripod. For raising, push the camera forward so that same point when level is over the axis of rotation. I'm sure not as precise as using the vertical rails, but could that possibly work? Thanks for anyone's input.
Hey Dorian, I think you're fine itsy of the time without the vertical rails or moving the camera forward and aft I wouldn't move the LRP-3 between rows. I think unless you tilt a lot with a very close subject, you'll be good nearly every time. :)
@@HudsonHenryPhoto Thanks so much!! Really appreciate it!
I appreciate your sharing this knowledge. Looks like the system is on back order?
Like so many things these days sadly....
I just emailed RRS. They said 8-12 weeks, but I feel like that timeline is still very rough. I put in a backorder directly through RRS. When they do come out, you won't have to wait as long versus buying from B&H.
The fluid head does not have any degree markers and in doing multi row without the RRS PG-01 is it important to have each of the bottom row match up with the top row as this is very difficult when just using the view finder for your overlaps.
It's so easy now with live view on your lcd. Just activate the rule of third grid overlay and watch where the intersecting lines hit the landscape. I haven't used a degree marker in the decade plus since live view appeared in the dslrs. :)
Hello Hudson, Just a question about the multirow part of your video: why do not get rid of the heads (Manfrotto fluid 500h or Acrateck) ? Why do not mount the RRS GP-01 just on top the leveler (Leofoto LB 60n) . Do I miss something? thank you.
You could, but the rig is miserable for anything but panoramas. It's a tool I deploy quickly atop my working rig. Removing the head first is actually much more work and to be honest... As rarely as I do multirow with close enough subjects to worry about, I generally just stick with the pan and tilt of the fluid head or acratech panorama head I normally use. I only deploy this when 1) I need to tilt and 2) I have a very close element in the frame. Close enough that focus becomes a concern requiring significant care for depth of field concerns. Otherwise my tripod setups need no additional pano tools for multirow work. Www.hudsonhenry.com/tripods
I'm planning a multi row pano with lots of close foreground, any advice on z mount lens with no focus breathing? I'm thinking standard to tele. The 14-30 f4 S at 14 is great but too wide
@@mekore focus breathing isn't the issue unless you're focus starcking, it's really parallax you'd worry about. There's a free download video on my website for how to ascertain your chosen lens's no parallax point that will help.
If the LRP-3 settings are 50 & 147, it appears in the video that the end at 147 extends only part way into the clamp. Wouldn't you achieve the same effect (no parallax point) if you used 40 and 137 as your settings and get a much more secure clamp on the end? (I know this is poorly worded, but I hope you know what I mean.)
I do, but in actuality the clamp is really secure. You could shift everything 10 if you prefer. Easy peasy. :-) Might even be a good idea. Good point.
Is there any benefit to shoot multi row panos with more than three vertical shots throughout ? What I have seen in the field so far is following the rule of thirds grid, coverage is complete from top to bottom with three shots. Is there any reason to go to more rows to make the final image greater in megapixels or no ? It just seems especially when shooting upwards, you are going to get a lot of empty space (blue skies) or dark, dead space (bottom of most landscape photos).
It totally depends on the usage and needs. Nowdays with such high megapixel sensors I rarely shoot more than single rows, but I've done work for clients to print over 100 feet wide at tradeshows where I shot five rows with longer glass simply for extra resolution.
2 questions, on a few panoramic's I've done it turns out more horseshoe shape than flat what am I doing wrong, and how to fix it? The 2nd thing is do you have any experience with the sliders or automated panoramic devices? I do not remember the company off the top of my head but basically, you set the bottom corner and then the other upper corner, and the system does the rest.
There's really no need to carry a cumbersome, expensive electronic head. It's not that complicated with lighter, more durable gear and your own brain. The horseshoe thing is a result of panning above a titled head instead of below it I demonstrate that with the ball head in this video. With a ball head alone you can't tilt the camera up or down without issues. Even with a panning clamp on top as I demo here. There's a lot more at www.hudsonhenry.com/pano
Hudson, I couldn't find your email but BH Photo now has the RRS PG-01 in stock as of 4pm CST on July 28, 2022. I have waited over a year for this to come to stock. I've placed my order. Are you still recommending this set up or have you gone on to something else?
If they've got them, get one. They're great. :)
@@HudsonHenryPhoto Hudson does the set up still work well with your heavier and larger Z9?
awesome
Maybe I'm missing it, but what fluid head are you using?
Www.hudsonhenry.com/atslinks :)
Do you know anyone who makes stickers or that allow us to know what angle the head is at the tilt or pan direction?
Way back when I used degree markers, but since the age of live view in DSLRs and now mirrorless I simply activate the grid view and take a shot every time a rule thirds line passes the same point in the frame. I prefer a 66% overlap to use the center sweet spot of the sensor for the entire image and ensure redundancy. There's really no need anymore in my work for taking notes about how many degrees I need for this lens or that. I just watch it.
@@HudsonHenryPhoto gotta ya. I was just trying to have a measure of accuracy for when I try to do some Milky Way panoramas at night when moving by a fixed point is a bit harder.
Fair enough. I really don't do milky way panos without some foreground I can see in the starview mode on the Z9. Spoils you fast that mode does. I can still use my grid method with the Z8 and 9.
Could you not simplify it even more with just the base leveler and put the pano rig right on top of that? Eliminate the ball head/ fluid head, causing less possibility of a secondary unit causing an unwanted tilt or unleveling..
Sure, but that would involve getting an alan wrench out and removing the 3 set screws that lock on the fluid head I adore working with for 99 percent of my shots. The head that also does perfect mutirow panos itself when parallax isn't an issue. It introduces no error leaving it in place and in actuality is much more of a pain to remove than leave on. :)
@@HudsonHenryPhoto I'm using the same Leofoto legs and Manfrotto fluid head, love the setup. I was thinking more of if it was a new pano exclusive setup, would it eliminate an extra cost/possible failure point.