山村訓長但知覓

Some time ago I read about and downloaded this freeware image stitching program. I have used image stitching programs long long ago with a portable scanner I had that you had to drag by hand across whatever you were trying to scan. The scanner didn't work well and neither did the programs.

So I started without much expectation.

To get some stitchable material I paid a visit to 용주사^*), near 수원대학교. It's a fairly nice temple (although now that they've built a parking lot right next to the peaceful garden between the ticket counter and the front gate, it's much less so).

Especially for a freebie, the program is amazing.

The image size supported by Blogspot is pretty small, but if you click on the images they expand. A bit.

Here's the 180º view of the inside court of the temple.




That was just setting the camera on the tripod and rotating the head to make a "flat" panorama. Then I started wondering how well it would do if I tilted the camera while shooting the scene, in order to get more scene into the picture.

Here's that 360º view of the path from the ticket counter and front gate to the real temple compound. I shot it with 3 photos vertically stacked on top of each other as I rotated through the scene.



This was originally 41 images, all sewn neatly together by the program. Takes a bit of processing time, and the files come out huge but it does a nice job. I'm sold.

I did a little experimenting. I was most interested in whether it was better to shoot the whole panorama in the same exposure or to let each piece be exposed at its own proper value. Turns out that the latter makes better panoramas. If you do the whole thing with one exposure, the tonal range turns out to be far too great to capture. I also screwed up a few photos by not closing the viewfinder when shooting. ㅜ.ㅠ

Now I'm going to have to go back to 울릉도 for summer vacation this year to get some panoramas!!

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^*) 용주사 [龍珠寺] :

Summary
A Buddhist temple at the foot of 화산 in 경기도 화성시 태안읍 (near 수원대학교)

☞ Get there by taking bus #46, 46-1 or 24 from the front gate of 수원대학교 on the
same side of the road. It is three or four stops from 수원대 at the stop
directly after 건/융릉, which is also nice for a visit.

Sect: 대한불교 조계종
Location: 경기 화성시 태안읍 송산리

I'll follow up with a more detailed description of the temple one of these first days.