Why do my pans look so crap in low quality

[masten]

I generally use medium quality in my pans for rotation. I would like to use low quality (for performance obviously) but they look crap compared to some Ive seen. Loads of obvious aliasing and horrible shimmering. I dont sharpen in Photoshop but I do use almost maximum focus (350/400) on cature one (3.6)

What am I missing? How do I get better quality using "low" or faster perfrormance using "medium"

Cheers

Masten

[360VT.co.uk]

I dont sharpen in Photoshop

Hi Masten

I think you should sharpen in Photoshop, it makes a difference.

I also like this Photoshop tutorial. Play with it, It can really bring up the edges and make your image look more 3D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW_8cvLEh-Q

Harry

[bjornkn]

But sharpening too much can make them very ugly too, and at the same time double or triple the file size, so be careful! There is a reason why PS' SaveForWeb have a Blur setting, but no sharpen for exporting web optimized images..

[HansNyberg]

1. Update your pano.swf to the Flash 10 version 2.3.1
2. Do not sharpen as much as you do. Use Raw and convert without sharpen.
Sharpen as the last option and us 0,4 radius and max 140% unsharp mask in Photoshop.
3. Do not compress as much as you do. It is better to use smaller cubefaces and less compression. 1500x1500 is enough if your Equirectangular is minimum 6000x3000.
4. You have a few stitching errors around the zenith, you may need to learn how to optimize correctly.

Hans

[masten]

Hi chaps

Thanks for all that. Will give a more detailed reponse later but for now how do I get that pano.swf update?

cheers

M

[discocandy]

Well the video shows almost non destructive way ofe way of sharpening.
and that is good.
what he uses for sharpening is doubtfull for me. but need to check it myself too.

I always do a non destructive shadow/highlight. and use calculations as I want total control over what I am doing and always be able to step back.

sample. go to channels. command or ctrl click on the RGB layer.
now click curves.
as you can see the light channel is made an aphha layer in curves.
the first one I pull down. from the middle as I want the middle tones darkend
now I copy this layer and do command or ctrl I (invert)
now I go back to the curves and move this one up to around half of the previous setting.
somtimes this already does the trick but I can also set it on overlay or any of the other setting wich I prefer.

now as I need it I can do levels. (monogramatic settings.)
bring the image to lab and do a sharpening on the light channel.
Always be carefull for the halos you can get from it..

Lacking contrast??
a quick and dirty way is in Cs4 click the black and white button. bring bakc the red color (to darken it)
set it on overlay and bring the opacity slider back as you prefer.

[360VT.co.uk]

what he uses for sharpening is doubtfull for me. but need to check it myself too.

Hi DC

I did not say anything about sharpening, "bring up the edges"
there's a differance...

original
http://www.seelincolnshire.co.uk/cotten_1/

exxxtrem (all most cartoon)
http://www.seelincolnshire.co.uk/cotten_2/

Just for fun
http://www.seelincolnshire.co.uk/cotten_3/

Harry

[360VT.co.uk]

Anonther sharpening Photoshop tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZt0mkTbSDM

Harry

[360VT.co.uk]

Don’t mind me, I’ll just post away to myself.

Just tried the high pass filter method and I think it works a lot better than my previous method.

Take a look
http://www.seelincolnshire.co.uk/cotten_4/

[masten]

Hey harry

Sorry mate, too busy to get to this. When I get round to product improvement again Ill be back on it. Yes, your pans have way less aliasing than mine at 'low' quality so will be interested to find out how you do that. Till then.

Cheers

Masten