I am glad that you continued reading this article because the rewards of these images are great. Multi-row stitches open additional possibilities for both the commercial photographer and also the fine art landscape photographer. The multi-row image stitch has a few different requirements as far as hardware, both computer related and camera related. The shooting concept is very much the same as the single-row but our image usage will be for the high-end market, whether this is architects or fine art landscape prints.

Salton Sea - 100MP Multi-Row Panorama Image Stitch

Brooks Institute of Photography required that we that we shoot only with a 4×5 inch view camera for the first two years, the third year, when we entered the final area of our study, any camera format that fit the assignment was allowed. Use the right tool for the job. For architecture, food, products, and landscapes I used the 4×5 view camera, and for people and fashion I used the Hasselblad. Today I use the digital slr for just about everything. On rare occasions I rent a medium format digital camera and digital back, but certainly not enough to warrant a $40,000 purchase that I may only use a few times per year.

Nor would I take such an expensive camera into the woods or desert. The tripod and camera bag alone would require a mule to shlep around. I did carry the view camera case and tripod around in Death Valley when I was 26, but not today my friend. Aside from the weight, it also took so long to get setup, I frequently missed images that I could have done with a digital camera. Today I use a Lowepro Vertex 200 All Weather backpack and attach the tripod, ball-head, and multi-row head to the pack. It all sits comfortably on my back and I can hike for miles.

Before we get started on multi-rows, I should stress that a fast desktop computer is best for processing these large digital files. Any quad core processor will work, but with at least 4 Gigs RAM. If a 12MP camera produces a single image file at 70MB in 16 bit Tiff , you can imagine what 12 of these open at once will do to your available memory. AutoPano Pro is also analyzing, blending, stitching and performing additional calculations one these images. Yeah…you can try it on less of a machine, just be prepared for a crash or lockup and loosing what just took 20 minutes thus far.

Now to the meat and potatoes of this multi-row rig. While a single-row rig centers and rotates the camera on an x-y axis, the multi-row will center and rotate the camera on a x-y-z axis. X-y centering is fine for when the nearest object to the camera is 50 away or further. This includes most distant landscapes or 70% of what we shoot anyway. Distortion may look surreal and cool to some, it may even be part of the images charm. On the other hand, an architectural client will complain if the floor tiles are bulging or the ceiling is all twisted.

Electrolux - 100MP Multi-Row Panorama Image Stitch

The multi-row rig centers the lens directly over the center of the pivot point, which is not the same as centering the camera over the tripods center point. Each lens has a different center point. A 24mm lens has a different center than a 50mm or a 85mm. As powerful as AutoPano Pro may be for aligning images, it needs a little help from you. Having that extra z-axis correction will allow AutoPano to do the stitch for the very near foreground area and also for the distant areas.

What if we have to shoot both foreground items just a few feet away and also those items that are in the far distance. Most people will say to use a wider lens. Using a 12mm or 15mm and will do so and have distortion. While we can correct some of this in Photoshop or the DxO plugin, we still have a standard resolution image. The whole point of the multi-row rig is to use a distortion free lens, shoot many different images of the scene, and allow AutoPano to combine all these megapixels. The stitch is using only the best undistorted part of the image, creating a single image file that is both clear, sharp and nearly distortion free. I say nearly distortion free because it is just about impossible to get it all 100% perfect. What tiny amount of distortion remains is so small, only you may see it and 99.99% of the remaining population doesn’t care.

There is a website that will help you find that lens/camera center pivot point, and you only have to be close. While I can get it pretty close, it does not have to be absolutely perfect. The latest software version is so damn good, a few millimeters either way will not cause problems. Personally, if my lens is a 24mm, I center it at 12mm and let AutoPano do the rest. I speak for myself, the stitches work and I have zero complaints.

For the fine art landscape photographer the multi-row rig works great in tight places. Images of working in small rooms or tight canyon walls come to mind. We can shoot a 90 degree view that has proper perspective and 100MP resolution. We can make very large prints that are crystal clear and have zero grain, no film drum-scanning fees either.

I have hundreds of landscape images that I can only enlarge to 13 x 19 inches if I stay at my current viewing standards of what is sharp to me. By using the modern image stitching techniques of today, I can create images that are 40 x 60 inches in size or larger, and those same images are sharper and more detailed than the 13 x 19 inch interpolated ones. Imagine what one could do with the new 24MP Canon 5D MkII or Nikon D3x or even the Sony Alpha A900.

I happen to like my landscapes huge, undistorted with straight trees and corrected perspectives, but that is just me.

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