How can I photograph an entire wall in a tight room with minimal perspective distortion?
Asked 11/28/2016
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I need to capture a full wall of a room from close range, with a result that looks as close to orthographic as possible. Shooting from one position with a normal panorama does not work well because the camera rotates rather than moving laterally. Right now I am taking multiple overlapping photos, correcting perspective, and stitching them together manually. Is there a better way to do this, or a particular technique or type of lens that helps in a tight space?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
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Currently I am taking multiple photos, correcting their perspective, and stitching them together in a very crude way.
Yep, that's exactly the way to do it. Good, modern panoramic software should make this less crude. If you use a longer focal length and take many, many pictures, your result will be better — maybe somewhat painful, but you know what they say about free lunches.
If you do this a lot for some reason, you might consider creating a rig of some sort to make the repetition easier. For a one off, though, I'd use a tripod with a lot of variability in height — set it as low as possible, take a picture, move (possibly some gaffer tape on the floor to make it easy to know how much to move), click again, and repeat. Then, when you get to the end, raise the tripod, and go back the other way. (You become the "scanning wand", in effect.)
Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1943
9y ago
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There usually isn’t a single camera device that will make a true orthographic image of a large wall in a tight room. The practical solution is the one you’re already using: take many overlapping photos while moving the camera parallel to the wall, then stitch and correct them in software.
For better results, keep the camera sensor as parallel to the wall as possible, use a tripod, and move in measured increments along a straight path. More images with a longer focal length can reduce distortion, though it takes more effort. A simple track or floor marks can help keep spacing consistent.
A shift lens can help reduce perspective distortion in one axis, but in a very tight room you may still need a wide lens, which makes the problem harder. Lens-correction and perspective-correction software can also help refine the final composite.
So: no magic scanner, but careful multi-shot technical photography plus good stitching software is the standard approach.
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