Panoramic photography of historic houses

I love photographing old historic houses; it may be fraught with difficulty but well worth the effort. They often present the photographer with a wealth of textures and a richness of detail unparalleled in modern interiors. They also present a number of challenges.

Permission to create panoramic photographs – please!
One of the main issues is to get permission. Good panoramic photography just can't be done whilst the custodian is looking away. To obtain permission it's important to present a credible 'project'. What are you hoping to achieve? How will the images be used? What's in it for the house?
 

You must also come across as a serious photographer. Ensure you show examples of other work you have created and supply references. This shouldn't put the new comer to photography off - an honest explanation of intentions to create a portfolio, or practise skills etc. is often meet with a willingness to help. Ensure you research the property's history and can work within the constraints of the house 'as is'. A request for a permission followed by a list of 'demands' rarely goes down well.

The trouble with panoramic photography in Historic Houses
Historic houses are often museums, they hold valuable collections that must be cared for and protected and they are open to the general public. This may require you to work in low level light conditions, within barriers and with the risk of people getting in your way.

Research the property before the day of the shoot. Get a clear idea of the shots you want, so you don't spend too much time setting up in the 'wrong' location. Talk to staff about busy periods so you can avoid those. Travel light and agree an area where you can safely 'dump' your things. Take out public liability insurance!

The crucial bit is to get the first images done although they may not be perfect due to restrictions imposed on you. But, you will soon find a willingness to 'extend' your permission if you supply the House with images they can utilise on their website or in brochures.

• Do your research
• Get permission
• Avoid busy periods
• 'Travel light'
• Take out public liability insurance
• Give something back

Panoramic stitching software

Good panoramic stitching software saves a lot of headache and work. Although there are free packages available they often only really work on 'small' projects. On 360 x 360 degree panoramic images, when using multiple RAW exposures or large files, stable and powerful software is worth its weight in gold. There is nothing worse than spending hours tweaking and aligning images in a bad interface just to see the project freeze or crash part way through.

Achers house in Skagen, Denmark, panoramic photograph of living room

Stitching software comes in different configurations and some will include VR output to HTML or Flash. Personally I prefer stitching software that concentrates on the stitching part. Software that does both stitching and VR tours often involves a compromise in either the stitching or the VR part or come with a hefty price tag.

I love my PTGUI
PTGUI is based on Panorama Tools and is a specialist stitching Software. I have stitched perfect panoramic images consisting of over 250 high resolution RAW images, doing nothing more than selecting the files and output options. But, its when things go wrong that I really appreciate the ease of the manual controls.

PTGUI analysis stitching points and will guide you to the problematic ones with no more than a double-click. When creating manual stitching points the software will suggest an appropriate match making the process much faster.

The software automatically recognises multiple exposures. It links matching images and enables good exposure control and output to HDR.

When I have pre-viewed a stitch and I am happy with all alignments, I love playing with the perspective options. As I supply micro stock sites, where very wide images don't perform well, the ability to quickly change perspective and cropping is essential for me.

Panoramic stitching software essentials

• Works with large number of files, large file sizes and RAW images
• HDR ability, automatically linking sets of multiple exposures and good exposure control
• Powerful and accurate automatic alignment of images with options for manual adjustment of stitching points
• Flexible perspective settings
• Good blending ability
• Ability to output very large uncompressed files
• Batch stitching