360x180° Panorama Tutorial - Pt.6: Finding the no-parallax point (aka nodal point)

Part 6.

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to adjust / calibrate your panoramic tripod head to find the no-parallex point (also incorrectly referred to as "nodal point") for your lens. This is very important to minimize the stitching errors in your panoramas.

The process can take a little while, but you'll hopefully take away some tips on how to speed it up and reduce the amount of "trial and error" involved.

Now, all this no-parallax-point-business can be quite confusing and I'm not terribly good at explaining it. It really recommend you read this article here, which explains all this in great detail: http://michel.thoby.free.fr/Fisheye_history_short/NPP_Theory.html

Don't forget to check out my other panoramic photography related tutorials:

• Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouOEM4cKKGc
• Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUiw3jtErxk
• Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-WEosizCzE
• Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GZDqeE-src
• Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYbEHkxkOds
• Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3TNawQWIpQ

Thanks for your interest and stay tuned!

Florian

PS: For those who need it, I also went through the trouble of adding subtitles to the videos... Click on the [CC] icon to enable them.

Category:

Howto & Style

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• panorama
• tutorial
• tripod head
• tripod
• shooting
• nodal point
• no-parallax point
• npp
• nodal ninja
• calibrate
• adjust
• setup
• tune
• install
• guide
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• camera
• fisheye
• lens

[elfloz]

I don't know if there are any good fisheye lenses for your camera. But yes, you'll need a circular fisheye if you want to take so few images.

[JorgeTobiUchiha]

Hi Florian I have little doubt, have you help me to solve it, I wanted to ask if the Nikon P500 (I want to buy) I used to make spherical panoramas of 6 square images, and in such case how do I set square to take photographs and covering 90 °? and the lens that comes by default helps me to do?, whether that requires a tripod and panoramic head I saw in your videos, greetings from Mexico.

[elfloz]

@JorgeTobiUchiha Unless you buy the right fisheye lens add-on for it, you'll need about 20 images per pano with this camera and the built-in optics. You will need a panoramic tripod head in this case.

[dadvian1]

you made it a math class

[wwwMrHelpPL]

the best explanation of the NPP ever!! thank you!!

[pointTVvideod]

Thanks!

[JorgeTobiUchiha]

So if I only take 6 pictures with the Nodal Ninja panoramic head turning 90 ° to the sides and the zenith and nadir, which fisheye lens is better, 8mm, 10mm, which would be left with a Nikon P500?, Thanks

[saarikor]

Nice tutorial! Again! :)