My experience with this kind of thing is to maximize the distance to the object using a longer lens when possible which reduces the angles and amount of variation from image to image which in the end tends to overcome the variation of handheld image capture. For example, can you put the maps on a floor, and stand on a chair? That would increase the distance from camera to object from 2 feet to 8 feet. Is there a balcony in the room that you could shoot down to a table on the lower level? Now we're talking 15 feet or more. Would they let you put the camera on a monopole and hold it above your head to shoot down to the table? That might get you 4 to 6 feet away. Even if all this were not permissible, maybe you could shoot tethered, and just hold the camera above your head looking at the computer screen to frame the shot. If you can shoot the map in two images, then you can probably hold the camera in place close enough to use the bracket feature to get 3-9 shots from each position with one shutter press. Chances of getting usable images when shooting handheld this way increase as others have pointed out.
Also any relief change (from a flat plane) will lead to parallax issues. Getting the maps to lay flat as possible is more critical the closer you are to the maps. Do they have a display (drafting) case or table, or other table large that has a tilting top which will tilt 45 degrees? This would allow you to stand back from the maps far enough to shoot handheld. On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at 4:20:43 AM UTC-4, bugbear wrote: > > I am about to visit a record office. Their rules > permit cameras, but not tripods (let alone pano heads!) > > I wish to capture the image of some 18th c maps, which are large, > in good detail. The obvious strategy is to take multiple > shots and stitch, but the shots will all be taken from different > position and angles (since they'll be taken freehand). > > But since the maps are 2D a stitch should still be possible. > > I have tested this approach at home (cheating using a tripod!) > and a road atlas. > <snip> > I would welcome advice. > > BugBear > -- A list of frequently asked questions is available at: http://wiki.panotools.org/Hugin_FAQ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hugin and other free panoramic software" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to hugin-ptx+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hugin-ptx/19de5c19-a669-43f1-b114-cc343845f6c1%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
