Hey Jerry,

Mate you don't know what a mess is! LOL

You need to know that stitching images can involve some Photoshop work after the stitch. That said, please do the following.......

OK, firstly you need to "enclose" the fisheye circle a little more to trim off the vignetting. That will deal with the bluish lines.

Second you need to install "Smartblend" download it here read about it here

To install, unzip. You should then place the Smartblend folder (including all it's contents) inside the C:\Program Files\Easypano\Panoweaver 5.00 directory/folder on your harddrive. So the address to the Smartblend.exe will be C:\Program Files\Easypano\Panoweaver 5.00\Smartblend\smartblend.exe

Copy this address and open the program Panoweaver 5.0 go to Tools>Advance Settings and then the "Plug-Ins" (tab). Enter the address for Smartblend or browse to it. (as to let Panoweaver 5.0 know where to find the Smartblend.exe)

Then enter on the Command Line "-w" and tick the box "Use this as default Blender" Click OK and your done.

Restitch the same images and be amazed. Note: Whilst stitching when it gets to using "Smartblend" you will see a DOS window open with % time and processed displayed. Happily watch it work, it will close when finished.

Regards, Smooth

Thanks Smooth. I went back and reworked the shots with smartblend and then put them in photoshop elements5. I think it's much better, any way to remove that last little bit on the ceiling?
http://realty360tours.com/pw-5/pano2/_flash/pano2.html before
http://realty360tours.com/pw-5/pano2a/_flash/pano2a.html after

Jerry,

Normally we would just clean that up with the Photoshop healing tool. But I don't think this tool is available with Elements. You could do it with the clone tool, a soft brush with a feathered edge and lower the opacity.

This would be done after outputting to cubic projection, open the cube/tile strip in Photoshop and patch/clone/heal and save. Import back into Panoweaver and publish. (you also have to option to convert back to equirectangular projection first) so you can make thumbnails etc.

Another alternative is to tilt you camera & lens up from level to about 4 degrees. This should close the zenith but also open the nadir slightly. To be honest I not sure if Panoweaver handles this? Worth a shot though!

Another though after viewing your panorama. Have you set the AE-L on the Nikon Coolpix? This should be set for each panorama set you shoot to keep exposures the same between the first and last shots in the sequence.

I'm still not sure you are enclosing the fisheye circle correctly? Can you supply me with a link to download the master fisheye images or send them to me via www.yousendit.com address to my email address. Then I will test to see how my results turn out.

Regards, Smooth 

OK, here is a quick attempt in Elements5. It does have a healing tool. No where near perfect but not bad for a first attempt. http://realty360tours.com/pw-5/pano2b/_flash/pano2b.html
As for the AE-L, if I lock the exposure how will be able to take the 3 different EV shots?
As for tilting the camera 4 degrees, I shot these without the Agnos bracket installed. I noticed with the bracket installed it seems to tilt the camera up so I'll try another pano with the bracket installed. Maybe that will close the Zenith. Not to concerned with the nadir at this time I can use a cap or use the healing tool.

Thanks for all the help. Anymore advice will be appreciated.

Jerry,

OK, Elements 5 have the Healing tools. (good to know).

It is the lens that needs pointing up the 4 degrees (I forgot that you are using the monster version Coolpix with huge adapters). Mate you don't need 3 different EV bracketed shots. Why do you think you do? If you are caught up in the HDR thing it didn't do much for this pano did it? You should concentrate on making the most and understanding one exposure before chasing shadows. You would benefit greatly from a program called Noise Ninja (or similar) to reduce the problem with grain/noise (they have a profile for the 8700).

You can pull the 3x EV from one set of RAW images (enough to cover what you are doing now anyway) To get the most from it you should shoot your normal 0EV slightly underexposed -0.5EV or -1.0EV to give you more chance with blown out windows. Create 3 different exposures from your RAW .nef files with either ARC or with Panoweaver 5.0 itself. It should be quite easy to get +1.0EV and -2.0EV along with your original -0.5EV to give you dynamic range.   

The one thing all us previous or (past & present) Coolpix users discovered is that the AE-L helps a great deal with the Coolpix range of cameras. We also found that zooming and cropping the fisheye circle gave much larger pixel use and thus better, clearer and larger images.

I suggest you look at a lot of old posts going back a few years as we all used them and much information was passed on between users.

Regards, Smooth

Thanks Smooth. I was using the 3bracketed shots to get rid of the blown out windows. I did not use the HDR feature of Photomatix I just merged the 3 bracketed shots with H & S intensive-light. I will try a shot later today using the AE-L.
Now for the zooming and cropping the fisheye circle, I zoom in to try and get the largest circle without cutting off any at the top or bottom. Where does the cropping come in?
I have been reading a lot of the old post over the past year getting ready for this upgrade, I'll go back and brush-up on them.

Thanks again

PS: What is the best way to send you the original Raw shots?

Send them to me via www.yousendit.com address to my email address. Shoot me a PM for my email address.

Zooming in should crop the sides from the circle making a "drum" image where the horizontal FOV will be only 140 degrees instead of 180. You want to keep your vertical FOV at 180 degrees.

Regards, Smooth

Here is a link to one I just did using the 3 single shots as you suggested. The only problem is the windows are not see through. http://realty360tours.com/pw-5/pano3/_flash/pano3.html I shot them at -.7 and then in Nikon editor I did a -1 1/3 and a +1 1/3 and merged in Photomatix.

I have been shooting 3 horizontal full circle, should I be shooting 4 vertical drum with my set-up?

Hi Jerry,

Well you appear to have sorted the zenith blend (whish is great). Though, there is obvious vignetting lines in the nadir now. Yes, windows are blown. You need a wider set of exposure values -2.0EV from your starting point.

Regards, Smooth