Cavechat.org

Hi,

I'm planning a trip to and hopefully "bring back" with me the feeling of being there thru my captures.
I intended this question for similar subjects too since to me it seems fitting in its application since I've seen some amazing 360° panoramas done by cavers here.

I was thinking that apart carefully composing a few shots, I may benefit with a long series of overlapping pictures to ideally reproduce the whole surfaces, which aren't that far apart AFAIK (i.e. no large room).

Using flash isn't apparently a problem, however I think it may eventually ruin the stitching in post-processing by uneven diffusion on overlapping so (bounce flash may be better, or still light and long exposures), I'd like to know if I'm missing something important in the following list I made in order to achieve good results:

- tripod (so that handheld captures in low light won't bother me)

- hotshoe level (so that I stop taking uneven panoramas)

- panoramic head (obvsiously set to no-parallax point)

- wide-angle lens (unfortunately just a 18mm on cropped sensor)

- shooting at f/8, lowest ISO

Any ideas and experience welcome, thank you very much.

Get the flash away from the camera. Use a trigger mechanism to set off several flashes that are hidden around the room (behind cavers, formations, etc.). With digital, you can see the results at once. If you have the old-fashioned flashbulbs, they throw lots more light than do even flashes like the classic Vivitar 283-style or even new flashes.