...i've been working with STITCHER UNLIMITED now for 6 months (off and on)and have never had success with the NADIR shot. i.e. loading it, stenciling it, trying everything to get it to fit in without the obvious blurred edges. What would be the best technique to shoot this image at the end of the shooting sequence? Why does the software accept the ZENITH shot but rejects the NADIR? The menu under TOOLS has a ADD NADIR or REMOVE NADIR which is always inoperative. What is that feature for if I can't use it. Any comments and /or opinions welcomed. Thanks P.S. I do agree that getting help from REALVIZ is inconsistent at the best of times. Good day to all and thanks. Ciao

Hi Brian,
 
The ADD Nadir option is to allow the addition of a logo or "tripod cap" over the tripod area. It's not for what you want, i.e. an additional shot downwards.
 
To do this, you can either:
 
1. Simply include your down shot in the sequence of loaded images (however, this shot has to be in the correct position and rotation as the other shots)
2. Export your spherical image as a cubical image (tiff) then use photoshop to add/blend the down shot into the exported nadir cube face
3. Use LOAD PANORAMA to bring the resultant cube faces back into Stitcher for re-export
 
I've just been doing some video work with Bogen Imaging and we demonstrated their new Manfrotto 055X series tripod with a 303SPH cross mounted so the pano head was pointing straight down. Worked a treat and I think is a perfect solution for taking the down shots.

Thanks for replying, BADDERS. I'm a liitle confused as how to produce this "CUBICAL PROJECTION" as editable face of the cube. Is it a VRML and how do I produce this/these images for edit in PHOTOSHOP CS3 EXTENDED? All I seem to get are 6 individual JPEGS of the cube that doesn't look anything like the CUBICAL PROJECTION illustrated in the manual. I don't know if it's just me, but I find the manual a little ambiguous in it's explanations. Thanks again BADDERS. Ciao

No, it's not a VRML. You're getting exactly what you need. Each of the 6 sides of the cube is saved as a file either JPEG or TIFF (you are better BTW working in TIFF as each time you save a JPEG you loose a little quality). Each of the 6 sides has a file name with an extension, i.e. filename_f.jpg.
 
Look for the one called filename_d.jpg as this is the down view. Load this into Photoshop, blend in your nadir area and you're done!
 
Tell me of ANY manual that's as clear as glass!

Hello again Badders. requesting some advice. I have a NIKKOR 18-200mm 1:3.5-5.6 rectilinear lens that I'm using for my pans. The curious thing is that STITCHER estimates my camera focal point at 27mm even though it was set at 18mm. At Nikkor they say that this lens is equivalent to 27mm, I not sure what this has in play here, maybe you can clarify. Should I set the camera settings in preferences at 18mm or 27mm? I use the "HIGH DISTORTION" option as well.  Yesterday's render of a church turned out beautiful but for the black hole in the NADIR shot which I hope to learn how to eliminate eventually.thanks very much.Ciao

Everything's fine. It's because of the sensor size on your camera. Leave the camera settings in prefs as they are.

Thanks a lot! Badders. With your comments it seems I finally achieved the end result. I managed to pull off a great edit and eliminated the hole with cut and paste in CS3. Looks great! Now to work the whole thing in higher resolution. My second attempt got the image misaligned and the hole in the _d.jpeg was only half visible.So I'm redoing the cubical again. It seems that I'm getting there, however. Thanks. Ciao

addendum: must the stitched image(before editing ) be aligned?

Yes, it should be aligned. Use the Cubical image preview window to check how the bottom image is going to look.

Hope this isn't getting redundant,but, Thanks again! Ciao