Spherical panoramas !

[JPS]

I found a new way of having fun !

...that is, photographycally speaking, of course :smile: !

I started doing "spherical panoramas", by shooting several images -with a wide-angle- and stitching them into a 360 x 180 degree image !

It's quite fun, although it takes a bit of time -and practice- to use the different softwares you need to build these :tongue: !

Unfortunately, almost none of the usual photo forums can show *MOV files, so for the beginning i uploaded them in a "specialized" site:

Go have a look at http://www.panoguide.com/gallery/179/ and http://www.panoguide.com/gallery/180/ where i put two of my panoramas !

With your mouse you can move -from within the image- up, down, turn round, and even zoom in and out ! The thing is quite fascinating :smile: !

I wish some of you guys start playing with this, so we could share some tips...

As usual, any comment, advice etc... are welcome !

Cheers,
J-P.

 

[TOLady]

Looks terrific, JP. I've always had so much fun with panos.... I've never done a 360 pano tho. What software did you use for stitching. I'm having tremendous success with PTGui for my flatware panos.

 

[JPS]

Hi Sandi ! I usually use Panorama Factory for my "normal" panos (one row only. I tried to use PTGui and found it was giving quite good results, but i used it only whenever i was doing multi-raw things !

When i started spherical panoramas, about 2 weeks ago, i tried PTGui but wasn't pleased with the results, so i bought Realwiz Stitcher, and NOW it works almost 100 % ! ...of course, i have a lot to learn because 360x180 panos need a lot of care and processing !

I ordered a Panosaurus pano head and i use my Sigma 10-20 mm.

For building the spherical thing (or cubical as they call it), i use Pano2QTVR... but in between the equirectangulat image created by Realwiz Stitcher and the "final product" made by Pano2QTVR, there's quite some Photoshop fiddling...

...but it's real fun, even though i know that it won't last long: i guess i'm going to shoot a few more of these and go back to "normal" photography !

Cheers,
J-P.

 

[dmwphoto]

JP
I alway look at your posts because you are always thinking outside the box (photographically speaking ;~)). This is a fascinating bit of work!

 

[Dave_Canada]

I really like the concept very interesting
I have a question do you think that would play on a electronic picture frame they usually play video as well.
The reason i ask is my g/f is hinting at one for a gift and loading this in one with her house and children in the pics would blow her away.

 

[Phil K]

Just beautiful, J-P. I love to see more.

 

[DABO]

Wonderful stuff! I also took at your workshop. Very cool.

DAB

 

[BigPixel]

The second one wasn't there when I looked JP but thye first one was spectacular. I can see how an intricate watch designer could get into the complexity of this.

 

[Mainuh]

Very cool Jp. THanks for posting!

 

[RFCGRAPHICS]

Hi JPS.

These are fantastic ! I have always wanted to take this step in panoramas, but I never had the time or equiptment or talent. Congrats !!!


Regards

RFC

 

[Gale]

Wonderful wonderful...Beautiful work:>)))

Second link did not work though.

 

[JPS]

Wonderful wonderful...Beautiful work:>)))

Second link did not work though.

Hi Gale !

I found WHY the second URL doesn't work: i don't know why, but the next word just after the URL, "where", got attached to it, so it produces a "404" error !

For now, click on the link and when you get to the error page, just delete the "where" in the address bar ! ...that should do...

I'll ask Patrick to do something about it :wink: !

Cheers,
J-P.

 

[dmwphoto]

I fixed it JP

 

[Chris101]

Oh man J-P! Your workshop is fine! Nice pano too.

 

[Gale]

Wow... That is some workshop and amazing photography to put that together.
Excellent work JP

 

[stephen.s1]

Excellent!

I tried this years ago w/ dismal results. Your work is appreciated over here!

 

[JPS]

I fixed it JP

Thanks Dave ! That's what i call an EXPRESS SERVICE !!!

...i love this site (and even the people in it :wink: ) !


J-P.

 

[JPS]

I really like the concept very interesting
I have a question do you think that would play on a electronic picture frame they usually play video as well.
The reason i ask is my g/f is hinting at one for a gift and loading this in one with her house and children in the pics would blow her away.

Hi Dave !

I'm sorry not to be able to answer your question... i guess it should be possible, as some programs run the panoramas (though not the spherical ones) automatically, so if you can "tell" the electronic picture frame to run this program, maybe it would work ?!?

I guess the best is to ask at Max Lyon's Panoramas Forums ( http://www.tawbaware.com/forum2/index.php?sid=e986a5e6777ab6e74c207a79f076ad1a ) or at Panoguide Forums ( http://www.panoguide.com/forums/ ), there are some very knowledgeable -and very kind- people over there...

Cheers,
J-P.

 

[JPS]

Thanks everybody for the kind words !

...in fact, there's nothing really "artistic" in these panoramas: you just have to find the NODAL POINT of your lens, buy a pano head (in my case the Panosaurus, $75.95), have a PP program like Photoshop, plus a stitching program dedicated to multi-row images, like PTGui (or Stitcher Express $113.- that i bought after having had problem with PTGui), and Pano2QTVR, wich works so well as a "free" program, that i gladly paid the $38.- for the "pro" version, to help the guys who built such a great software, to finalize the job !

Else, you only have to carefully level the pano head, shoot 6 images at -30 degrees odf elevation (and rotating the head 45 degrees each time), then repeating the 6 shots, but at + 30 degrees, then shooting one image of the "zenit" and another one of the "nadir" ! ...that all... the rest is done by the computer !

Cheers,
J-P.

 

[alaskahutch]

Now ya done it, JP. Thanks, I think.

I love those panoramics compared to the ones I've been doing for the our real estate sales with the lens below from 0-360.com. Time for me to upgrade.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

It takes the 360 in one shot but with not nearly as much clarity and it does not cover the zenith and nadar.

See a frame here that I took out of one of our online ads. The software is very easy to use but the images are nowhere near the quality you have shown.

Thanks again. :smile: