360 Degree Photography & Panoramics

mdollan

mdollan

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Mark
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Having seen the 0-360 lens and its awful results - I've been looking round at other methods.

There are some fantastic example out there, I am very impressed by fellow TP'er Peter Stephens (http://www.peterstephens.co.uk) - especially the Ford Mustang Shelby Super Snake! :thumbs:

I've had a play with some images taken on a 17-40 on a full frame and tried numerous different applications to stitch the images together to produce a 360 panoramic - but have yet to be happy with any of the results.

Have many of you guys had a dabble with 360 panoramics? Any of you care to share results and methods?

Thanks :thumbs:
Mark
 
That's the exact effect that I'm looking for - spot on!!

Do you know how many images each scene was made up from?

I also notice that you can scroll over and under is that an effect of the 10mm lens or has an image been taken up and down and stitched onto the rest of the images?

Sorry for all the questions!

Will have a look at PTGui and Immervision Pure Tools
 
mdollan said:
That's the exact effect that I'm looking for - spot on!!

Do you know how many images each scene was made up from?

I also notice that you can scroll over and under is that an effect of the 10mm lens or has an image been taken up and down and stitched onto the rest of the images?

Sorry for all the questions!

Will have a look at PTGui and Immervision Pure Tools
Click to expand...


The fact you can scroll over an under is the fact it's a full 360 x 180 panorama taken using the Ninja Nodal panoramic tripod head to move the lens round the nodal point of the lens.

From what I remember its a stitch of 14 images

1 for the top (looking up)
1 for the bottom (looking down)
6 photos at -25 degrees from horizontal
6 photos at +25 degrees from horizontal

Technically with the 10.5mm on the Nikon Crop you can shoot 6 photos at horizontal position with one at top and 1 at bottom (these might be, I don't completely remember now??) but I found that 2 rows of 6 photos help speed up the stitching process as there is more information for the software to work with.
 
would you not take several shots looking down to make sure your legs aren't in it? :)
 
SimonTALM said:
The fact you can scroll over an under is the fact it's a full 360 x 180 panorama taken using the Ninja Nodal panoramic tripod head to move the lens round the nodal point of the lens.

From what I remember its a stitch of 14 images

1 for the top (looking up)
1 for the bottom (looking down)
6 photos at -25 degrees from horizontal
6 photos at +25 degrees from horizontal

Technically with the 10.5mm on the Nikon Crop you can shoot 6 photos at horizontal position with one at top and 1 at bottom (these might be, I don't completely remember now??) but I found that 2 rows of 6 photos help speed up the stitching process as there is more information for the software to work with.
Click to expand...

That's fantastic Simon - will give me something to play with. Only got a 17-40 at the minute - trying to locate a fisheye for a 5d MKII :)

I think the problems I had were with the amount of images, I tried using 6 photos and the software struggled to find matching points.

I'm guessing that the 6 images on +25 and 6 images on -25 gets rid of the ballooning?
 
Harvey_nikon said:
ptgui will make quicktime videos like that for the web.
Click to expand...

It might do but it doesn't do Flash based output and as the majority of web browsers have flash installed more people can view flash based VTs whereas with quicktime many people will need to download a plugin first before they can view the VT (mainly those not using apple devices or have itunes installed i.e. most office based PCs).

It's all about making it easiest for the viewer, technically I should produce 2 versions with a server script to pull up the one that is best depending on browser capabilities, but that side of the business is on hold at the moment for time reasons.
 
mdollan said:
That's fantastic Simon - will give me something to play with. Only got a 17-40 at the minute - trying to locate a fisheye for a 5d MKII :)

I think the problems I had were with the amount of images, I tried using 6 photos and the software struggled to find matching points.

I'm guessing that the 6 images on +25 and 6 images on -25 gets rid of the ballooning?
Click to expand...

The +25 and -25 just maximises the amount of data I have to stitch with, you need a good overlap to allow the software to find the matching points

With a 17mm lens you will need to shoot more than 6 shots to get a good stitch - you should have a cross over between each frame by a minimum of 30% (ideally upto 50%). So to get a full 360x180 spherical panorama I think you need to be shooting 3 rows of 12 images (horizontal, +/- 45 degrees) plus the top and bottom image (assuming a portrait orientation).
 
You're a star, Simon, thanks!

Can't wet to get playing tomorrow! :thumbs:

Anyone else got any results they want to share? :)
 
I use a Sigma 8mm on a 40D.
with a Nodal Ninja 3
Four around, one up, one down.
PTGUI.

I'm experimenting with multi exposure (HDR style) which PTGUI supports.

You can use a weight on a bit of string - my first ever shot :
http://www.john-marshall.co.uk/panos/viaduct.html
notice the dodgy joins.

This http://www.john-marshall.co.uk/PS_Panos/PS_Pico_Castelo.html, hopefully is a bit better, complete with my missus having a fag, she couldn't get her head around moving behind the camera. :)

My preferred viewer is DevalVR, but the comments above re getting people to download are very apt. The deval site has loads of example code for allowing the viewer to select which method to use.

This man http://www.johnhpanos.com/ is a God of the pano world and has loads of tuts re PTGUI.

This http://www.panoguide.com/ is worth a look as well.
 
john-oh said:
I use a Sigma 8mm on a 40D.
with a Nodal Ninja 3
Four around, one up, one down.
PTGUI.

I'm experimenting with multi exposure (HDR style) which PTGUI supports.

You can use a weight on a bit of string - my first ever shot :
http://www.john-marshall.co.uk/panos/viaduct.html
notice the dodgy joins.

This http://www.john-marshall.co.uk/PS_Panos/PS_Pico_Castelo.html, hopefully is a bit better, complete with my missus having a fag, she couldn't get her head around moving behind the camera. :)

My preferred viewer is DevalVR, but the comments above re getting people to download are very apt. The deval site has loads of example code for allowing the viewer to select which method to use.

This man http://www.johnhpanos.com/ is a God of the pano world and has loads of tuts re PTGUI.

This http://www.panoguide.com/ is worth a look as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks John - loving your Pico Castelo shot!

Gives me something to aspire to ;)

Havre book marked Panoguide and will have a proper read tonight when I get home.
 
mdollan said:
You're a star, Simon, thanks!

Can't wet to get playing tomorrow! :thumbs:

Anyone else got any results they want to share? :)
Click to expand...

I've just realised that I was talking about the Canon Crop factor and you have a 5D Full Frame :bonk::bonk: This is good news as it which means you have a wider field of view with the 17mm and you can reduce the number of shots to get the full 360.

This link can help you calculate the number of shots required.

Using the 5D and the 17mm you can reduce to 2 rows of 8 (+/- 25) plus top and bottom although 3 rows (0, +/- 45) plus top and bottom would give you more data and an easier stitch.
 
So all good then ;)

Thanks for the link, should make life a bit easier!

Any idea how these images have been taken?

http://www.sphereworks.co.uk/iotm_velodrome.php

Would appear to be a 360 lens, due to no apparent stitching.

The 360's I've seen all appear to have really poor resolution, so to be able to buy a lens which creates this effect at this resolution would be awesome!
 
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check his help section, seems like he uses multiple shots and Immersive software

also, on the about us page:

At Sphereworks our process involves taking between 8 and 10 separate images around a central point using a tripod and rotator. This means the image you see will be a true 360 representation of the interior or space you are looking at. It has many names such as virtual reality photography 'VR'. spherical photography, interactive photography, virtual tour photography, 360 degree photography, cubic panoramas, QTVR photography and immersive photography.
Click to expand...
 
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I've seen it done with a Nodal Ninja, Sigma 8mm Circular fisheye mounted on a Canon 1000D and stiched with PTGui.

Might be worth looking at a cheap(ish) 400D/450D then get the braket and fisheye.

The 8mm Sigma fisheye is FF compatible, however it would produce a circular image with black borders and I don't know how they would stich together.
 
If I can make them with My D60 and and the kit lens you really don't need anything special ;)

just practice :D
 
I'm making them at the minute with the kit I've got - I'm not using anything special.

5D MKII, 17-40 lens and a cheap Argos Tripod.

Like you say, it's just a case of practice!

But if I can make my life easier with different equipment....
 
martyp said:
The 8mm Sigma fisheye is FF compatible, however it would produce a circular image with black borders and I don't know how they would stich together.
Click to expand...


You can specify the crop area in PTGUI. :thumbs:
 
mdollan said:
I'm making them at the minute with the kit I've got - I'm not using anything special.

5D MKII, 17-40 lens and a cheap Argos Tripod.

Like you say, it's just a case of practice!

But if I can make my life easier with different equipment....
Click to expand...

You've not mentioned a Panoramic Rotator - if you are wanting to make life easy get a Panoramic Rotator such as the Ninja Nodal and a decent tripod so you rotate the lens round the no parallax point.
 
john-oh said:
You can specify the crop area in PTGUI. :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Forgot about that tab, I usually just let it get the info from the EXIF but just checked and the crop factor is in there. If I remember correctly the Sigma 8mm fish-eye costs about £50 to rent for a week and as a test it could be worth it.


SimonTALM said:
You've not mentioned a Panoramic Rotator - if you are wanting to make life easy get a Panoramic Rotator such as the Ninja Nodal and a decent tripod so you rotate the lens round the no parallax point.
Click to expand...


Yeah, one of these brakets pretty much essential IMO. When you get into confined spaces (e.g. interiors) as without due to parallax you'll have a very bad looking and practically unusable pano.

They are typically about £150-250 plus the cost of a sturdy tripod too.
 
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread: But I have dabbled a bit with 360° so for my tuppence worth. They can be made with any lens, I tend to use a Sigma 8mm fisheye as it needs fewer images to complete the sphere. However a longer focal length requiring more images would produce far higher resolution, even going into the giga-pixel range with resulting increased file sizes. The images are best taken with a tripod and properly aligned pano head (I use an Nodal Ninja 3) the best alignment produces more consistent results which means less time spent masking stitching errors later. They can be done hand held, though for good results it takes practise and the stitching software is (PT Gui for me) is getting ever better coping with stitching misaligned images. For final output Pano2VR is very good.

(has been a while since I have made any though) My panos: Panocorner
 
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