How to make 360 degree panorama?

Any tips or tricks for making a 360 panorama? Which program should I
use? Can Photoshop Elements do it?

tia,

--
m-m

M-M

"M-M" <nospam.m-> wrote in message
news:nospam.m-m-...
> Any tips or tricks for making a 360 panorama? Which program should I
> use? Can Photoshop Elements do it?
>
> tia,
>
> --
> m-m

I have done 360 degree pano with 13 photos using Autostitch.

http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/im...1--smaller.jpg

Manually set cameras settings especially WB.

Cheers.

Pete

Pete D

"M-M" <nospam.m-> wrote in message
news:nospam.m-m-...
> Any tips or tricks for making a 360 panorama? Which program should I
> use? Can Photoshop Elements do it?
>

It's pretty obvious.
Have you tried:
File>New>Photomerge Panorama.

J

Jay

On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:46:58 -0500, M-M wrote:

> Any tips or tricks for making a 360 panorama? Which program should I
> use? Can Photoshop Elements do it?
>
> tia,

FWIW - the thing that seems to work with the least hassle for me is the
pandora plugin for GIMP. Main restriction is that you have to give it the
photos from left to right and it won't do a two dimensional array - i.e.
just a linear sequence of photos.

ray

On Mar 4, 3:35 pm, ray <r...@zianet.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:46:58 -0500, M-M wrote:
> > Any tips or tricks for making a 360 panorama? Which program should I
> > use? Can Photoshop Elements do it?
>
> > tia,
>
> FWIW - the thing that seems to work with the least hassle for me is the
> pandora plugin for GIMP. Main restriction is that you have to give it the
> photos from left to right and it won't do a two dimensional array - i.e.
> just a linear sequence of photos.

Just curious, as I've only used stitching programs a couple of times:
Could you rotate stitched panoramas 90º and stitch *them* together to
create a 2-d montage?

--
YOP...

Nervous Nick

M-M wrote:
> Any tips or tricks for making a 360 panorama? Which program should I
> use? Can Photoshop Elements do it?
>
> tia,
>
For 360 deg panorama, Autopano pro is extremely good, allowing (re)
selection of central point after stitching (but before rendering).

Some examples of 360 deg stitches (and some near 360 but not full
circle) are here:
http://www.panoramio.com/user/872356/tags/Panorama

Click

In article
<47cdb81f$0$23669$>,
"Pete D" <> wrote:

> I have done 360 degree pano with 13 photos using Autostitch.
>
> http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/im...1--smaller.jpg
>
> Manually set cameras settings especially WB.
>
> Cheers.
>
> Pete


I should have mentioned: I need 360 plus 180 up and down.

I think you can do that with 2 fisheye images but it may take up to 60
regular wide angle shots?

--
m-m

M-M

On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:53:15 -0800, Nervous Nick wrote:

> On Mar 4, 3:35 pm, ray <r...@zianet.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:46:58 -0500, M-M wrote:
>> > Any tips or tricks for making a 360 panorama? Which program should I
>> > use? Can Photoshop Elements do it?
>>
>> > tia,
>>
>> FWIW - the thing that seems to work with the least hassle for me is the
>> pandora plugin for GIMP. Main restriction is that you have to give it
>> the photos from left to right and it won't do a two dimensional array -
>> i.e. just a linear sequence of photos.
>
> Just curious, as I've only used stitching programs a couple of times:
> Could you rotate stitched panoramas 90º and stitch *them* together to
> create a 2-d montage?

theoretically - I've not tried that, so can't say definitively.

ray

On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:37:08 -0500, M-M wrote:

> In article
> <47cdb81f$0$23669$>,
> "Pete D" <> wrote:
>
>> I have done 360 degree pano with 13 photos using Autostitch.
>>
>> http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/im...1--smaller.jpg
>>
>> Manually set cameras settings especially WB.
>>
>> Cheers.
>>
>> Pete
>
>
> I should have mentioned: I need 360 plus 180 up and down.
>
> I think you can do that with 2 fisheye images but it may take up to 60
> regular wide angle shots?

The most common strategy is to use a tripod with a parallax correction jig
(I use a Nodal Ninja 3) and a wide angle lens (a fisheye probably -- I have
a Peleng 8mm for my Nikon d50).

In portrait mode with the Peleng with my camera you can take 4 shots for a
360/180 panorama. It might be possible to do it in two shots with a full
frame slr. The shots should be taken in full manual mode - no autofocus, no
auto exposure, no auto white balance to avoid exposure differences between
shots. This is almost a given with the Peleng but might be an issue with
other lenses.

The shots can then be stitched with software (Hugin is open source that
will do the job). Software will also be needed to view the result(Quicktime
if you created a QTVR, a java applet -- there are a number available, flash
or even Javascript -- I think there are some samples out there)

http://radio.weblogs.com/0127028/2007/01/13.html#a445 is one done for a
Quicktime viewer
http://radio.weblogs.com/0127028/2007/01/18.html#a448 has a java viewer

http://www.panoguide.com/ is a site with lots of info, samples and an
active forum.


--
Brian Sullivan
Courses by Wire (http://www.coursesbywire.com)

Brian Sullivan

"M-M" <nospam.m-> wrote in message
news:nospam.m-m-...
> Any tips or tricks for making a 360 panorama? Which program should I
> use? Can Photoshop Elements do it?
>

There are many programs that can do a good pano. Each has its own strengths
and weaknesses. I have used Photoshop Elements to make a "photomerge" and
found it works fairly well, but it is poor at adjusting colors and images to
match up edges and colors from image to image. I have also used Autostitch
(for many years my primary pano program). One advantage to this program is
it is free and upgrades (yearly) are also free. It is good but any large
pano (in number of images) can really eat your memory and it may be an hour
or two into the process that it crashes with the message "out of memory".
Very frustrating. Recently I tried Autopano Pro and like it a lot. It has
some limits but at least it checks BEFORE you begin the stitch to make sure
you haven't overwhelmed the memory or limits of total size (30000 pixels in
either direction), but if you do go over that limit you can retry with a
proportional resize to keep the dimensions within limit. But it is EXPENSIVE
(the license is currently about $150 due to the exchange rate...the price is
charged in euros). As I said before, there are many other programs out there
and I haven't tried all of them. Each person will have different needs and
ways of working that may suit one program over another so until you find one
that works for you, keep trying.

I have taken multi row panos and had good luck. The current largest was 91
individual images. I tend to try to overlap adjacent images by about 50%
both horiz and vert. I also find that I get less wavy straight lines if I
stick to 30-50mm of focal length (FL). Wider FL causes straight lines along
the edges to wave. Longer FL will use more images for the same image (tho I
have done some tele panos of a large subject that I can't get into the prime
range because of obstacles like a lake. It is also a good idea to plan your
panos with the subjects as close to the same distance as possible. If you
have a close object and most of the image much further away, the close
object will tend to mis-align in adjacent images. Also it is a good idea to
choose a good setting for median exposure of the subject and manually lock
to those settings. Any change to focus, aperture, shutter, etc tends to make
for spotty images as you move around getting some images of brightly lit and
some of shade. Outdoors I highly recommend NOT going more than 45deg of
vertical above the horizon and taking the pano at noon so you don't have the
sun in the image itself to make trouble. The ideal is actually a overcast
day, IMHO. This makes for a nice general soft light with no blown highlights
and few extra deep shadows.

Randy

Randy Berbaum