Producing Panoramics

Notes from a workshop I attended at the IPC Conference yesterday...

Presenters:
Ian Wood - www.azurevision.co.uk
Aldo Hoeben - www.fieldofview.com

Perspective Types:

• rectilinear - ie. normal lens
• fisheye - practical horizontal limit 180 degrees/ vertical 360 degrees
• cylindrical - practical horizontal limit 360 degrees/ vertical 120 degrees
• equirectangular - practical horizontal limit 360 degrees/ vertical 180 degrees - covers whole sphere of vision (used in Immersive Vision Theatre)

Methods of Capture:

• stitching multiple (high quality) photos
  
• do-able on ordinary digital cameras

• scanning/panoramic camera
• lens is a slit = v.shallow field of view producing curves
• expensive

• one shot systems (mirror attachment for lens)
• single photo = low quality
• no problem with moving objects
• never 360 x 180 degrees

Shooting:

• turn off all auto functions - switch to manual
• lock everything

unfortunately I got a bit lost at this point but they have promised to publish their presentation in the next couple of weeks! Ian also said to email him if you had any queries!

Panoheads - rotating tripods (which can be operated by remote control...)

• Aldo uses a Nodal Ninja (approx. $150)
  
• Ian built his own and uses his mobile phone to operate it if tripod is raised high (see LEGO Mindstorms NXT)

To stitch photos together...

• Ian used PTGui.com (panotools graphical user interface) - and 70mm lens
• This generates control points for all images
• Optimise - then tweak control points as necessary
• Create panorama :o)

They then demonstrated how to convert the panoramic's perspective, therefore creating different effects, using a plug in for Photoshop - Flaming Pear's Flexify 2

Thanks Tom for emailing me thew link to (free) Anamorph Me software which also converts images - cool!

Finally panoramics were viewed using QuickTime VR Viewer

Other cool panoramics:-

V. detailed hand drawn panorama of the river at Rotterdam at www.panographia.com
Lapses in Light - Timelapse video of Plymouth by PCAD graduate, Ollie Larkin - v cool indeed!

That's my notes written up - now to start creating... :o)