Epcot Panorama

[Scott]

I just "rediscovered" the photomerge function of PhotoShop. I think it works better than any other panorama program that I've tried. This is the plaza area by the fountain (obviously) and the pin-trading station. The photo is a series of 5 exposures with a Canon G3 in January 2004. I didn't crop or trim it at all, because I wanted to show the maximum information available.

 

[gary]

nice job, panorama is something i've never tried,maybe i'l give it a try with some of the vacation shots, there are a couple large open plaza's in barcelona that would present well in panorama
i'm also thinking of some hdr, maybe combo the 2?, an hdr pano, lot of images, 5 shots for the pano x 10 exposures for the hdr, i think if i'm organized and practiced it could be done, have to move fast & organized so the light doesn't change too fast
gary

 

[Tim]

gary, if you're going to try it, shoot the pano vertically so you have more image top to bottom. takes more pics but you'll be happier with the result.

 

[Craig]

Tim, thanks for that advice. That is completely opposite of what would have been my train of thought. I would be thinking "wide-screen".
Now, I want to try to do this also. We bought some panaramic prints at Disney a couple of years ago, it would be nice if I could do something similiar myself!
Thanks everyone!

 

[Tim]

craig, some pano tips... it takes practice, but it comes quickly once you get the hang of it.

1. shoot vertically to get maximum height in the frame (remember, you are going to crop the top and bottom a bit to make a print)
2. tuck your elbows in to your body and keep the camera steady
3. pick something to use as a reference to make sure you are on plane (horizontal line, etc.) use a marking on your camera's screen if possible to gauge your accuracy.
4. rotate your whole body as you take the pics, do NOT move your arms
5. overlap about 1/3 or so of the frame

 

[Dan]

Back in my investigation of quicktime VR style panoramic rendering I discovered a very interesting program that can display HDR VR panoramas.

Let me explain.. what I mean is it's the sort of program where you can pan the viewing window around, so it looks like you're actually standing at the scene and turning your head, the scene is scaled in a way that gives it a kind of 3d feel.

But the HDR function is really neat. The example I saw was a very narrow pano, but the key was if you looked into the sky the ground got dark and the the sky became more visible.. like a camera or human iris narrowing down in reaction to the brighter sky. Then look at the ground and the sky gets blown out and the ground becomes brighter again. It was darned cool.

http://webuser.fh-furtwangen.de/~dersch ... test1.html

There, that should link to it. It's very limited, but I think you can get the idea of the potential.

http://www.fsoft.it/panorama/PTViewer/Sample28.htm

And there's a non HDR example to illustrate the real concept of the 360 degree panorama viewer, the HDR sample isn't really panoramic at all, but it shows off how it can handle HDR.

 

[Jeff Fillmore]

Very nice. I like the mystery shadow to the right/front of the fountain.

 

[Scott]

Very nice. I like the mystery shadow to the right/front of the fountain.

Good eye, Jeff! I didn't notice that. :

 

[Tim]

it "seems" that there might be a "seam" there.... so it seems...

 

[zackiedawg]

Nice pano...good location choice too - I need to do a few more panos like that - right down on the ground with the people walking around!

I've played around with some panos at Disney as well...but most of mine have been wider, landscape-type panos. I've been using Autostitch, a freeware program that I love (I have Canon's too...and it's pretty good - but I have to throw in a good word on autostitch because it does an amazing job, rarely shows seams, can adjust different exposures to match, and requires no more input than opening all the photos you want merged (not even in any order!) and letting it go to work. It's a truly amazing program for freeware!

Here are a few samples of panos I've stitched with the program:

Boardwalk Resort from Beach Club shore - 6 or 7 shot pano - each exposure 5 seconds - tripod mounted:

Wilderness Lodge interior from 4th floor - 3 exposures, handheld:

EPCOT World Showcase lagoon from left ferry dock - 8 exposures, tripod mounted, 8 seconds per exposure:

Magic Kingdom from 2nd floor train station deck - 4 or 5 vertical exposures (like Tim recommended, it gives a much bigger area for cropping) - tripod mounted, using ND400 filter for 3-5 second daylight exposures:

 

[barrie]

gary, if you're going to try it, shoot the pano vertically so you have more image top to bottom. takes more pics but you'll be happier with the result.

I never would have thought of that. Good tips Tim. I'll have to try a pano on my next trip.

 

[Scott]

Nice panos, Justin! ;D

 

[mcpaul]

There are some great shots here! And, although I have done some Pano shots, I never even thought of holding vertically - thanks!

Now, HDR - probably being thick, but what is that?

 

[zackiedawg]

HDR is High Dynamic Range - it allows one to properly expose both shadows and highlights, without burning one or blowing out the other. Usually, the method used is 'stacking' bracketed exposures and blending them - if you take multiple shots of the same scene, with a variance of 1 stop between them, the smaller apertures will capture the nicely metered highlights, but have blacked out and low detail shadows; while the larger apertures will pull in the shadow detail but have blown out skies and highlights. When stacked and blended for HDR, you get the best mix of them all.

The way Dan is mentioning it with the panorama program is a little different. That program is basically imitating your eye when you are viewing the panoramas - as you pan around the panorama photo, and you look up to the sky, the panorama program pretends to be just like your iris, closing down to adjust for the sky's brightness and darkening the shadow areas. WHen you pan around and look down to a shadow area, the panorama's imitation iris opens up to allow you to see the shadow detail by brightening your view. In this way, you get to experience a high dynamic range, but in a variable way similar to the way your eyes would see things in real life.