360 Degree Spherical Panoramas how to?

D

DanW

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hi,

i want to create some 360' panoramas and wanted some advice

i have recently rented a 8mm sigma fisheye from the nice people at lens for hire to take some 360' panos' but they didn't come out very well.

i noticed some vignetting on all of the pictures and no matter how hard i try i can't seem to come up with the same type of quality as the guy who runs this website 'http://www.musicpro.co.uk/sites/bbmf/pages/bbmf_pano_02.htm'

i have a canon 400d.


please don't bite i'm still a newbie ! :D


Stiched pano: http://xe0.net/pics/top.jpg
My Cat: http://xe0.net/pics/pepsi.jpg
Example of Vignetting: http://xe0.net/pics/cafe.jpg


Dan
 
Well the chap behind the website you link to is a member here so he might be along to give some tips.

I've taken a few 360s and you definately have some stitching errors. How did you take the individual photos? If you didn't use manual focus, manual setting of aperture and shutter speed, fixed white balance and fixed ISO then this may account for some of the variation you see, but not the stitching errors.

There are alot of variables that I need to know before I can make an assessment
What panoramic head kit do you use?
How many photos are stiched together to form the final and does this include a zenith (up) or nadir (down) shot?
What software do you use for stitching?
 
What panoramic head kit do you use? haven't used a panoramic head just handheld, i have a tripod but i can't change the head on it, shall i invest in a new tripod?

How many photos are stiched together to form the final and does this include a zenith (up) or nadir (down) shot? i took 4 shots i 'think' in that example, but no up or down shot
What software do you use for stitching?
I have PTGUi and and PTMac for OS X


Dan
 
OK,

Try taking 6 shots around the middile, with an up and down so you can maximise the use of the centre portion of the shot. Try to be careful to rotate the camera about the entrance point of the lens rather than the base of the camera (or worse about you). Otherwise you will have probelms with parallax. A Panoramic Head will help to eliminate the problems caused by parallax by ensuring you rotate the lens about the entrance point of the lens (although technically a fish eye lens doesn't have a single entrance point).

You didn't answer how you shot each photo in the set basically evey shot has to be taken at the same setting ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture and White Ballance.

HTH
 
SimonTALM said:
You didn't answer how you shot each photo in the set basically evey shot has to be taken at the same setting ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture and White Ballance.

HTH
Click to expand...

I cheated and used 'Auto'


Also about the vignetting, should i look at purchasing a different Fish eye to eliminate this problem? If so do you have any recommendations? Also what Tripod/Pano Head do you recommend?


Dan
 
Nope the 8mm fisheye is fine; vignetting is normal on fisheyes. In PTGUI you can crop the outer few mm off the edge so that you don't get the main portion of vignetting and with 6 images in the circle you have a decent amount of overlap to get the best possible image.

As for kit - I have the Ninja Nodal 5L mounted on my Manfrotto 055ProB Tripod with a 555B Leveling Centre Column. There are plenty of other solutions but this seems to work for me.

Trev, Dan

A few sites worth looking at for the basics

http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtour/tutorial/index.asp - Dan, there is a page here dedicated to the 8mm fisheye in PTGUI with step by step info
http://www.panoguide.com/howto/
http://www.johnhpanos.com/tuts.htm
 
Wow - not seen that theatre one - but I'm impressed!

Nearly as impressed as I'll be when payment for the wedding images comes through ... LOL :)

Anth.
 
LOL - technically I didn't as the little 'un was not well - so I took the day off work!

Only a week till half term too - it's all good!

:)

Anth
 
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