The use of a tripod when shooting the images is extremely vital. It's also vital that the tripod pivots from the centre of the camera. This is because when shooting the images, they need to be in a straight line, otherwise there will be a height shift. If there is a height shift, the images will not line up without moving the images up or down, which leaves blank space underneath, whilst cropping off the top of the image. This means that the final crop of the image, when removing all white space, will make the image very small. It also makes it harder to stitch together. If the camera doesn't pivot from the centre, there will be a perspective shift that is very difficult to finally stitch together.
By using a tripod that pivots from the centre, it instantly makes the images easier to stitch together, as well as making the shoot easier. If a tripod isn't used the quality of the final images will be extremely low.
Friday, 30 September 2011
Panoramas - A history and a future.
A Panorama image is a wide angle image, created by taking a series of photographs and stitching them together in image editing software.
Panoramas have been in use from the 17th century, becoming a popular way to represent landscapes and events. These early panoramas were painted, rather then photographed. In Europe, Painted Panoramas on a massive scale were created, for audience viewing. The paintings would be massive sizes, ranging from 14m high x 40m circumference (Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Panorama Mesdag) to the 'Racławice Panorama' which is 120m x 15m.
Gigapan, a new technology being created and tested, is the revolutionary new panoramic technology. It is a high resolution camera mounted on a robotic arm. The user inputs data to set up the shot, and the camera takes alot of images (set up across a grid) extremely fast. The data is then downloaded and stitched together automatically in a program. The final image is a absolutely huge image that is a panorama. It can be zoomed in, very close, with no real loss of quality. Gigapan technology, I'm sure, is changing the way that panoramas are created. With this technology, no real manual input is required (apart from setting up the shot) and the final image can be breath taking. Examples of completed gigapans can be found at http://gigapan.org
A panorama of Beirut dating back to the 19th century.
Panoramas have been in use from the 17th century, becoming a popular way to represent landscapes and events. These early panoramas were painted, rather then photographed. In Europe, Painted Panoramas on a massive scale were created, for audience viewing. The paintings would be massive sizes, ranging from 14m high x 40m circumference (Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Panorama Mesdag) to the 'Racławice Panorama' which is 120m x 15m.
A cylindrical projection panorama.
Images from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panorama
Panoramic Photography, once mastered, became alot more popular than panoramic paintings. I imagine this is because panoramic photography is alot faster and widely-available. Digital photography of the late 20th century made this process even more easy and streamlined due to technological advancements. Panoramic Photography is widely used online and the technology is still advancing. Gigapan, a new technology being created and tested, is the revolutionary new panoramic technology. It is a high resolution camera mounted on a robotic arm. The user inputs data to set up the shot, and the camera takes alot of images (set up across a grid) extremely fast. The data is then downloaded and stitched together automatically in a program. The final image is a absolutely huge image that is a panorama. It can be zoomed in, very close, with no real loss of quality. Gigapan technology, I'm sure, is changing the way that panoramas are created. With this technology, no real manual input is required (apart from setting up the shot) and the final image can be breath taking. Examples of completed gigapans can be found at http://gigapan.org
Project Panoramas
Our first assignment brief for the Digital Media Design FdA is to create at least two cylindrical panoramas for the web using a camera, Photoshop and then placed into a website using HTML/CSS/jQuery code. The photographs must be taken in two or more locations to make the images.
It has been suggested, if it helps, to form a vague narrative or theme within and between the panoramas, such as chase or follow, scene of a crime, tourist guide, day in a life, or a sense of location.
The images will be stitched and saved out as JPEG images and then brought into the HTML code for the cylindrical panoramic activity.
Deadline - Tuesday 18th October.
It has been suggested, if it helps, to form a vague narrative or theme within and between the panoramas, such as chase or follow, scene of a crime, tourist guide, day in a life, or a sense of location.
The images will be stitched and saved out as JPEG images and then brought into the HTML code for the cylindrical panoramic activity.
Deadline - Tuesday 18th October.
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