3d panorama- this is a panoramic photograph projected onto a sphere or cube, which can be viewed by shifting the viewpoint.
Often on simple digital cameras there is a mode panoramic shooting. This is not exactly what we need. Most often, manufacturers of photographic equipment under the panorama mean simply a horizontally elongated image. Those. For a normal photo, the top and bottom are cropped. It turns out an imitation of a panoramic photo.
However, in Lately manufacturers have expanded the understanding of the panoramic shooting mode. When photographing, several shots are taken, and then the camera, or the software attached to it, stitches them together into a single panorama. There is also a method of scanning one row of pixels of the space matrix when turning the camera.
Yes, thanks to this approach, you can create a panoramic shot. At the same time, it does not allow creating a 3d panorama with a viewing angle of 360x180 (that is, when you can look at the sky and at your feet). In addition, often the result of the resulting panorama is not so good.
Therefore, this article will take a different approach to panoramic shooting: photographing according to certain rules, and then gluing the resulting images in specialized programs into a single panorama.
To begin with, let's deal with the basic terms, and how they relate to the panorama.
spherical panorama(from Wikipedia) - one of the types of panoramic photography. It is intended primarily for display on a computer (using a special software).
At the core spherical panorama lies an image assembled from many individual frames in a spherical or cubic projection. characteristic feature spherical panoramas is the maximum possible coverage angle (360x180 degrees), which allows you to fully display the surrounding space.
If the image of a spherical or cubic projection is placed on a sphere or a cube, respectively, then we get 3d panorama.
Several 3d panoramas form virtual tour. The points, when clicked, the transition from one panorama to another is carried out, are called transition points.
Under consideration 3d panorama from inside a sphere or cube. By rotating this 3d-figure, we get the opportunity to change the viewpoint, and by changing focal length- scaling control.
In order to create a spherical projection for a 3d panorama, you need to take pictures of the entire surrounding space and stitch them together in special software. A cubic projection can be obtained by converting from a spherical one.
Nodal point and parallax
Those who first tried to assemble a panorama from hand-held photographs often encountered the fact that often the pictures are not stitched into a single panorama.
The reason for all this parallax- change in the apparent position of the object relative to the distant background, depending on the position of the observer.
For example, if you look first with one and then with the other eye, you can see that the picture changes. This is especially noticeable in close-range objects.
Let's see the effect of parallax on the image when the camera is rotated.
It can be seen that when the camera is rotated, the near and far objects are shifted relative to each other. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to rotate the camera around a special point called nodal.
Nodal point is, to put it simply, on the optical axis of the lens at the intersection of the rays (the structure of the lens is shown schematically).
When rotating the camera around nodal point displacement of near and far objects does not occur.
The location of this nodal point is individual for each lens.
In order for the camera to be able to rotate around this particular point, panoramic heads that screw directly onto the tripod.
Sometimes panoramic heads are called ordinary ball heads allowing the camera to rotate 360 degrees. This is not entirely true. It is almost impossible to shoot a panorama with diverse objects using them. It is necessary to ensure that the camera is rotated around exactly nodal point. And these heads allow you to simply rotate the camera body.
However, ball heads can help when shooting panoramas when there are no objects in the foreground. In this case, the parallax effect will be almost imperceptible.
Some models of panorama heads can only be adapted for capturing cylindrical panoramas (the camera can only be rotated horizontally). But most heads allow you to create both spherical and cylindrical panoramas. In this case, camera rotation is possible both vertically and horizontally.
It can be seen that with any rotation of the head, the point of intersection of the vertical and horizontal axes does not shift. If you position the camera so that the nodal point of its lens coincides with the above-designated intersection point, then the parallax effect will not be observed.
Sometimes for shooting panoramas you can do without a panoramic head at all. Let's take a look at these cases below.
How to determine where the nodal point is on your camera?
If you have a SLR camera, then there is probably information on the Internet for your lens. Most often you can find if you ask a query in a search engine: “model_of_your_lens nodal point”
If you do not have a mirror digital camera or you did not find information on your lens, but you have a panoramic head, then you can use the following method:
1. Install the camera in the panoramic head. Make sure that the optical axis passes through the center of rotation. To do this, point the camera vertically down. The vertical axis of rotation must pass through the center of the frame.
2. At a distance of 30-50 cm, center a thin object vertically in front of the lens. It can be a ruler, wire, pen, etc.
3. At a distance of several meters, place a second object of small thickness. Position the camera so that the camera itself and the two objects are on the same line.
4. Rotate the camera so that the nearest object is near the right edge of the frame.
Now move the camera along the optical axis of the lens until the near and far objects are again on the same straight line.
Repeat with the left border.
5. Check the correctness of the found point. Try rotating the camera while looking at the screen. Near and far objects must always be on the same straight line.
If you notice a deviation, repeat step 4.
You have now found the nodal point of your lens. It is located exactly at the intersection of the axes of rotation. Make marks on the pan head so that you don't have to look for the nodal point again in the shooting conditions.
But what if there is no panoramic head yet?
You can try to imitate this panoramic head. Find something in your home that you can put your camera on and rotate it. This could be, for example, an old turntable, or a plate with a turntable from a microwave oven.
Put on top of, for example, plates, clear sheet. Mark the center of rotation on it, and draw a line passing through it. Position the camera so that the optical axis, when viewed from above, coincides with the line. Follow steps 2-5, moving the camera along the drawn line until the near and far objects are on the same line.
The nodal point will be located at the intersection of the axis of rotation of the dish and the optical axis of the lens.
Shooting panoramas
So, we have found the nodal point, and now if you rotate the camera around it, then the parallax effect will not be observed. In this case, photos are usually quickly and efficiently stitched into a single panorama.
Sometimes there may be some problems in special cases (for example: shooting a sea panorama, or a forest in windy weather). But these cases deserve a separate article.
Shooting a panorama consists in sequential photography with the camera turning around the nodal point.
Nearby images should have common areas around 20%. The analysis of these areas will allow the program to then stitch all the frames into a single panorama.
If your camera allows, it is best to shoot in RAW + JPG format. The RAW format allows you to correct some of the imperfections of the images, while JPG allows you to quickly view the captured images.
When shooting panoramas, you must:
Set the camera to full manual mode (usually indicated by the M symbol).
Set the focal length to the smallest. Adjust your pan head so that there is a 20% overlap between shots as you pan from frame to frame. If you don't have a panoramic head, then you will need to remember what was photographed in the previous frame and shoot in a way that provides the necessary overlap of shots.
Adjust the focus manually so that all subjects are sharp enough.
In order for the depth of field of the photographs to be sufficient, and if the light permits, set the aperture value to a higher value (for example, F9.0).
Set the ISO value based on the light.
Adjust the shutter speed so that there are no overexposed or overly dark areas in the picture.
Now sequentially shoot frame by frame by turning the camera. If the lighting conditions change in the next frame, adjust the exposure value by changing the shutter speed. On the SLR cameras it is convenient to do this with a wheel.
Try shooting one row of frames for the panorama first. In this case, you get a 3d panorama with a limited vertical viewing angle.
For a spherical panorama (360x180), it is necessary to make additional rows in such a way as to provide an overlap of 20%, and cover the entire surrounding space with images
If you have a fish-eye lens with sufficient field of view, then you may not need additional rows of frames. For example, shooting at 10mm fish-eye on amateur DSLRs (i.e. crop factor 1.5-1.6) you will need 6 horizontal shots + a zenith and nadir frame.
You can also work out shooting schemes with 4-6 frames per panorama. Just remember that shooting is the smallest time spent among overall process panorama creation. It's better to shoot a couple of shots than to think about how to fix the light and details at the joints of the shots.
If you're having trouble shooting in manual mode, try shooting in automatic mode first. Typically, the shooting mode “landscape” (may be called “nature” or something similar) is suitable for this.
Without panoramic head Of course, shooting a panorama is more difficult. The main difficulty is to ensure the rotation of the camera around the nodal point. Supporting the camera on some vertical object can somehow help in this matter. It can be a tripod, or in extreme cases, a bough or a stick.
In such cases, try to choose a scene for shooting when there is no foreground, and almost all objects are in the background. For example, a large clearing in the forest, or the central square of the city. Then the parallax effect will almost not manifest itself and the panorama will be stitched normally.
How to shoot zenith and nadir?
Let me remind you zenith is a perpendicular line upward from the horizon plane at the point where you are, and nadir- down. Those. a zenith shot is if you turn the camera vertically up, and a nadir shot is vertically down.
Take off nadir can be done by hand or with special tools. In any case, it is necessary to ensure that the position of the camera is as if it were standing on a panoramic head. To do this, you can first put it on the head vertically down, then disconnect the camera and holding it at arm's length in this position, remove the tripod to the side with the other hand. And then take a nadir shot.
snapshot zenith removed easily enough. Turn the camera vertically up and take a picture. But if the sky acts as the zenith, and there are no clear clouds on it, then in fact this picture will be useless. The program for stitching photos into a panorama will not be able to determine the relationship with other images, it will simply have nothing to “catch on”. In this case, you will have to complete the zenith of the panorama in Photoshop. But we will talk about this in future articles.
Continuation:
2. Assembling photos into a single panorama
All articles on creating panoramas
Are you already getting spherical panoramas?
And join them to a large virtual tour of cities and natural attractions.
Most often, shooting a panorama is most appropriate when the details in the foreground are not so important. Then you can safely shoot a panorama and even additional equipment is not needed. Of course, you will have to do some preparatory work.
steho/depositphotos.com1. Choose the right shooting point
Successfully merging several images can be hindered by parallax - a change in the apparent position of an object relative to a distant background, depending on your position. To prevent this from happening, you should make sure that there are no objects in the foreground. For the same reason, you should not shoot at a large focal length. Changing the focal length during shooting, of course, is also not worth it.
2. Shoot panoramas in calm weather
First, the wind will move objects in the frame, making it impossible to stitch images together. Secondly, it can also move the camera, which will lead to blurry shot. Perhaps only one frame will be spoiled, but because of it you will not be able to make the entire panorama. So don't waste your time when the weather is windy.
3. Sunrise and sunset are not the best conditions for shooting a panorama
At this time, the light level changes too quickly. You can, of course, try to take all the frames of the panoramic shot at a fast pace. But it is very likely that this will not give a high-quality picture.
4. Panoramic shot - for special situations
You don't have to take panoramic shots. If the view is unremarkable, a non-standard shooting format will not save it. Considering that taking a good panoramic photo requires a thorough approach, it's best to first evaluate if it's worth it.
5. Take normal photos too
Just in case something goes wrong, don't forget to take not only a panoramic shot, but also a normal one. So you insure yourself against complete disappointment if you don’t like the panoramic photo. And don't forget that a panoramic shot doesn't have to be long. You can shoot vertically or glue pictures in several lines.
ES0lex/Depositphotos.com Conclusion
It may seem that shooting panoramas is too troublesome. But with experience, when complexity is less important, you will be able to appreciate the advantages of this type of shooting: some advantages in building frame composition, the ability to print in large format or create a series of regular format images from one panorama that can look very bright. Once again, briefly about what will become the key to a good panoramic shot:
- lack of objects in the foreground;
- the focal length is not too large and does not change;
- windless weather, and the time of day is neither dawn nor sunset;
- really worthwhile look.
It is up to you to decide whether to spend extra money on special equipment for shooting panoramas. In any case, these tips will help you get the basic skills of creating a panoramic shot - even with an inexpensive camera or smartphone.
Photo panoramas are one of better ways demonstrate to users all the nuances of what is happening, show the object “from the inside”, and so on. Introducing 6 free tools for creating photo panoramas.
Image Composite Editor, created by Microsoft, is the easiest program to use. Image Composite Editor can create panoramas from both photos and videos.
The program contains four buttons at the top that guide you through each step of the process - Import, Merge, Crop and Export. On the right you will see options that can further improve the panorama. You can export your file to many file formats with different quality settings. Remember to change Quality (Quality) in the drop-down menu to Superb (increased) before exporting your panorama.
Ease of use: 5
Opportunities: 6
Result: 5
The photo gallery built into Windows 7 and 8 is basically an organization program with useful tagging features and basic editing capabilities.
One of the functions that is not usually associated with the Photo Gallery is the creation of panoramic images. Surprisingly, this program is one of the easiest to create them.
To create a panorama, drag and drop individual photos into the Photo Gallery. Then select them, click the Create tab at the top, and then click Panorama and wait for the program to merge the photos. You will be prompted to save the panorama to your computer without any preview.
Ease of use: 5
Opportunities: 2
Result: 4
After launching Autostitch, click on the folder icon and upload photos. The program will automatically glue them together to create a panorama.
Ease of use: 4
Features: 3
Result: 3
Hugin is an advanced panorama editing program. It allows you to stitch photos taken with different cameras, and even several rows of photos (top and bottom) to create a large panorama. There are also options for calibrating lenses and creating 360° panoramas.
No other program has this capability.
After importing the images, you need to align them exactly, then manually clear the errors that the program itself finds. Only after that Hugin will start working.
Ease of use: 2
Opportunities: 5
Result: 5
Dermandar is a website that stitches together your photos in a couple of clicks.
Go to the website and choose from two options (360 or wide angle). Now select and upload your photos, then wait a few seconds for the tool to stitch them together. As a result, you will get an excellent result, which you can drag with the mouse from one edge to another. Click the Fullscreen icon to expand the image. The Options button allows you to download the file to your computer in JPEG format.
Ease of use: 5
Opportunities: 2
Result: 5
Google Photos has quickly become the default photo storage service for millions of users. It works on Android, iOS, as a website and even as a desktop app. After uploading photos, a useful help function appears. The assistant analyzes your photos and looks for ways to improve them - whether it's creating a story from photos taken from about the same place, or adding effects to individual photos.
The assistant automatically detects adjacent photos taken from the same location and stitches them together to create a panorama.
Ease of use: 0
Opportunities: 0
Hello, friends. In this article, I will briefly outline the main points of creating a 3D panorama at home. We will walk you through the process of creating a cylindrical panorama from individual photographs on real example. And for starters, I would like to load you with at least a basic theoretical part on this topic. Any cylindrical panorama is a widescreen photograph with a 360-degree horizontal angle. Below you can see an example of such a panorama.
In full screenCreating panoramas usually takes place in several stages. The first step is to prepare the photos. To do this, we need a camera or smartphone. Ideally, a DSLR, but if you don’t dress up, then any soap dish is quite suitable. We fix the device on a tripod and shoot around its axis. The smaller the step, the better the panorama will be. It is very important to perform all actions with a tripod. It is unlikely that you will be able to shoot high-quality material with your hands. As a result, you should get a folder with similar photos.
Next, we need to stitch all these images into a single panorama. To do this, we use the popular software product PTGui Pro. This program will allow us to easily glue our frames into a single file. After that, we will work on converting the panorama to Flash format. This conversion is needed in order to make a full-fledged cylindrical panorama from our picture. It is after processing in the second Pano2VR program that our work will acquire its final form and become available for viewing in 3D mode. You can download all the necessary programs link or independently find them in the open spaces of Runet.
Installing and activating PTGui Pro
Step 1. Run the fo-pt10.exe file and click on “Next” in all windows. We are waiting for the end of the installation process and click "Finish".
Step 2 Next, we need to prevent the program from accessing its home site and check the activation status. To do this, you need to make changes to the "hosts" file. First, go to the following path "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\".
Step 3 Next, launch notepad and drag the "hosts" file to workspace notepad to make changes. This is one of the easiest ways to open this file. Indent and add 2 lines at the end of the document:
127.0.0.1 ptgui.com 127.0.0.1 www.ptgui.com
Step 4 Fine. Now PTGui will not once again break into its servers. And we proceed directly to the activation of the program. We launch the shortcut of the same name on the desktop, accept the license agreement and copy the data from the reg.txt file in the registration window. It lies in our installation folder. If you do everything right, you will see the inscription: "Thanks! Your cope of PTGui Pro is now registered". Click "OK" and move on.
Step 5 After opening the program will prompt you to upgrade to latest version. You shouldn't do this. We put a tick in the paragraph stating that it is not necessary to check for updates in the future and click on "No".
Actually everything. The installation of the first program required for stitching photos into panoramas is completed. Let's move on to installing Pano2VR. This software will allow us to create 3D panoramas from simple JPG images.
Installing and activating Pano2VR
Step 1. From the "Pano2VR Pro v4.5.0.10633 Final" folder, run the setup file depending on the bitness of the operating system. I have 64-bit Windows 7, so I boldly click on “pano2vr_install64_4_5_0.exe” and, without further ado, click “Next” in all windows. The installation is quite long, so you have to be patient.
Step 2 The next step is to activate the program. Everything is much simpler here than with PTGui Pro. To activate Pano2VR, it is enough to replace one file in the folder with the installed program. Having opened the BEAN folder, select the desired bit depth and copy pano2vr.exe to the following path "C:\Program Files\Pano2VR". When requesting a replacement, we immediately agree.
This completes the installation of the necessary software to create virtual tour completed. We proceed directly to the first stage of work - gluing photos into panoramas.
Photo gluing
Step 1. Open the PTGui shortcut and click on the “Load images…” button
Step 2 Select a folder with source photos for the future panorama. As an example for this material, I prepared photos of the teachers' room in my educational institution. If you don't have your photos yet, you can use these. Select all the photos from the folder and click "Open".
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Step 3 After loading all the photos, click on the “Align images” button and wait until the program processes each image and compiles a single panorama.
Step 4 In case of successful completion of gluing, click "Create panorama ...".
If the gluing attempt fails, repeat the operation again
Step 5 In the new window, click on "Create panorama" again.
The finished panorama will appear in the folder with the original photos and will have the title "Panorama".
Creating a 3D panorama
Step 1. Launch Pano2VR and in the main window of the program click on the "Select" button.
Step 2 In the window that appears, specify the path to our first panorama and in the settings for its type, set the "Cylindrical" parameter.
Step 3 Fine. Now let's move on to saving our 3D panorama. To do this, in the "Export" section, select "Flash" as the format and click "Add".
Step 4 In the window that appears with many settings, do not touch anything. Just click on "OK".
Step 5 We agree to export the file.
Step 6 Before outputting the panorama to a finished swf file, we are asked to save the project. Click "OK" and select the desired folder. I'll probably specify the root folder with the original photos.
Step 7 After waiting for the tour to be saved, go to the output folder and look for a file with the “.swf” extension. Open it in any browser.
By moving the cursor you can look around you. So, before our eyes, a simple set of photographs turned into a beautiful 3D panorama in 10 minutes, which conveys a feeling of space around much better than simple shots. In our educational institution, such panoramas even made a whole 3D tour of classrooms and workshops. However, creating such a tour requires a lot of effort. A slightly different software package is used. The creator must have basic skills in Photoshop and several other editors.
However, in general, the implementation of a 3D tour within the same building, street or even city is a very interesting task. In the near future I will try to make an issue, within which I will detail the basic principles of creating a virtual 3D tour using an example educational institution. Interesting? Then do not forget to subscribe immediately after watching. There are many more instructive stories ahead. Thank you with a like if you liked the video. Denis Kurets was with you. See you in a week. Bye Bye!
class="eliadunit">Hello, friends. Today we will learn how to make amazing panoramic photos two mouse clicks. To help us in this matter will be a free, lightweight program from Microsoft. Yes, you are not mistaken, this is the manufacturer himself operating systems Windows. You can imagine how thoughtful and reliable this program is.
What will be required of you? Several photographs of the same area, taken "in a circle". It is not necessary to spin in all directions with the camera. It is enough when shooting (for example, a group shot, near a fountain) to take a couple of shots, shifting the angle slightly to the side, to the right and to the left.
I just returned from a small photo shoot - I shot it specifically for this article on a regular mobile phone. Let's see together what will come of it. You can see what result we are striving for at this link.
Now it remains for us to “throw” our photos into the program and it will mount them into one panoramic photo itself. You will not see any seams and transitions - brightness, contrast, shades ... everything will be picked up and smoothed out by our program. She's doing great panoramic photos, automatically - for this purpose it was created.
Panoramic photos: download Microsoft Image Composite Editor
We are not afraid that the program is English language. You and I have already seen that it does not matter by doing photo morphing.
Installed. Now we will open the main window of the program ...
We select a pack of our photos and click "open" - the process of loading into the program has begun. It lasts seconds...
And immediately, followed by the process of gluing and processing ...
Now let's wait...
After that, slightly correcting the borders of the panorama with the mouse cursor and setting the quality level to the maximum ...
We save the result of our panting ...
We choose a place on the disk where our files will be stored. panoramic photos and that's it, actually.
Result 1
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