360 panorama China, flash panorama, 3d panorama, 360 photography China

360 panorama China, flash panorama, 3d panorama, 360 photography China

Written by Eric Rougier,
There are as many techniques as different ways to build a panoramic image or a spherical Quicktime VR through stitching. The one described below is one amongst others. It probably is the easiest one to reproduce. It's up to you to adjust it according to your needs. (as above)

Basis
For greater ease, this example's shooting is based upon an horizontal row of 6 pictures, a top view (zenith) and a bottom view (nadir) using a VR head mounted on a tripod. (see below)

Preliminary settings
- Photo : The camera must be set to manual mode for focus, exposure and white balance to avoid any offset of the point, light and color setting between images.
- Camera + head : Beyond the correct mounting of the head and camera on the tripod, you have to define the nodal point to get pictures that are easy-to-assemble.

Creating the bottom picture (nadir)
Whatever software you're using (Photoshop, The Gimp...), your goal is to stitch all 2 or 3 images to get a bottom image free of any part of the tripod/head.

Since 2004 360Precison has produced pre-set panoramic heads with very high precision and designed to work with specific couples camera / lens such as Nikon D70 + Nikon 10.5 mm or Canon 5D + 8mm Sigma... This head, the "360Precison Adjuste" adds to their catalog a model that fits to all kind of photographic equipment, with a lot of new features.

With a 10.5mm Nikon lens, the size of the "hole" on the nadir, when creating a Quicktime VR, can be significantly reduce, and then reducing the amount of work in Photoshop. To do this, you simply need to tilt your camera when shooting the last 6 shots row until you can see the panoramic head in the lower part of the photo (-10°, -15°...). The size of the circle to edit will then depend on the size of the panoramic head used.

Quality
There is almost no quality difference in the overlapping area with the zenith if you shot your pictures with a closed enough aperture, choose FINE or RAW as your saving parameters and with an angle allowing a good overlap.The following details are from a 'normal' render (0°) and a render with tilted images (-15°) of 10.000x5.000 pixels/Smartblend.

As a result you get a spheric view of three pictures, without having to shoot the zenith and nadir. After removing the Nikon sunshield, the angle covered is about 200° (!) on the Canon EOS 5D "fullframe" sensor.
This technique offers a lot of benefits and makes the life of the pan photographer easier, whether when shooting fast action scenes, or when shooting in reduced spaces or in difficult conditions. More than an 8mm fisheye, Sigma or Nikon, this lens associated with this camera give you original and high quality panoramas with less contraints.

For most spherical heads on the market, setting the "nodal point" requires patience and a minimum knowledge. Even when it is set, vibrations, transportation, shocks... will make you the operation regularly (most of the time, when you do not have time to do so).
360Precision works on the opposite principle: it has been designed for a couple "camera body + lens". It has no customizable setting, apart from the spirit level.

Many Quicktime VR head models are available which will suit your needs and budget (less expensive and lighter than the assembly demonstrated above :-). Don't spend a lot if you just want to make a few tests or if this type of shooting is not an every-day practice. (see various models and links at the bottom of this page)
This configuration is more stable when used with cameras with no grip (avoiding to increase the distance of the offcentered weight of the camera).
The grip/screw under the head is the one from the original tilt axis of 303 SPH, kept to serve as a hold and to increase portability once the head is bent.
The parallax is not perfect on the view taken "outside" the tripod due to the extreme offcentered position of the camera regarding the tripod's central screw and to the flexibility of the support rail screwed on the 338 plate. The defect is minor (especially if you don't use the central part of the bottom image) and the pictures stitch pretty well in the various software.