First attempt at a spherical giga panorama

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PanoMapper
Posts: 114
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:14 am

Hello folks!

It has been a long time since I posted here, but thought I would show you the fruits of my first attempt at a spherical gigapixel panorama and ask advice of others who do these things.

The address is http://roros360.com/panos/tylldalen/index.html.

There are problems, not least to do with DOF and this is something around which I cannot get my head. A panorama of this size, which has been taken with 9 bracketed shots, is an enormous undertaking not only physically but also in terms of computing power. Focus stacking would be a last resort, since that will fill up my hard disc too quickly and make what might be a viable commercial concept completely dedundant in terms of time and renumeration.

So, how do folks, who seem to produce panoramas like this with much longer focal lengths, manage to get everything exactly spot on? I thought that being equidistant from everything might help, but this is really a case of finding the most interesting place to stand to shoot. I am certain there is a magical trick, but am damned if I know what it is.

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Jon
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360Texas
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Hello Jon,

I think your gigapixel panorama work is great - no I did not find any stitching issues. Yes, at full zoom in I did look all around the room.

Yes, I also think many other forum members have also viewed.

We have a 12 mbps internet connection and occasionally the rotation was not smooth, but I know it is because of the tremendeous amount of detail data being transferred. Faster download internet connection would be better for me.
Dave
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BParker
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Jon:

I was impressed with your results also. I guess your main concern is some things (like the door at the back of the room) not being in sharp focus? What lens did you shoot with and what aperture did you select? This is sort of basic, but have you tried setting your focus on something about half-way between you and the furthest part of the room and then using your camera's depth of field preview option (that stops down the lens) to check if everything is in focus before you shoot?

It may be some other forum members will know some tricks but you may just be hitting the practical DOF limits of your lens. Inside a closed room like this I would think a small enough aperture might keep everything in sharp focus but that might lead to unacceptably slow exposure times (given the large number of exposures you are taking) or having to go to noisier high ISO settings. Very small apertures could start hitting diffraction limits also.

Anyway, I hope you are eventually able to achieve the results you are looking for. The results you have obtained already inspire me.

Ben
PanoMapper
Posts: 114
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:14 am

Many thanks for the kind comments.

That was shot at 35mm, using a 24-70mm Nikon zoom on my D800. I have been back and tried one at 50mm, but it took so long - with the light changing constantly - that I have had to bin it completely and will wait for stable weather.

Having said that, I think that 35mm is really about as large as one can go in a room of those proportions.

As for focus, that is a problem. It was shot at f11, but having tried some shots at f22, when I know everything would be in focus, I have not seen any marked increase in softness that could not be corrected in DxO and with a high pass filter afterwards.

Thanks again for looking,

Jon
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