New pano, videos and photos from saturday

[spyboy]

Took a drive up the auto road on saturday, that was definately an experience!

Here are some photos, a panoramic (qtvr) and some flash videos of the drive back down the road (plus a cool one of 2 trains heading up to the summit)

http://www.spyboy.com/flash/

Kirk

[Tim&Val]

I've never seen anything like that panoramic view... I just looked straight up at the sky and did a 360. Very cool!!

[Brad]

Ok - how did you do the 360 from the deck? I have seen these before but this is the best I have seen from the deck.

[Charlie]

that is cool

[spyboy]

I've been shooting quicktime VR panoramics for almost a year now. Trade secrets! LOL

I set my tripod up in the corner of the deck, and then put on my panoramic mount head and camera (Canon Rebel XT). I have a remote trigger so I can get out of the way a bit before each shot.

I shoot 1 picture every 60 degrees. Then one straight up and 1 straight down (although I didn't shoot a down shot for this one).

If you look straight down you can see my tripod, and the "hole" where the pictures don't overlap.

The clouds were blowing by pretty fast, so the sky has some weird blending between the clouds and no clouds. I should have shot more frames so I could blend the clouds better.

My big concern was the wind. I was afraid it would knock my tripod over, so I wanted to shoot fast. Plus, it was a beautiful day and a lot of tourists up there (ok, myself included) so it's hard to get a clear deck shot (otherwise blending gives you half people

I shot another "high altitude" back in March in NYC for WNBC. Blue skies, but very cold, and windy. That was fun though, I got to shoot a day shot and an evening shot, and security kept everyone back so I could get a clear deck. Next time I'll shoot right at the edge to get that awesome straight down effect.

http://www.spyboy.com/nyc/

Kirk

Ok - how did you do the 360 from the deck? I have seen these before but this is the best I have seen from the deck.

[KD Talbot]

So it's a pano mount head, not a pano camera. I always wondered how it was done. Are you responsible for the other panos of the summit that are part of this website? Very cool stuff!

KDT

[spyboy]

I only shot 2 panos at the top on saturday, that was the first time I've been on the summit (that I remember...my parents took me up The Cog when I was 2 months old!)

Kirk

[Patrad Fischroy]

As a relevant aside, I just came across the following press release from EasyPano:
"Shanghai, China, August 13th, 2007 -- Easypano releases a new product - Panorama2Flash. This software mainly helps to convert panoramic images to Flash panoramas.

Panoramic images can be spherical and cylindrical. Spherical panorama refers to an image with 360 degree field of view horizontally and 180 degree field of view vertically. Cylindrical panoramas are 360 degree horizontally but less than 180 degree vertically.

Panoramas can be obtained from panorama stitching software. Easypano Panoweaver can stitch spherical panoramas from fisheye images. Fisheye lenses like Sigma 8mm, Nikkor 10.5mm, Sigma 15mm, Canon 15mm and fisheye converters like Nikon FC-E9/FC-E8 can all be used to shoot fisheye images compatible with Panoweaver. Panoweaver supports automatic stitching and manual stitching. Stitching parameters can be saved for future use.

Right click on one or multiple panoramic images and choose Publish with Panorama2Flash, the application will automatically start the publishing process and complete all the Flash panoramas. The finished Flash panoramas are saved in the same directory with the images. The Flash panoramas can be displayed in full screen.

Besides the above, Panorama2Flash also can add ceiling and floor images to panoramas. Viewer size of the Flash panorama can be customized, loading bar can hide, Pan, Tilt and FOV values can all be set. Rotating speed, auto rotating and scene quality can be customized.

It is unnecessary to download any language plug-ins. Language files have been embedded in the installation package. The interface will change according to the OS language. Language interfaces that are available: English, Japanese, German, Spanish, Italian, French and Romanian. Windows and Macintosh versions are available. Price is the same: $49.95.

For more information, please visit:
www.easypano.com

[spyboy]

I use one called Pano2QTVR, but I feel the quicktime VR has better quality than the flash or java players (such as Deval).

Some panoramic photographers post up their work in multiple formats. I may eventually do that, but I'll have to regenerate all of my panoramics to keep it consistent.

I just updated my website, and have a bunch of other panos I've taken over the past year (www.kmembrydesign.com)

Enjoy

Kirk

As a relevant aside, I just came across the following press release from EasyPano:
"Shanghai, China, August 13th, 2007 -- Easypano releases a new product - Panorama2Flash. This software mainly helps to convert panoramic images to Flash panoramas.
www.easypano.com