Jump to content
WnSoft Forums

Recommended Posts

Posted

JPD's (Jean Pierre's) really innovative 360 panorama using masks reminded me that back in the days prior to 5.0 there was lots of interest in panorama presentations with attempts to create them with "push" transitions and multiple photos, etc. JPD's presentation just prompted me to remind users that it's quite easy to make an excellent 360 degree panorama with zero distortion - unlike the type created with 360 pano software and presented in QTVR (QuickTime) or Flash or Java script. With these, you have true "spherical" capabilities, but it takes a "LOT" of work to capture your originals and carefully stitch them and manually insert the Zenith and Nadir to get the top and bottom so that users can manually scroll them up, down, in every direction.

Most of us just like to get a really great "circular" panorama without the inherent distortions in spherical panos and PTE is just the ticket.

Below is a link to a very quick - low resolution (640x480 captures) stitch presented with PTE and it only takes 2.6 megabytes. These were grab shots today when the lighting was poor so tomorrow I will try to get some decent higher resolution frames and create a decent one. This one only to remind users that this is quite easy to do. All you need is decent stitching software and about a 20/30 percent overlap with you camera on a tripod and absolutely level.

Here's the link:

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/pano2.zip

Best regards,

Lin

Guest Yachtsman1
Posted

Hi Lin

Great stuff as usual.

I mentioned recently I wanted to try some pano work, haven't had the opportunity yet. However I think we have to be careful how we use effects like this, I suffer from vertigo and after watching an animated sequence, even my own I get a feeling of giddines for a few seconds, this could just be me? Seems to happen more on pans than zoom.

Yachtsman1

Posted

Am I the only person who finds these long panorama/pans monotonous? No disrespect to the authors or the images, but they do nothing for me at all. In fact I don't think I have seen one used in a slide show that I have thought adds anything of value to that show.

Panoramas look great on a large print, when panning slowly on and on, not for me I am afraid.

Am I alone with this view or are people reluctant to say it.

I don't mind a slow pan for a few seconds, but feel there is a limit reached when it doesn't work at all.

I did try one in my Week in the Highlands show below, but had to take it out becuase it spoilt the flow of the sequence. IMHO of course

http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/freestuffdigslidesw3.htm

Guest Yachtsman1
Posted
Am I the only person who finds these long panorama/pans monotonous? No disrespect to the authors or the images, but they do nothing for me at all. In fact I don't think I have seen one used in a slide show that I have thought adds anything of value to that show.

Panoramas look great on a large print, when panning slowly on and on, not for me I am afraid.

Am I alone with this view or are people reluctant to say it.

I don't mind a slow pan for a few seconds, but feel there is a limit reached when it doesn't work at all.

I did try one in my Week in the Highlands show below, but had to take it out becuase it spoilt the flow of the sequence. IMHO of course

http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/freestuffdigslidesw3.htm

Depends on your audience, camera clubs might not like, womens institutes luv em. In defence of Lin, he did say the pictures were not the best. For me it's my next project. If you go to Ripon Cathedral's web site they have 360 degree shots of the interior, not animated draggable with the mouse. Looked good to me.

Yachtsman1

Posted

Hi Barry,

I think you will find as many opinions about this as you will find users. What is monotonous to one may be exciting to another and neutral to a third. My point is that you can use PTE to do this if you want to. Because you "can" doesn't mean you "must" or even you "should" unless it's something which appeals to you or to your viewers.

Many people who take holidays in scenic places like to remember what it looks like from a particular vantage point. They like to see the ocean on one side and the beaches and inland. They may like to see the mountains and the plains and remember exactly what they could see when they look around.

360 degree panos are very popular among many groups of people, and every slideshow produced by a user is not designed to be an AV exposition or be included in AV competition. Just like animations beyond pan, zoom and rotate may be of little or no interest to some, they are quite interesting and important to others. In the U.S., almost every realty company selling property uses 360 degree panorama images so that their potential buyers can put themselves in front of a piece of property and see what it might be like to look out their window to the front, sides and back. Also they like to see the interiors of a home all around without actually driving to each piece of property available. When they see something which looks quite interesting, then they visit in person, but the 360 panorama serves a very useful purpose. So it is with resorts who like potential clients to get a "feel" for what it would be like to visit without actually making the trip first.

The bottom line is that what appeals to some is of little interest to others, so PTE offers something for everyone. Take it or leave it, we all have the option of choice. Remember, if you want to stop the rotation and spend a few minutes or seconds on a particular area, all you have to do is press the spacebar or pause key on your keyboard. If the user wants to include zooms in to a particular area, stop for a while, zoom back out and continue the rotate it's an individual choice.....

Best regards,

Lin

Posted

Lin

Yes, I know they are very popular which makes me wonder if I am out of step here, but they just don't do it for me. Always appear unatural like looking through a letter box at a picture. I accept they would have some commercial uses too, I was only really thinking from a photographic enthusiast and the pictorial nature of slide shows.

I just wondered if I was alone or others felt the same, but were reluctant to say it.

I like panorama prints and I hope to have a huge canvas one done for our new home in Australia, but in that scenario I can see the whole image.

Posted

This is an easy subject to agree and disagree on! In the early attempts that Lin refers to, I would often have the same reaction as Barry does. But that reaction was only if I viewed the pano expecting it to be an AV in itself and comparable to the AV intent most often expressed by British and French photo group members. The first pano I really found interesting and still hold as perhaps my favorite, is the great cliff house dwelling in Mesa Verde that Lin produced in those early days. This is a wonderfully detailed sharp view that is an experience in itself.

Often in hiking our mountainous or wide-open spaces, I yearn for a way of "capturing" the expanse. There are in-person views that are so visually overwhelming that it is very natural to want to take it home and show it to others just as I saw it. The days of film meant most of us would never bother to try a serious multi-panel panorama. Now, with half an effort, anyone can get at least a half-good recording of the view. And if you think a digitally done pano is "unatural" - just compare it to the ultra-wide lens approach. I often like the ultra-wide lens approach, but it certainly does not appear natural to me.

Not that you are proposing otherwise, but I certainly appreciate seeing what everyone is doing and what is possible. It either inspires me or helps me avoid devoting my precious time to the less satisfying pursuits.

Posted

I am a garden designer by trade and can see the advantage of producing panoramas, my new camera produces perfect stitched pans and the quality is excellent. So I can do this for my clients and they think Im clever.

My son visited the grand canyon last year and on seeing his photos of this beautiful area I would of loved to have seen a full 360 pan.

I also want to learn everything about PTE and pans are another facet.

Lins 360 is so smooth and Glides perfectly to a stop and he did mention quality, I learned from it and Im sure others will also.

I continue to learn from you all so thanks, so please, on behalf of all of us new memebers keep posting because as I learn so do others and I know the camera club I belong to will benefit as I pass on lessons learnt from you guys.

ralph

Posted

Hi Pedro,

I can't find the original post, but I did find my reply to JPD and a link to his pano. Click on the link below then scroll down three threads and click on the word "Here" in the quote.

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....amp;#entry60808

You don't want to make a conventional 360 pano but rather 360 degrees of straight line beginning to end with the last frame equivalent to the first frame. So you have an extremely wide pano composed of the individual frames beginning with some particular subject and after multiple overlapping stitched frames ending with the same subject. You then insert this very wide stitched straight pano in PTE and scroll from left to right.

Best regards,

Lin

you picked my curiosity, would you kindly give a link to jpd's show? i can't seem to find it...

i have no trouble making 360 panos, but don't know how to make smooth 360+ transitions in pte, perhaps jpd's show would help?

cheers, and tia,

pedro

Posted

lin, thanx for your reply!

I can't find the original post, but I did find my reply to JPD and a link to his pano. Click on the link below then scroll down three threads and click on the word "Here" in the quote.

i don't mean to be a nag, but i can't find "the link below"...

You don't want to make a conventional 360 pano but rather 360 degrees of straight line beginning to end with the last frame equivalent to the first frame.

well, that sounds like "a conventional 360 pano" to me, just not a 360x180 pano...

So you have an extremely wide pano composed of the individual frames beginning with some particular subject and after multiple overlapping stitched frames ending with the same subject. You then insert this very wide stitched straight pano in PTE and scroll from left to right.

ok, i get it. i was hoping pte would smoothly cross the 360 line, automagically restarting at the left end. but that would be way too boring for some, so it may be best to just pan left to right and stop there...

cheers,

pedro

Posted
lin, thanx for your reply!

i don't mean to be a nag, but i can't find "the link below"...

I couldn't find it either so I wrote it again - hope it shows up......

well, that sounds like "a conventional 360 pano" to me, just not a 360x180 pano...

By conventional I mean a spherical QTVR, Flash or Java type 360 pano where you have mouse control over position and movement. In these you actually have a circular file with perspective distortion in the extreme left and right as the image moves.

You can make a 360x180 and pan it up and down with PTE but no manual control. It just makes no sense to me to put in a Zenith and Nadir in a straight line type pano.

ok, i get it. i was hoping pte would smoothly cross the 360 line, automagically restarting at the left end. but that would be way too boring for some, so it may be best to just pan left to right and stop there...

You can set the show to repeat just like any other show. If you go slightly beyond 360 degrees with your stitch and carefully crop so that the start and end match perfectly you can just keep it running if you like.

cheers,

pedro

Posted
i don't mean to be a nag, but i can't find "the link below"...

I couldn't find it either so I wrote it again - hope it shows up......

as you might have noticed, it's still not showing up. oh well... thanx for trying to help anyway!

cheers,

pedro

Posted

Hi Pedro,

I see it, I can't understand why you don't. It's on the original reply.

Best regards,

Lin

as you might have noticed, it's still not showing up. oh well... thanx for trying to help anyway!

cheers,

pedro

Posted

lin,

i can see it now! don't know why it didn't show before (i assure you it didn't!) and i'm not really sure i care.

again, thank you for bearing with me and helping with this.

cheers,

pedro

Hi Pedro,

I see it, I can't understand why you don't. It's on the original reply.

Best regards,

Lin

Guest Yachtsman1
Posted
lin,

i can see it now! don't know why it didn't show before (i assure you it didn't!) and i'm not really sure i care.

again, thank you for bearing with me and helping with this.

cheers,

pedro

and i'm not really sure i care.

That's not an appropriate reply to someone trying to help, & won't illicet future help :angry:

Yachtsman1

Posted

Hi Eric,

I think Pedro means he didn't care why it didn't show up. It didn't show up for me either after I posted it so I edited the original and reinserted the link. I can't understand why I couldn't find JPD's original post either, it doesn't show up in a web search so, I had to search for my replies and I found the link to his pano there. Sometimes the forum software does things which are confusing, but I've learned to accept that and work around it.

Best regards,

Lin

Posted

Yachtsman1,

obviously, i didn't take enough time/care to explain my meaning. if you read the thread carefully, you'll notice that both lin and i couldn't not see the link he was kind enough to include twice. then, both of us could see it, even in the older message. i suspect that the reasons for this have to do with something in the server (if it were just me, it could be something on my machine, even though i haven't changed anything in the meantime, in fact, i haven't even rebooted; as it happened to both of us, it can't be anything on my side). as such, it is not interesting for me to pursue, or worth bothering lin about -- especially since the link is now visible, and so i could follow it. is it clear now?

cheers,

pedro

and i'm not really sure i care.

That's not an appropriate reply to someone trying to help, & won't illicet future help :angry:

Yachtsman1

Posted
Lin

Yes, I know they are very popular which makes me wonder if I am out of step here, but they just don't do it for me. Always appear unatural like looking through a letter box at a picture. I accept they would have some commercial uses too, I was only really thinking from a photographic enthusiast and the pictorial nature of slide shows.

I just wondered if I was alone or others felt the same, but were reluctant to say it.

I like panorama prints and I hope to have a huge canvas one done for our new home in Australia, but in that scenario I can see the whole image.

Barry, as you know I am a great fan of your work. I agree that pano holds little or no interest for me either. I follow your tutorials and try the "peaceful" way. Works for me.

Barbara

Posted

i think that long pans, like long zooms, are not for everyone. and like (most) everything else, they may be abused. they may also be put to good use. lin's mesa verde show comes to mind immediately. my own show ( http://webpages.fc.ul.pt/~pjns/Temp/memorial.zip ) also comes to my mind -- boring? you decide; but both effects serve the intended purpose well.

cheers,

pedro

Am I the only person who finds these long panorama/pans monotonous? No disrespect to the authors or the images, but they do nothing for me at all. In fact I don't think I have seen one used in a slide show that I have thought adds anything of value to that show.

Panoramas look great on a large print, when panning slowly on and on, not for me I am afraid.

Am I alone with this view or are people reluctant to say it.

I don't mind a slow pan for a few seconds, but feel there is a limit reached when it doesn't work at all.

I did try one in my Week in the Highlands show below, but had to take it out becuase it spoilt the flow of the sequence. IMHO of course

http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/freestuffdigslidesw3.htm

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...