Panoramic photography

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Panorama photography is a collective term for different techniques with which pictures can be produced with a very large angle of view ( panorama picture ). This can be up to 360 °, so it shows the surroundings around the camera location up to a complete all-round view.

and display information about the image
395 ° panorama of the Silvretta (over 360 °: same details left and right - except for the clouds, depending on the time)
Vertical panorama: an icefall on a rock face in the Rhön

Recording technology

Special panorama cameras are used in the professional sector . Unlike conventional cameras, these do not have a fixed lens , but have a pivoting shutter or a rotating camera housing that exposes the film in a small strip over the entire angle of rotation . Other panorama cameras have a fixed lens with a large image circle from which a narrow horizontal rectangular band is cut out.

Panoramic photographs can also be taken with, for example, spherical mirrors . However, the resulting panorama images are heavily distorted.

A practicable alternative to this in the hobby area is to take several individual pictures and to move the camera a little further between them. These partial images can then be put together to form a large panorama using a technique known as stitching .

Digital panorama or VR cameras have at least two fish-eye lenses or several wide-angle lenses and can simultaneously record a complete 360 ​​° panorama.

Fisheye and "nodal point adapter"

Good results are achieved if you take three to four pictures horizontally with the fisheye lens and possibly one upwards (zenith) and one downwards (nadir). Attached to a special tripod head ( nodal point adapter ), the camera can easily be swiveled horizontally between shots. The adapter is set so that the beam extension for the transition angle of the partial images lies on the (vertical) axis of rotation. The axis of rotation lies at the intersection of the beam extension (through the center of the entrance pupil ) and the optical axis. The entrance pupil is not stationary. With fisheye lenses it moves to the front and to the side of the object with increasing angle and is no longer on the optical axis. The adapter setting is then only exact for a certain angle.

Of course you can also work with other tripods and lenses. The smaller the focal length, the higher the field of view .

Telephoto lens and motorized "nodal point adapter"

For some time now, panoramic robots have also become more popular, which are either self-made (“Pan (o) bot”) or occasionally also exist “off the shelf”. As an example, reference is made to the Gigapan project, which claims to have distributed several thousand beta panoramic robots . The devices are basically electronically controlled nodal point adapters, some of which are intended for gigapixel photography , but can of course also be used for normal panorama photos.

Digital panorama camera

Panorama cameras are devices that are equipped with several lenses and image sensors that are triggered simultaneously, such as the Panono camera . The images can be composed automatically by the panorama camera software. When the camera is released, the photographer is always in the picture - a selfie panorama is created. Panoramic cameras can also be used via z. B. a separate WLAN can be activated remotely so that the photographer can hide.

Without tripod (freehand)

With a little practice and sensitivity, you can create good segmental panorama photos even without a tripod. To do this, one should be at least approximately clear about the position of the entrance pupil of the objective. Various inaccuracies can be corrected with stitching software. However, objects close to one another will not be merged correctly if the photos are overlapping. Handheld images with fisheye are particularly successful when the foreground is approx. 3 m and further away.

and display information about the image
Freehand panoramic image of the Vatican Museums , St. Peter's Square and the Vatican Audience Hall (seen from the dome of St. Peter's Basilica ), composed of 8 individual images with stitching software .

Panorama types

Cylindrical panorama
The cylindrical panorama is based on a viewing angle from the center of a cylinder onto which the photographed motif is projected. A horizontal projection of 360 ° is enabled and the vertical viewing angle is restricted.
Incomplete spherical panorama (horizontal 360 °, vertical 119 ° [from −29 ° to + 90 °]). The lower part is missing to hide the tripod.
Spherical panorama, spherical panorama
The spherical panorama, also known as the spherical panorama, is based on a viewing angle from the center of a sphere, onto the inner surface of which the motif is projected. The sphere is projected into a rectangular grid and results in a square flat map with an aspect ratio of 2: 1. This enables a 360 ° horizontal and 180 ° vertical view.
Variants of two cubic panoramas, order in the cube strips here LVRHOU
Cubic panorama
The cubic panorama is based on a viewing angle from the center of a cube, on the sides of which the motif is projected. This enables a 360 ° horizontal and 180 ° vertical view. There are several variants of the cube surface arrangement:
1. Unrolled cube network (e.g. as a cross, 50% land use)
2nd dice strip (no development, 100% use of space, order e.g. front-right-back-left-top-bottom)
3. Six frames.
Aerial panorama
In the case of an aerial panorama, images are created from the air and combined to form a panorama with the help of aircraft.

A so-called interactive panorama is not a panorama, but a software-generated and controllable view in the manner of a normal photo, which is derived from a panorama (e.g. spherical panorama) or several individual images (e.g. cubic panorama). The viewer has the option of driving through certain points or zooming in and out in order to view all source image areas one after the other.

Panoramic view

Complete panorama (horizontal 360 °, vertical 180 °) of the Brompton Oratory in London as a rectangular image with an aspect ratio of 2: 1
Display as a spherical panorama

Representation as an image

Panorama images (see section Panorama types ) can be viewed as a complete image. An inexperienced observer cannot correctly imagine the different directions and thus the photographed surroundings. Alternatively, the panorama image can be converted into a more understandable representation, such as Little Planet . An area of ​​the panorama is lost, whereby you can choose the main direction for the new image in such a way that an unimportant area is lost.

Interactive presentation

A panorama photo can then be displayed on the Internet or on a PC, tablet or smartphone with special image viewers as a pan and zoomable section. Areas of interest can be swiveled to the center and are then almost distortion-free. While in conventional photography the photographer sets the scene from reality, the user of the panorama viewer does this himself. The interactive VR panoramas ( VR stands for English virtual reality "virtual reality") is particularly well suited to convey a realistic impression of space or landscapes. The display is even more realistic with VR glasses and the direction of view is controlled by the viewer's own movement (gyroscope, position and movement sensors).

gallery

The pictures in the gallery serve as examples why objects can be shown more clearly with a panorama picture than with a single picture and as a representation of different techniques of panorama photography:

  • Reading room of the British Museum in London (2006)

  • Panorama on the moon 1972 (Apollo 17) (from 24 individual images)

  • Southern sky with Milky Way (360 ° panorama)

  • Sydney-Hobart boat race (2007)

  • Naajaat (Greenland)

  • Gloucester Cathedral Cloister (England)

  • Schönbrunn Palace (Vienna) - forecourt (360 ° panorama)

  • 360 ° panorama trembling

  • Brooklyn Bridge (NYC) at night

  • Night panorama of La Défense (Paris)

  • Dresden - Zwinger (north side)

  • Landschaftspark-Duisburg-Nord blast furnace panorama

  • British Museum, Great Court, London (UK)

  • 7 Sisters Coast, East Sussex (UK)

  • Grand Cayon Panorama

  • Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial (180 ° panorama)

  • Uluru (Ayers Rock), Northern Territory, Australia

  • Pantheon (Rome), interior view, 360 ° panorama (from 9 individual images)

  • Panorama Pantheon (Rome), interior view

  • Andechs Monastery with the Way of the Cross

  • Monopterus (Munich) in the English Garden

  • Herrenchiemsee Palace Park

  • San Sebastian (E)

  • Herkulessaal of the Munich Residence

  • Herkulessaal of the Munich Residence

  • Zugspitze (from 12 individual images)

  • Mountain rescue by helicopter

See also

literature

  • Harald Woeste: Panoramic photography: theory and practice. dpunkt.verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89864-440-2 .
  • Chris Witzani: Interactive panorama photography - recording, stitching, publishing - Edition ProfiFoto mitp Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8266-5084-0 .
  • Thomas Bredenfeld: The practical book on digital panoramic photography. 2nd extended edition, Galileo Press, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8362-1861-0 .
  • Stefan Gross: Panorama Photography - The Master Course , Market & Technology, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8272-4755-1 .

Web links

Commons : Panoramic photos  - collection of images, videos and audio files