Panoramic Images

Did you ever try to create a large panorama from several images? There are at least two reasons to do it. The first reason is a higher resolution which you'll need for larger prints. And second you can create round-views which can't be captured by a single exposure.

I'll show you some examples of what can be done with little efford.

All panoramas were stitched using PanoramaStudio from Tobias Huellmandel.

Dome of Cologne

D200, 6 portrait images, 9700x3802 ~ 36MPixel

You may already found the left part of this panorama in the night-section. To get a similar view with a single exposure you'll need a real wide angle and will get some distortion like bowed towers. The images of this panorama were taken with a focal length of 100mm and are free of distortion.

Since I used a long focal length and the image was free of nearby objects there were no need to use a special mount.

View Dome

Faulhorn in Summer

D200, 10 portrait images, 19079x3802, ~72MPixel

This image  from Faulhorn (Berner Oberland, Switzerland) was taken in August 2006. The dark clouds in the sky document the weather conditions, but for the glimpse of a moment the Sun made it down to the surface and allowed to take this scene.

Zoom into Faulhorn

Synxss Studio, Offenbach, 2006

D70, 12 Weitwinkelaufnahmen im Hochformat, 12291x2870 ~ 34MPixel

This 360 degree panorama of the Synxss Studio in Offenbach gives the impression of sitting in the director's chair. The colors in the image are quite authentic.

Since I've used a 15mm wide angle and there were near objects within the field, the camera had to be installed on a special mount to eliminate parallactic errors. Such a mount rotates anything around the nodal point of the system which is somewhere inside the lens.

Due to the very short distances and obviously not perfect camera mount some objects look somewhat... curved.

Go into Synxss Studio

In the Cage of Drums

D750, 10 wide angle pictures in portrait orientation, 12766x6383 ~ 81MPixel

Setzt man einen "richtigen" Panorama-Kopf ein, der einen Kamera-Schwenk um den Nodal-Punkt auf beiden Achsen erlaubt, kann man auch vollständige 360 Grad Panoramen aufnehmen. Um die Anzahl der benötigten Bilder im Rahmen zu halten, empfiehlt sich der Einsatz von extremen Weitwinkel- oder gar Fish-Eye-Objektiven. Hier kam ein 16mm Fisheye an der Vollformat D750 zum Einsatz.

Dies ist das Ergebnis der vollautomatischen Kontroll-Punkt-Erkennung. Wer ganz genau hinschaut, wird ein paar Fehlerchen entdecken, welche mit einer manuellen Korrektur relativ leicht auszubessern wären.

Enter the Drum Cage

Walhalla in the Synxss Studio, 2006

D70, 25 (5x5) images, 12164x6299 ~ 75MPixel

This huge modular synthesizer is named Walhalla and resides in the Synxss Studio, Offenbach. The major approach was to create an image, where all modules are clearly recognizable. The resolution of a normal digital camera is far too low for this. So I built this 2D panorama from 25 single images and stitched them together.

The single images were taken with a focal length of 100mm, so a special mount was not needed in this case.

Watch Walhalla

Astro Pinboard

D70, 25 (5x5) images, 12164x6299 ~ 75MPixel

The interactive panoramas allow placing hotspots to recall additional information. I've tried to create an astro pinboard to visualize, which parts of the night sky I photographed most. I used Stellarium to create a total of 14 tiles, effectively screenshots, which are then stitched into a 360 degree panorama.

Clicking on a hotspot will open the respective image. Smaller circles refer to objects of my Normalized Messier Catalog, the larger circles refer to my regular astro images.

Watch the Astro Pinboard