On-Line Web Site Production Workshop > 360º Panoramas

360º Panorama Production

Mountain Visions has been shooting and producing wide screen panoramas for more than twenty years. At the beginning of the “multi-image” era in the late 1970s we used these panoramas with twelve slide projectors aimed at an overlapping portable movie screen. In 1995, Apple Computer developed the QuickTime Virtual Reality panorama (QTVR), which allowed us to bring 360-degree panoramas onto the computer screen. These circular images can be moved with the computer mouse, left or right, and up or down to the limit of the lens being used to shoot the images. This technology has allowed us to produce amazing interactive and “immersive” panorama pictures. The person using the computer is seeing the view as if they were standing where the tripod was set up and looking around in a circle. For natural resource issues, this type of moveable photograph lets people see and understand much more than is possible with a single still image.

During the development of the Interactive Watershed web sites we photographed panoramas, still images and audio/video sequences for each watershed for a total of between one and four weeks during a two year period. Usually watershed resource people would accompany us to specific locations where watershed restoration work had been done or would be done in the future. On a few occasions we were able to be on location at the same time that the work was being done.

In addition to the panorama being movable when the user chooses, on the web it is possible to provide hot spots inside the panorama that will bring up videos, audiovisual programs and other additional sources of information that may not be visible in the panorama. To the extent possible, given time restraints at each location, we tried to shoot still photographs and audio/video sequences to help supplement the view visible in the panorama.

Trail Lake

Almost any still film or digital camera will capture images that can be made into a panorama. Even a digital video camera, shooting in still image mode will work. All of the issues concerning the Basic Photography session are important to understand. If the photographer turns in a 360 degree circle, taking photographs which overlap by about 50 percent, the resulting images probably can be stitched together into an interactive moveable panorama. Many low cost consumer cameras even come with free software that helps the photographer with this stitching process. However, a much better result is possible if the photographer uses some of the techniques, equipment and software mentioned below.

A technical issue such as exposure locking is important to understand, as the camera takes as many as 12 to 30 images around in the circle. The light changes as the camera turns, but if automatic exposure for each shot is turned on it makes it much harder to stitch the final image.

Other issues such as making sure the camera is “level” throughout the 360 degree shooting mode, helps make the final panorama easier to make. Using a tripod and leveled panorama head aids in during this photographic shooting mode. Kaidan, Peace River 360 tripods and Manfrotto tripod systems are very popular tools for this purpose.

Other topics that were discussed included the types of lenses used with the camera. Typically the shots are made in a vertical camera position to get as much vertical height as possible. Wide-angle lenses are better, especially in places where objects are close to the camera. Telephoto lenses can work, but many more images are necessary to obtain the required overlap to make stitching of the images possible.

Note that in all of the Interactive Watershed web sites there are panoramas that link together. The best place to view these is in the Interactive Journey section of each web site. When viewing one panorama, a “hot spot” may appear to let you “jump” to another panorama without going back to one of the detailed terrain maps. QTVR Authoring Studio is the program that also allows this navigation to be programmed into the panoramas. This function is described in more detail in the Detailed Overview section of this On-Line Workshop.

In 2001, shooting and stitching 360 X 180 “cubic” panoramas with regular camera lenses was just beginning. We had recently purchased the hardware to shoot the images and were able to demonstrate it at the workshops. During our photo shoots we were photographing in this new format. We purchased the Kaidan Spherical Camera bracket for this purpose. This let us shoot 45 degree angular shots up and down in addition to the straight up and straight down photographs that stitch together to make a cubic panorama. The same system let us shoot the level zero degree shots at the same time.

However, the software to stitch the cubic images did not become available until later in the fall. Subsequently, we have produced several of these Cubic panoramas for each of the 5 Interactive Watershed web sites. These are usually available as an optional view of a normal panorama. We made the screen size larger and image quality higher for these optional “cubics.” In the future, as these projects develop further, we will have the option to create full screen panoramas which can also zoom in to great detail.

It should be noted that many advances in software and hardware have been made with 360 degree panorama technology. There will certainly be more advances in the future.

Note that there is more detailed information about how QuickTime VR panoramas were used in the Interactive Watershed web site projects in the Detailed Overview section of this on-line workshop. This can be found where the Interactive Journey and Resource Issues pages are analyzed.

Reference links to information on other web sites:

• Kaidan –Leading provider of VR solutions for the internet
• Kaidan’s QuickTime Cubic VR gallery
• Internet Brothers - QuickTime Virtual Reality Panoramas
• Peace River Studios
• The Learning Alliance and QuickTime VR training
• Kaidan’s site – QuickTime VR Authoring Studio
• RealViz Stitcher for Cubic VRs
• VR Toolbox for Mac and Windows
• Making Panoramas - Overview of the How I Do It Process by Erik Goetze