What does it mean? The Panorama Calculator is designed to calculate the panorama parameters for rectilinear lenses. Rectilinear lenses are corrected to capture an image as close as possible as seen in the real world. That means a straight line is captured as straight line via the sensor of the camera to the chip card. I know out there are lot of photographers are using fisheye lenses to capture spherical panoramas with a few images. Now it starts to be a little complicated. On the market there are different types of fisheye lenses available. The most commonly used are:
Both fisheye lens types have somewhere an angle of view of 180°.
The circular type captures the image as circle and got in each direction an angle of view of 180°. Normally the image fits into the area of the sensor the lens is designed for.
On the other hand, the full frame type has an angle of view of 180° just in the diagonal of the captured image. The horizontal and vertical angle of view are smaller than 180°.
Both fisheye lenses type are using fewer images to cover a full 360° panorama with sufficient overlaps than a rectilinear lens type. A short focal length doesn't means the lens is a fisheye type. As an example, on the market are 12mm lenses available as fisheye and rectilinear lens type. Not to confuse the photographer while calculating the panorama parameters with my Panorama Calculator, I decided to limit my Calculator exclusively for rectilinear lenses. Another reason to do so is the fact, that panoramas captured with a fisheye lens are using just a few images to cover 360°, mostly 4 images or two or three more. Actually for such panoramas a panorama calculator is not necessary. For most camera / fisheye lens combination the number of images should be used can be found in the www.
My Panorama Calculators are designed to calculate the panorama parameters for mid and high resolution panoramas.
In my description I am discerning between the two panorama types: MultiRow and Spherical. Both types have multiple columns and rows. In order to obtain good results after stitching the single images to a panorama, it is important to have adequate horizontal and vertical overlap between adjoining images. If the overlaps are too small, the stitching software will be unable to create a perfect panorama. Furthermore, constant aperture and shutter speed should be used for all images. If the aperture and/or shutter speed is changed while capturing the images, the stitching software will have problems to adapt the colour differences between the single images. The exposure for the whole panorama should be adjusted for the brightest object in the panorama. As a result of these exposure setting - the shadows become too dark. However it is the only way to get the highlights correctly exposed. The shadows can be brightened in Photoshop later. Bear in mind - if the shadows are brightened too much, noise in form of colour spots will be visible in these areas.
With the popular HDRI technique (High Dynamic Range Imaging) or DRI (Dynamic Range Increase) this can be solved. The source data for a HDRI or DRI panorama are the captured images. Instead of capturing just one image for each camera position, the photographer has to capture a sequence of images at each position. Normally three or five images are enough to cover the dynamic range . When the Dynamic Range is really large, sometimes ten and more images are necessary to capture the whole Dynamic Range of a panorama. It is important that the images are captured with a constant aperture but different shutter speeds. This is necessary to get a constant depth of field for all images. Special programs are available on the market to blend the images to a perfect stand alone panorama.
For my Panorama Calculator my interpretation of a MultiRow panorama is a panorama with multiple columns and rows. The images are stitched together to a cylindrical panorama. The end product can be presented as a high resolution image on the Internet or printed out as giant poster. For a presentation in the Internet the software package from “Zoomify” is as far I know the best choice. On the Web Site from “Zoomify” a free version is downloadable.
Some digital compact cameras have basic functions to help the photographers capture MultiRow panoramas. Part of the previous image is visible on the LCD screen while a new photo is being taken. This is very helpful to estimate the overlap between adjoining images. With this assistance, panoramas with a low number of images can be taken without a tripod. Of course if the panorama should have dozens or hundreds of images, this panorama support function is not a good choice to capture such large panoramas.
In order to have full control over the horizontal and vertical step sizes, a panorama head is required. For MultiRow panoramas it is not necessarily to buy a very expensive panorama head. As long as the values for each horizontal and vertical position can be exactly adjusted, a simple tripod is good enough. Most of the standard tripod panorama heads have horizontal and vertical scales with a step size of 2 degrees.
To facilitate life, when capturing a high resolution panorama, a programmable panorama head is the solution.
Like the MultiRow Panorama, the Spherical Panorama is composed of multiple columns and rows of images. The name Spherical lets presume that there is something different to the plan MultiRow Panorama. It’s the way to view a Spherical Panorama. The spectator has the impression that he is in the centre of a big sphere and can look around 360° horizontally and ±90° vertically. For this view a special viewer is required e.g. QuickTime Viewer from Apple.
Preparation for a MultRow Panorama
Creating a panorama is a complex but manageable workflow and doesn’t ends after capturing the images. Following a list of some of the most important task when creating a panorama:
| Internet | low resolution | Wide angle lens |
| Internet (Zoomify) | high resolution | Tele lens |
| Large size posters | high resolution | Tele lens |
Calculation of the horizontal and vertical parameters for each single image can be done with a few mouse clicks using the Panorama Calculator. (can be purchased on my website)
All Panorama Calculators are described in more details in the next submenus.
