Difference between revisions of "Panorama"

Revision as of 17:25, 18 November 2007

Panorama

Panoramas are an exciting, creative application of photography and recently, of computing. Panoramas offer a unique, immersive perspective to the viewer. To the photographer, panoramas present an interesting artistic and technical challenge, both from the point of view of obtaining the source images, and processing and presenting the final panoramic product.

Definition

Panoramas come in different shapes and flavors. A dictionary tells us a panorama is "a picture (or series of pictures) representing a continuous scene". This continuous scene can come straight from a (special) camera or it can be assembled from multiple images using special software such as the panorama tools.

Technically two different types of panoramas are distinguished.

Partial panoramas

If a partial Panorama doesn't come from a special Panorama Camera it typically is an image created by assembling together 2 or more images to create a single image with a wider Field of View.

Partial panoramas are created in exactly the same way as full spherical panoramas, but cover only a fraction of the view sphere (less than 360 degrees in longitude around the horizon, and/or less than 180 degrees in latitude). Example partial panos include Max Lyon's GigaPixel image, created with 196 source images! Partial panoramas are often viewed like traditional images, either in print or digital form.

Immersive panoramas

Immersive or full-spherical panoramas are panoramas viewed through special viewing software that allows you to look everywhere around you, including straight up and straight down. Partial panoramas can also be viewed in the same way, blurring the difference between them. In particular, partial panoramas which cover all 360 degrees in longitude, but less than 180 degrees of latitude, are often considered immersive panoramas as well, and viewed with the same type of software. Example immersive panoramas can be found at the World-Wide Panorama page, among many other places.

Projection

A fundamental concept in the production and viewing of both partial and full spherical panoramic images is the type of input and output projection used. See Projections for more information. It is the projection of photographic images and resulting panoramas which explains why the simple method of aligning and taping together snapshots cannot produce seamless panoramic images (though it can be quite enjoyable in its own right).

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-Panoramas are an exciting creative application of photography and recently, of computing. Panoramas offer a unique, immersive perspective to the viewer. To the photographer, panoramas present an interesting artistic and technical challenge.
+{{Glossary|An image of a very wide or even surround scene or with a typical [[Aspect Ratio]]}}
+== Panorama ==
-Panoramas come in different shapes and flavours, so let's set a definition. A [http://www.wordreference.com/definition/panorama dictionary] tells us a panorama is "a picture (or series of pictures) representing a continuous scene". This continuous scene can come straight from a (special) camera or it can be assembled from multiple images using the [[panorama tools]].
+Panoramas are an exciting, creative application of photography and recently, of computing. Panoramas
+offer a unique, immersive perspective to the viewer. To the photographer, panoramas present an interesting artistic and technical challenge, both from the point of view of obtaining the source images, and processing and presenting the final panoramic product.
-Technically three different types of panoramas are distinguished
+=== Definition ===
-=== Partial panoramas ===
+Panoramas come in different shapes and flavors. A [http://www.wordreference.com/definition/panorama dictionary] tells us a panorama is "a picture (or series of pictures) representing a continuous scene". This continuous scene can come straight from a (special) camera or it can be assembled from multiple images using special software such as the [[panorama tools]].
-A partial Panorama is an image created from assembling together 2 or more images to create a single wide angle image.  Partial panoramas are created in exactly the same was as full spherical panoramas, but cover only a fraction of the view sphere (less than 360 degrees in longitude around the horizon, and/or less than 180 degrees in latitude).  Example partial panos include [http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/gigapixel.htm Max Lyon's GigaPixel image], created with 196 source images!  Partial panoramas are often printed, whereas full spherical panoramas are more often viewed online with special [[Panoviewer|panorama viewers]].
-=== Immersive panoramas ===
+Technically two different types of panoramas are distinguished.
-Immersive panoramas are panoramas that allow you to look everywhere around you, including straight up and straight down.
-Immersive panoramas come in two subflavors, spherical and cubic ones.
-(this needs text, guys)
-== Projections ==
+=== Partial panoramas ===
+If a partial Panorama doesn't come from a special [[Panorama Camera]] it typically is an image created by assembling together 2 or more images to create a single image with a wider [[Field of View]].
-Representing a spherical view of the world on a flat computer monitor or print requires some manner of mapping from the 3D sphere in which the camera and viewer are embedded to 2D.  The techniques used for mapping are of exactly the same type long used by map makers to project the entire globe, or portions of it, onto two dimensional maps.  There is no single, unique projection for representing sections of the sphere on the globe.  Instead, all projections have various attributes and limitations.  There are many classes of projections used for various purposes (e.g. [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MapProjection.html Mathword's Project Page]), but only a few are traditionally used for panoramic imaging.
+Partial panoramas are created in exactly the same way as full spherical panoramas, but cover only a fraction of the view sphere (less than 360 degrees in longitude around the horizon, and/or less than 180 degrees in latitude).  Example partial panos include [http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/gigapixel.htm Max Lyon's GigaPixel image], created with 196 source images!  Partial panoramas are often viewed like traditional images, either in print or digital form.
-Some of the most common projections when working with Panoramic imaging are:
+=== Immersive panoramas ===
+Immersive or ''full-spherical'' panoramas are panoramas viewed through [[Panorama Viewers|special viewing software]] that allows you to look everywhere around you, including straight up and straight down.    Partial panoramas can also be viewed in the same way, blurring the difference between them.  In particular, partial panoramas which cover all 360 degrees in longitude, but less than 180 degrees of latitude, are often considered immersive panoramas as well, and viewed with the same type of software.  Example immersive panoramas can be found at the [http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp/ World-Wide Panorama page], among many other places.
-=== Spherical/ Equirectangular projection ===
-Also called the "non projection", this is a representation of the sphere which maps longitude is mapped directly to the horizontal coordinate, and longitude is mapped to the vertical.  This projection is often used for source images in panoramic viewers like [[PTViewer]].  See definition for [[Equirectangular Projection]] for more.
-=== Cylindrical projection ===
+=== Projection ===
-This is the projection most commonly used for printed panoramas with large ranges of longitude.  It can be envisioned by imagining wrapping a flat piece of paper around the sphere tangent to the equator, and projecting a light out from the center of the sphere.  A full range of longitude, up to 360 degrees, can be represented with a cylindrical projection, but near the poles, the images become very distorted.  See [[Cylindrical Projection]] for more.
+A fundamental concept in the production and viewing of both partial and full spherical panoramic images is the type of input and output projection used.  See [[Projections]] for more information.  It is the projection of photographic images and resulting panoramas which explains why the simple method of aligning and taping together snapshots cannot produce seamless panoramic images (though it can be quite enjoyable in its own right).
-=== Rectilinear projection ===
+[[Category:Glossary]]
-This is a fundamental projection which can be envisioned by imagining placing a flat piece of paper tangent to a sphere and projecting a light out from its center.  Obviously, only a maximum of 180 degrees of longitude can be represented with this projection, and practically far less.  Most non-fisheye cameras produce a nearly rectilinear image over their field of view.  The Rectilinear projection is often used for prints of panoramas which cover less than ~120 degrees of longitude, since straight lines are preserved.  See [[Rectilinear Projection]] for more.