All the questions, finally some real results..

[Ben Rubinstein]

Hi guys!

OK, here are the first results from all these questions and bothering you guys so much!

There is an extremely narrow window of time where there are no tourists, the light isn't dull but is also not too contrasty and high to make 360 degree photography practically impossible. At this time of year that window was from 6:20am to 7am!

I shot 8 pano's during that time using the 8mm Siggy and the techniques that Valenin taught me (4 frames at -15 degrees and then one zenith shot). All the pano's were bracketed to hold the sky. Of course when you have a rising sun you can only hold the sky colour in one direction as in the opposite direction you are shooting straight into the sun!

The shooting and walking may have only taken half an hour but it's taken me 9 hours of computer time to process, stitch, HDR and photoshop the images before creating this small virtual tour of 8 pano's. This is only the very start of a vast project in which I hope to interlink all the main tourist sites in the country so if if this small slice of the Old City of Jerusalem looks rather orphaned it's because I've only just started and there is much more to come!

Be gentle guys, my first time doing this stuff for real after all my lessons. First practical lesson learnt, get the camera at eye height, I was some 8 inches below for tripod convenience and I regret it.

Nuff talking...

www.studio-beni.net/sofar.html

 

[Valentin Arfire]

a good start Ben, though the panoramas reveal a small problem: you still haven't reached the npp correctly, otherwise you'd get a regular disc at the nadir.

With some patience you'll get better and better results. And of course the time will be shorter; eventually you'll leave the stitcher do its work over night and continue the work only in the morning when this will be over.

Working with bracketed images is more time consuming and creates some more problems. Usually it's necesary in extremely contrasting ambients but I suppose for now it will be good to try the images sigle exposure as good as your photographic skills dictate but don't sharpen the images and also don't apply compression on jpegs because information will be lost this way.

Limiting the zoom is taking most of the fun out of the images: regular users do zoom and peek at different things. Also is easier to discover misalignments and problems.

on the images - the atmosphere is well caught but by bracketing you've lost almost completely all that's dark - there are details in the shadow but a good image would add them more discreetly.

Krpano offers a wide variety of plugins and if you start studying it now, you'll get very quick results. here is their page of plugins http://www.krpano.com/plugins/

as commercial tour I am afraid it'll need some more work but you are on the right track
I see the conditions of photography differ: this will create more problems because in the eventuality of a perfect stitch you'd be afraid to create a template out of it and try it as it is.

You will use a nadir cap or even better a system to cover the tripod at the nadir. Now - given the distortions between panoramas nadirs I conclude you have moved the Nodal Ninja in different ways and at different position (I know 5D is heavy - maybe the panohead wasn't tighten strong enough and may have slided?).

9 hours on 8 panoramas is a good timing, only the panoramas are not yet finished.

I like the presentation, don't like the nadirs and the limitation of zoom

my impression for now... Looking forward for your future work

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

The problems at the nadir are not due to the NPP, I 'borrowed' some room from the bottom to stitch more sky at the top. That forces the buildings downwards to 'fake' a higher viewpoint, better for buildings. I will of course put in a nadir patch for the finished product.

I'd like to hear from others about the black points, on my calibrated (for print) screen there is plenty shadow, I can post up the histograms if anyone's interested, I layered an original file from the bracket on top of the HDR and set the layer to include much of the darkest detail for a more natural rendition.

Zoom is for the future, as I said, I threw together this VT very quickly, just to show what I'd done, not as a finished product at all.

 

[Asher Kelman]

I like the presentation, don't like the nadirs and the limitation of zoom

my impression for now... Looking forward for your future work

Valentin,

You are a tough teacher, but it's good critique. I do like the clean look with no advertisements. I wonder, are there plugins to add links to text or for audio.

Asher

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Yup and yup! Heck you can have a video playing in the middle of your tour if you want..

 

[Valentin Arfire]

yes there are plugins that look very nice and run smoothly

though they are putting the interest outside the image and its photographic content.

I believe a few years ago somebody made a 360 degree interactive panorama in which the visitor could command different things to the computer in the middle of the room (such as opening the writing application, listen to the mp3 from the local disk) which I thought was fantastic. Only it's not photography.

 

[Asher Kelman]

yes there are plugins that look very nice and run smoothly

though they are putting the interest outside the image and its photographic content.

I believe a few years ago somebody made a 360 degree interactive panorama in which the visitor could command different things to the computer in the middle of the room (such as opening the writing application, listen to the mp3 from the local disk) which I thought was fantastic. Only it's not photography.

Hi Valentin,

I live in two worlds: the artistic and the world of the client. The latter has applications for the photograph. So in a tour of a school where parents are sending kids or there's a concert and they want folk to know more of the school, then explanations of uses of rooms or photographs in the hallway help the process of getting folk personally involved. So look at this as being the audio of a tour in a great museum.

Asher

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

I've put a nadir patch in for the moment to look pretty, guys, this stuff isn't going 'live' for a year yet so I don't mind if it's not commercially presentable as yet. Hard to have a nadir patch with a company name when you haven't thought it up yet!

 

[Asher Kelman]

I've put a nadir patch in for the moment to look pretty, guys, this stuff isn't going 'live' for a year yet so I don't mind if it's not commercially presentable as yet. Hard to have a nadir patch with a company name when you haven't thought it up yet!

I don't think the non-perfect nadir s of much consequence if one can replace it with a perfect badge or else one extra picture of the ground and that's easy to add in.

Asher

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

I went out shooting VT's again today, not a huge amount of luck, lots of building work at important sites and a large swearing in ceremony for the paratroop regiment at the Western Wall meant that I only got half of what I'd intended done. I should have something to show by the beginning of next week but in the meantime a friend was playing with his new 12-24 on his D700 and shot this of me attaching my beloved Sigma 8mm fisheye.

Incidentally after playing with the D700 my mind is made up, my 5D is inferior in every single possible way. If only I could afford to make the switch, oh well, I'll just sigh when I think of how much easier my life would be with a camera designed for photographers rather than for sales...

 

[Asher Kelman]

I've put a nadir patch in for the moment to look pretty, guys, this stuff isn't going 'live' for a year yet so I don't mind if it's not commercially presentable as yet. Hard to have a nadir patch with a company name when you haven't thought it up yet!

Ben,

Let me suggest that the name includes some hope for peace. After all this is what we all want. Respect for ourselves and for others.

Asher

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Um, probably nearer to 'Jerusalem Virtual Tours'. I'm not playing political games I'm afraid, bores the heck out of me. Now back to more interesting things like coveting the D700..