Digital Focus: Ultimate Panoramic Photos

Feature: 360-Degree Panoramas

All photography is a lie--that's the bottom line of an e-mail debate I recently had with a Digital Focus reader. It all started when the reader contended that digital manipulation in a program like Paint Shop Pro demeans photography, which, at its essence, "captures reality." My reply was that all photography interprets reality in some way, even if the photographer does something as subtle as compose the photograph to crop out a piece of trash in an otherwise sublime landscape.

So, he asked, how do you really and truly capture reality in a photo? That stumped me at first. Then I had my answer: 360-degree panoramas, otherwise known as virtual reality photos.

In a virtual reality photo, you capture an entire scene in all directions. When you view such an image on a computer screen, you see just part of the scene at first--but you can pan around to look left, right, and even behind you. These 360-degree panoramas are a great way to show people everything--and I mean everything--at a certain location. Is this type of picture a perfect representation of reality? No. But it's about as close as we're likely to get.

Making Your Own Virtual Reality

Virtual reality photos are relatively easy to create. You need an eye for locales that will make compelling panoramic photos, and you'll need some specialized software after you shoot the scene--but we'll save that part for later. Let's start with the images you'll use to create your 360-degree panorama.

Any digital camera will do. Since the virtual reality photo will be viewed on a computer screen, you don't need a lot of resolution. To save memory and processing time, set your camera's resolution to a megapixel or even less. Then stand in the middle of your scene and start shooting. Be sure to take in as much of the environment as you can in each frame. Take a picture, then rotate a bit and take another. Repeat the process until you've spun around a full 360 degrees and you're back where you started.

A few hints to get the best 360-degree panoramas:

• Most importantly, you want a lot of overlap in each frame. Make sure that at least a third of each picture overlaps with the previous frame; you'll get better results if half of each image overlaps.
  
  
• Your panorama will look better if your subjects are somewhat distant. Anything close to the camera will be distorted or won't line up properly in the final image.
  
  
• Keep the camera level with the horizon in every image. If your camera tilts up a little in some pictures but down in others, you'll end up with distortion in the final panorama. You'll get the best results if you mount the camera on a tripod, but you can handhold it if you're careful.
  
  

Stitching Your Panorama

It might take a many as a dozen images to capture the scene. To put them all together you'll need special software that stitches the individual frames and creates a 360-degree panorama you can view on a PC, display on a Web page, or e-mail to others. Panorama makers almost always save the finished image as a QuickTime file, so you'll need QuickTime on your computer to see the final result.

Some excellent panorama stitching programs include Ulead Cool 360 ($39) and Pixtra PanoStitcher ($48, free trial available). Both of these programs make it easy to turn a series of photos into a 360-degree panorama; just drag and drop the images, then click a few buttons. The software does the rest, lining up the photos, blending them together, and saving the finished image.