A couple of people have asked how to do this so here is my “best effort” tutorial on how to get it done.
The main steps in this process are:
1/ Capture a 360x180 degree panorama.
2/ Create a panorama jpg using Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor).
3/ Create a tiny planet using PS or Gimp.
I don't want to reinvent the wheel here so I am including a link to a YouTube clip so you can visually see some of the process.
Firstly, to create a 360x180 degree panorama you basically have to take photos in every direction with 20% overlap between shots.
The important points are:
• Have the camera in full manual mode. If the camera changes the ISO/aperture/shutter speed as you get your images it will look really dodgy. It is not so bad to have autofocus on because you may have some object closer than others & that could help but to smooth it out, use a higher aperture maybe F8 or higher which will increase the depth of field.
• Take your photos in portrait orientation. For a normal panorama (not 360deg) this will give you more working area. In this case it will decrease the number of times you need to rotate. I have a full crop sensor camera & with my lens at 24mm I have to go around 3 times. I don't know why you would want to do anything other than have your lens zoomed out as much as possible because it creates a lot less work.
In this shot I took 56 photos.
In this shot I took 70 photos
I go around at eye level first making sure there is a good overlap between each shot. Make a mental note of how high and low this shot gets because when you go around again you need to overlap vertically as well as horizontally. Using a tripod will make this much easier & more accurate. FYI, the marble shot was done with a tripod, the beach shot was hand held.
After you have taken an eye-line photo for 360deg tilt the camera down so that you get 20% vertical overlap with the first shot you took. Now this is a bit hard to explain but when you try it you should see what I mean. Think of this image you are building is like an orange. If you cut it into quarters or eighths the wide middle of the piece you cut is like your eye-line shot. The closer you get to the bottom, the closer the sides get to each other, When you are doing this second round & making sure you have enough overlap keep in mind that the top of the shot is where you need to “measure” the 20% because if you overlap 20% through the middle of this second series of pictures, the wide top piece will not have enough. I hope that makes sense.
Next try to get a straight down shot by taking a step to the side &, holding the camera at arm’s length take a pic. Hopefully this overlaps the 2nd go round pictures otherwise you need to tilt down even more & fill in the gap. This would be more likely if you are shooting landscape orientation because the height of each shot is less than you need.
Now the third go around. Step back to where you were for the first 2 rounds before the straight down shot, tilt the camera up above where your first shot was and, again with 20% vertical overlap take a series of shots above your eye-line. Keep in mind the orange principle and overlap at the bottom of the frame.
When you are done take a straight up shot which hopefully overlaps the top of the third go round pictures otherwise you need to tilt up even more & go round again to fill in the gap.
Now to make the panorama. The images you have taken could be huge depending on your camera. I always shoot in RAW so mine are 25Mb+ each. If I load 70 of those into the panorama program I can say goodnight to the PC for a few hours while it tries to deal with the mountain of data. I try to get each image down to between 1 & 2Mb. Right or wrong I have been shrinking them down to 800x600 @240 dpi using Lightroom. You could use Picasa for all the difference it would make, you just need to make it easier on the PC.
You will need to download Microsoft ICE from here: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/
This is a free download. If you use a Mac you will need to find something else. Photoshop Photomerge & other programs I have tried don't seem to handle the 360x180 panoramas very well if at all so try if you like but I haven't had any success with it.
When you open ICE up it says drag & drop your images here. Do that. ICE does its thing. Bing bam boom, you have a panorama. Under Export, change file type to whatever you want, I use JPG, then click the export to disk button & save.
Additionally if you want to do something like this: http://tinyurl.com/b2ax5ov
download Photosynth from the link in ICE under “Export to Disk” & follow the bouncing ball.
Now the Photoshop part. This video will explain it better than I can in writing.
Just follow that using the saved file from ICE as the starting image.
If you are not doing a 360deg panorama, the polar co-ordinates thing in PS will leave you with some odd streaks going out to the corners of the image. That tutorial explains how you might be able to clean that up but it is not always that easy. There is a free image editing program considered to be the next best thing to PS called Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ ). When you do the polar co-ordinates thing in Gimp it gives you a clean circle without the streaks. I think the only thing to watch with the Gimp option is you may need to mirror reverse the original before applying polar co-ordinates if you need the objects facing the right way.
I am happy to answer any questions regarding this if you post below.
I would like it if you include @david68 when you post planets because I think they are really cool & there are some amazing versions out there so I want to see what you can do.
Those tiny planets of yours are really awesome, David!! One day I'll have the patience to try this... oh and be kid free whilst trying to get the shots lol.
Thank you David for sharing your knowledge. i have seen couple of tiny planets but haven't tried it yet myself! Will do sometime soon. You tiny planets look amazing! @david68
@lynnb Hi Lynn. I am not sure why but sometimes when I paste stuff into a post that includes a hyperlink it just records it as text & you can't just click on it. Have you tried copying the web address & pasting into your browser?
@ozziehoffy Thanks. You get a lot quicker with practice. You could try some indoor planets of rooms for example which would probablt take less photos & get you "ready" for outdoor shots when you are able.
@david68 That is amazing. I have read through your tutorial twice now as it seems so interesting. I might attempt to play around with this sometime when I have some extra time....my 8 month old makes it challenging lol.
wow~~the photos are attracting and the procress is amazing. i have a program named panorama maker, can i use it to make some photos like above? of course, the 360 panoramas are best.
@greenviewer Firstly, thanks. Secondly, no. Panorama Maker will not do that however it will get the first step done. Then you can use Photoshop or Gimp (a free program) to do the polar co-ordinates part. Here is a YouTube clip showing how to do it in Gimp. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j06DahjMQq0
Let me know how you go. Good luck
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@mmartin @synke @lynnb Thanks for your comments. I appreciate it.
@ozziehoffy @lynnb @mmartin @synke
Let me know how you go. Good luck