Panoramic Photography

Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography.his generally means it has an aspect ratio of 2:1 or larger, the image being at least twice as wide as it is high. The resulting images take the form of a wide strip.

 

What equipment do I need?

 

Tripod

Tripod

By using a tripod you can ensure that the camera rotates around a fixed spot and that it stays level. It also makes it much easier to take longer exposures, which may be useful if you want to get a nice sharp picture with everything in focus. You can use a monopod, but you will have to hold it (which means more chance of camera shake and of the position changing between shots. A monopod is useful if there is no space for a tripod, and you can get long poles for shooting panoramas high up (these are in effect monopods) - for examples see AGNOS
Check that you can lock the head of the tripod firmly and that it doesn't wobble when locked. If it does it will be difficult for you to make sure the camera stays level while you are shooting, especially if you have a large camera or if you use a panoramic head , because the weight may make the tripod's head even more unstable.
If you do not use a tripod or fail to keep the photo  camera level, you may have problems stitching your pictures (depends on the software used) and you may end up having to crop your panoramas down, thereby reducing the vertical field of view . This is not true if you shoot a spherical panorama as you can re-align the panorama afterwards in software.

 

Spirit level

A spirit level is a pretty essential extra and you can buy very cheap little spirit levels designed to fit into the hot shoe of an SLR photo camera . Use the spirit level to make sure the tripod's head is level and that when you attach the panoramic head and photo camera, that these are level also.
If you shoot spherical panoramas you do not need to set up the panoramic head to be perfectly level since you can realign the stitched image with the horizon afterwards in software. However a spirit level like this is, in my opinion, nevertheless an essential piece of equipment.

Remote shutter release

If you find that you are doing long exposures quite often, then a remote release cable or an infra red remote release can be useful. By using this you also reduce the likelihood of accidentally knocking the tripod or camera while you are doing the shoot. If you are using a digital SLR photo camera and it has mirror-lockup, using that feature with a remote shutter release allows you to minimise vibrations when you shoot the panorama.

Panoramic head ("pano-head")

Pano-head

A panoramic head is an additional attachment you put on the top of the tripod before you attach the photo camera. It allows you to position the camera so that as you pan to take each picture you are rotating around the no-parallax-point of the photo camera lens. This in turn eliminates parallax which could otherwise prevent you achieving a sharp high-quality panorama. If you look closely at the object movie of the Kaidan Kiwi 900/950 panoramic head you will notice that the centre of the lens is above the point of rotation and that the camera is rotating about a point in the lens, not the photo camera body. For more information see the description of parllax and the article about using a panoramic head.
Panoramic heads also make it easier to rotate the camera smoothly and many have click-stops of some kind and a spirit level. These features are also available in the Q-top, which is a very neat small tripod mount that provides a quick release shoe for the camera. The shoe is held very tightly in position when placed back onto the mount, and the shoe has 30 degree increments to make it easy to shoot a series of pictures for a panorama. But the Q-top is no substitute for a panoramic head.

Wide angle lens

By shooting several pictures and stitching them together, you can create a 360 degree panoramic picture, no matter what lens you have on your camera. A wide angle lens has the advantages that you don't need to take as many pictures and  you can capture more vertically so the picture doesn't look like a narrow 'slit'.If you are considering buying a wide angle lens for your panoramic photography, beware that some stitching software supports only rectilinear ('normal') lenses, some support fisheye lenses and some support both. Be particularly careful to check stitching software if you are intending to use a fisheye lens.If you are new to panoramic photography I suggest you postpone any ideas of buying a special lens until you have shot a few panoramic pictures... you will then have a good idea of whether you want or need a wide angle lens and how wide a lens you need to achieve the sort of pictures you want.An 8mm lens is generally the widest lens available for any camera, and on a full-frame camera will create a circular image that represents approximately 180 degrees in all directions. Unsurprisingly using an 8mm lens or equivalent is the easiest/fastest way to create spherical panoramas in which you can look straight up at the ceiling and straight down at the floor, and not just side to side. If you intend to buy an circular fisheye lens, remember that although there are many products that can stitch these images, not all can. 

Shooting the pictures

 

How many pictures?

Each picture should overlap with the next by up to 50% (or at least somewhere between 30 and 50%). But please note that providing you overlap each picture with the next, it doesn't matter exactly how much overlap you use, and the amount of overlap can be different between each pair of pictures. So, you can just guess 50% overlap and that will be fine. If you think you will need 10 pictures but you take 9 or 11, it doesn't matter!

 

Depth of field

Generally panoramic pictures capture a scene rather than a moment. In other words most panoramic pictures are of places rather than of people or events as such, therefore you will probably want to aim for a crisp picture that captures the entire scene through to the horizon. To do this you want to set a very large depth of field so that everything in shot is in crisp focus, by focusing on the hyperfocal distance.
When determining the depth of field you need, remember that when shooting indoors you do not need to focus further than the walls of the room and therefore you are likely to be able to widen the aperture and consequently reduce the exposure time.
Avoid altering the depth of field because to do this you will need to alter focus, and when you alter focus you subtly change the field of view of your lens. Most software cannot cope with a mixture of lenses being used for a panoramic sequence - they assume the same lens was used throughout, or more specifically that the lens was used with exactly the same settings.

Exposure

That leaves just one thing to play with. Exposure. You might have a scene in which everything is well lit in which case you can probably set an exposure for every frame. However you will quite often come across situations where the lighting changes. Lighting problems can perhaps be generalised as:

• areas of strong shadow in a scene where there is also strong light
• light directly at the camera in part of the scene

The first of these is more likely. I find it useful to spin my photo camera around the scene while holding the shutter button halfway . I can then instantly see whether there is going to be a problem because the photo camera will show me in the viewfinder the exposure it thinks is appropriate for each image. If the exposure changes dramatically I will have a problem: if I let the photo camera judge exposure, it will ensure each picture is as good as it can be. But that means any two adjacent images could differ greatly in lighting conditions so that a shadow in one is barely visible in another. That will confuse the stitching application.
I allow the exposure to change by no more than two increments between frames (e.g. if one shot was taken at 1/30sec then the next one should be no less than 1/60sec and no more than 1/15sec). If a scene contains a mixture of brighter areas and darker areas, I will meter correctly for an intermediate position, and then slightly over expose the dark areas (to make them lighter) and slightly under expose the light areas to make them darker. 




 Panoramic Photo Gallery

 information from panoguide.com

Night Photography

Equipment Required

 I recommend following equipment to use.

• Digital camera
• Tripod
• Remote shutter release
• Something to do while exposing your shot

Now let’s get down to business. First, set your tripod up at the desired height, to save you any trouble later on make sure your tripod is level. You will thank me. Now, mount the camera on the tripod making sure it’s secure.

Setting Up Your Shot

 

Switch your photo camera to manual. OK, you’ve got this far it’s going good, time to set up the shot. Don’t bother composing your shot just yet as we have to sort some other things out first. Set your photo camera to auto-focus or AF. This may not work depending on the conditions but most of the time it will work just fine. Zoom in all the way and find a light source or light area that is the same distance away as the subject you want in focus, press the shutter half way down. Once the photo camera has focused on the light source or light area zoom all the way out  and make sure, without touching the shutter or the focus ring switch back to manual focus. Be sure you’re not touching the focus ring when you compose.
Now you have the camera focused you can proceed to compose the shot. This is something that no tutorial can tell you how to do, this is in the eye of the photographer. Be creative and show off your creative eye.

Tip: Wide angles create a bigger impact than longer focal lengths.

 

Setting The Correct Exposure

 

You’re almost there, the next major part is getting the exposure right, this is easy if you know how. The best way to expose your shot manually is to use your photo camera’s built in light meter as a rough guide, but not as a precise judge. When you first start you will need to follow it tightly but as you gain more and more experience you won’t need the meter at all.
Change the photo camera to AV mode(Aperture priority) Now, set the ISO to 1600. As a rough guide I recommend you stop down the aperture to f/8 to achieve maximum sharpness when using the Canon 18-55mm kit lens but you may need to keep it at f/3.5 depending on the conditions. Now, press the shutter half way and you will see the light meter, it’s a line with a small arrow, this will move around as you change the aperture. Adjust aperture accordingly so it makes the line stay in the middle. Once it is in the middle, press the shutter down half way. The photo camera will give you the shutter speed that you require, make sure you remember this number as you will need it to work out how long your final exposure will be.
For this next part you may need a calculator, depending on how good your mental arithmetic is. Now we need to calculate how long we need to keep the shutter open for. As an example we will say the photo camera gave you a shutter speed of 10 seconds when we used the light meter, keep this number in your head. Now set the ISO to 100. Take your number (In this example 10 seconds) and multiply that number by 16. This gives us 160 seconds, Divide this by 60, this gives us about 3 minutes.
Now plug in your remote shutter release, set the photo camera to BULB mode (move the shutter down past 30 seconds). Get a timing device (Phone, stop watch ) and get it prepared to begin. Press the remote shutter release and lock it on. Start the timer.
If you want to be certain of good exposure then you can round it up to the nearest minute (In our case 3 minutes). Once you have reached the target time, unlock the remote shutter release and wait for the photo camera to proceed with noise reduction.
The end result will be a nicely exposed picture.


Gallery Of Night Photography

information from adcuz.co.uk

Celebration Of High-Speed Photography

A digital camera, some fast-moving subject, and a bit of knowledge about how to take the best pictures of moving subjects will launch you on the road to some of the most interesting photographs you’ve ever taken. Although some blurring can be effective in communicating a sense of high-speed motion, some photographers want the subject to be frozen in time to get some pretty special photographic effects.

High Speed Photography at Home

How totake high speed photos You can use this technique to take picture of exploding things like tomatoes, watter balloons, watermelons, or even you Canon photo camera as you smash it against a wall for not understanding the menus (Sorry, could not resist...)
 

Freezing fast motion (AKA High Speed Photography), can give some pretty special photographic effects. High Speed Photography is used in physics, health research, sports and more. This guide describes how to capture super fast movements using ordinary camera gear and a little home made electronics. I will describes the setup I used the problems I encountered and what I did to solve or work around them.

Capturing such images introduces a lot of challenges. How does one handle timing with exposures times

faster than 1/6000 second!?
We have to handle shutter lag, synchronize the flash and time the exposure to just the right moment.

But the shutter lag of any normal photo camera is so long that it will be all most impossible to time the exposures. And how do you synchronize the flash with an exposure time of less than 1/6000 second?
To work around the problems with shutter lag and flash synchronization, the exposure is done in a completely dark room. This way the shutter can opened without actually getting an exposure. The exposure time set on the photo camera just has to be long enough for the action to happen while the shutter is still open. Because the room is dark, the long exposure time will not have any effect on the final output (this is because no light enters the lens to hit the sensor / film)

To actually get an "exposure", a flash is fired. The flash light duration will now become the actual

exposure time.
SO now we need to see how long does it takes the flash to fire. It turns out that the output power of the flash, actually affects the duration of the light, so to get exposure times. If you need exposure faster than 1/6000 seconds, the output needs to be reduced.
Now we only need to synchronize the flash with the action we want to capture.
This can be done in several ways. For example synchronizing with a balloon puncture, can be done via sound. Impact-actions, like a BB Soft air gun pellets, can be triggered with a mechanical switch, like in the picture below. When the pellet hits the cd-cover it's pushed on to the switch, which then triggers the flash.
Here is my High Speed Photography setup and work flow (Balloon Shot).

 

The Gear:

• Balloon (OK - we are going to nuke this one, so don't use your favorite)
• Digicam
• Tripod
• Sigma Flash
• Home made sound trigger (more info). If you do not have an optical slave you can use the Universal Sound Slave Circuit
• Needle (or BB-gun)
• Backdrop (I use a black Bristol sheet)

The Setup

First step is to set-up the scene. The black Bristol sheet is used as backdrop. The balloon, flash, microphone

and camera are placed like in to image below

Gear settings:

• Flash: optical slave and 1/16 output power.
• Camera: Exposure time: 1-2 sec. ISO 100-200 Aperture F 11-16 manual focus.
• Microphone: The distance between the balloon and microphone, is used for synchronization. 50-70cm is good for balloon punctures :-)

Next step is framing and focusing:

While trying to stay within the best performance on the lens, I either zoom or move the tripod, until I have the desired framing. Focus can be obtained either automatic or manual, but do remember to switch to manual to lock focus, otherwise the camera will try to focus when the lights are switched off.

Now it's time to test the setup and lightning. All lights are switched off and the shutter is set to bulb.

To fire the flash I just clap my hands. Then I review the image on the camera, checking for exposure, framing, focus and DOF.
To get the correct amount of light / exposure, one can Increase or decrease:

- the strobe distance to the balloon

- the output power of the flash

- the aperture on the  photo camera

- ISO sensitivity on the photo camera
Taking the shot

The test is repeated until satisfactory result have been reached, and the real photo can be taken. This is done the same way as when testing, but instead of clapping, the balloon is punctured with a needle.
One could also just fill the balloon with water and shoot it with a BB Soft air gun :-)


Some cool High Speed Photography

information from smashingmagazine.com

What you see is what you get - KODAK eyeCamera

On April 1, 2009 Kodak had introduced a KODAK eyeCamera 4.1 photo camera... The 4.1 version, obviously it is the April Fool, but I like this product or concept... It looks like super cool! Click 2 enlarge!
"What you see is what you get" Viewfinder - Now you can take that photo at the exact moment you see that special scene.
Facial Recall Assistant - Handy for parties and reunions.
Image Stabilizer - After a glass of wine or two, this feature will ensure that all of your photos are razor sharp, maybe even sharper than you remember.
Selective Auto-Focus & Zoom - See something you like? Just look, focus, zoom & snap! This is a new feature so use it wisely. It might get you in trouble at the beach so practice at home first.
Wink and Shoot Shutter - Taking photos is now as easy as a winking! We use our patented eyeVu technology to activate only on a wink, not a blink. When you have a cold and are sneezing it is advised you not wear your KODAK eyeCamera 4.1 photo camera or you will get pictures of your feet (think about it).
Digital X-Ray Vision - No way? Yes way! In partnership with the Superman Corporation located in the Fortress of Solitude, we co-developed this amazing feature at a bargain price. But remember, even though you will be able to see through walls and closed doors you will not be able to walk through them.
Panoramic Mode - Achieved merely by employing classic Kodak ease-of-use and turning one's head 360- degrees
The KODAK eyeCamera 4.1 photo camera is social media compatible so you will be able to stream your life 24x7! Easy photo uploads to Facebook, Flickr, KODAK Gallery, and Twitter are a snap. Now you can impress your friends with an endless stream of photos to accompany the running commentary of text updates you currently provide.

information from  likecool.com

Seitz 6x17 Digital shoots at 160 megapixels

When we first spotted this new photo camera from Seitz, our jaws hit the floor and rebounded a few times. No, it's not the highest megapixel count we've seen, but this megalith of a camera shoots at 160 megapixels to create a native 6 x 17-cm image, is packed with an ISO range from 500 to 10,000, a read-out speed of 300MB per second, and a shutter speed of 1/20,000th second. So the next question is, how are you going to store such huge image files (nearly 1 GB per uncompressed full panorama), certainly not on your off-the-shelf 16GB SDHC card, nor the upcoming 64GB CompactFlash cards -- but rather via gigabit Ethernet to Seitz's "state-of-the-art computer system", which translates to a decked out Mac mini. So what will this much imaging power cost you? 45,500 Swiss francs ($36,266) for the "mobile version" and 42,300 Swiss francs ($33,715) for the "studio version", and we're assuming that the Mac mini is included for that price. However, given that this camera isn't quite what you'd front for a down payment on a Swiss châlet, the 6x17 Digital surely must be affordable to average working-class Zürich banker set, no? You can catch a glimpse of this bad boy at the upcoming Photokina expo in Germany, or can throw down some serious Swiss coinage now to pre-order this gargantuan cam, which won't become available until early 2007. Also, be sure to click through for two more glamour shots.

information from engadget.com

‘Touch Sight’ - disignet for blind.

The picture above shows you the ‘Touch Sight’ a photo camera  designed for the blind. Designed by Chueh Lee of Samsung China, the Touch Sight comes with no LCD display, instead there is a lightweight, flexible Braille display sheet which displays a 3D image by embossing the surface, which allows users to touch and feel the photo.
Designer Chueh Lee has found that the optimal position for this device is the forehead. The photo  camera will record sound for three seconds after pressing the shutter button.

information from itechnews.net

Horizon Kompakt panoramic camera

Horizon Kompakt is a compact lens photo  camera with a rotating non-intercheangable built-in lensintended for taking various panorama pictures: landscapes, interiors, sports scenes, architecture, reportings, fashion, tourism, etc., both by the amateur and professional photographers. This cream-colored knockout is designed for one sole purpose: dead-easy and endless panoramic snapshots! A fast setting for day and slow setting for night afford you 24-hour and indoor/outdoor access to the overwhelming joy of panoramic pleasure.

It can be used to take various pictures on black-and-white and color 35mm films.

Advantages of the photo camera:

the photo camera achieves effective field angels of 120 horizontally and 45 vertically, to expose sharp 24x58 mm images onto standard 35 mm film.
the shutter speeds 1/60 and 1/2 sec enable the photo camera to be used in a variety of lighting conditions, even at night.
the lens moves smoothly to expose the film evenly over the full frame area which eliminates the problem of poor edge definition that frequently occurs when taking pictures with wide angle lens!

Horizon Kompakt panoramic camera Kit

The basic Horizon Kompakt photo camera kit includes:

Horizon Kompakt Panoramic photo Camera
Nylon pouch case
UV, yellow-green filters for the lens
Packing box
English, Spanish, German, French, Italian Manual

Horizon Kompakt panoramic camera Specifications:

Built-in lens: The MC 28mm f/2.8 lens with the improved optical characteristics Film type: perforated 35 mm Number of frames: 22 (with the standard film length in a cassette of 1.65m) Viewfinder Direct view 110x44 with a magnification 0.4x Angular Field of Lens:                      horisontal: 120                      vertical:  45 Shutter speeds, s: 1/2, 1/60 obtained by two panning speed Filters: Frame mounted UV and YG Dimensions, mm: 117x146x75 Weight, kg:                   0.65 information from rugift.com

3D photo maker

Even with the most expensive photo camera there’s a detail that always escapes and that’s called immersion. No matter how god a photo is, you’ll always know it’s just a picture, there’s not a feeling of being there, if you know what I mean. But things doesn’t have to be the same, and 3DWorld tries to prove that with the help of TL120-1, a digital photo camera meant to take 3D pictures.
First read on and find out what 3D means in 3DWorld’s vision. TL120-1 is a modified film camera, fitted with three lenses, specially positioned so that the three resulting pictures are interpolated and then combined together when used with a special projector, that 3DWorld also provides.

Now the specs, which are not that special, if you don’t take into consideration the three lenses:

• Camera Type: Medium Format Tri-lens Stereo Camera (Reflex Viewing Lens)
• Lenses: Anti-reflection coated glass optics, seven elements in six groups. f/2.8, 80mm focal length
• Lens Separation: 63.5mm
• Focusing: manual adjustment, 0.8m – infinity
• Shutter Type: metal focal plane shutter
• Aperture: F2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22 and six half stops
• Shutter Speeds: B, 1,1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500Sec.
• Light Metering: consists of two of SPD’s (silicon photo diodes) for light measurement; aperture and shutter speeds are matched according to the LED display.
• Viewfinder: consists of a viewfinder hood and lens, Eye-level pentaprism type with .0.7 X magnification
• Focusing Screen: Split-image micro-prism type surrounded by a Fresnel screen. 3 LEDs in 5 exposure graduations display overexposure (+), correct exposure (O) & underexposure (-)
• Flash Synchronization: X-contact only, sync speed 1/30 sec. or slower
• Film Advance: Lever provided; 16O standoff angle and 128O winding angle, aligning film numbers through window on camera back
• Power Source: Choice of two 1.5V alkaline-manganese batteries or two 1.55V silver-oxide batteries.
• Film: One roll of 120 reversal film for a pair of 58mm x 56mm stereo images. 6 pairs per roll.
• Dimensions: Approx. 207mm x 205mm x 134mm (8.15" x 8.07"x 5.28"), camera body only
• Weight: 1960g or 69oz (camera body only)

A more complete user manual can be downloaded from here. My opinion is that this kind of product is only suited for some purposes, it can’t fulfill a typical photographer, and depending on how you define "some purposes" it might prove a very bad investment.

information from gadgetroad.com/

Military camera - Canon OD F-1 Camera

Official model name: Canon ODF-1, officially launched in January, 1978. It has never been sold outside the main land of Japan. Total quantity produced was 2002 units. This is a limited edition  based on a revised Canon F-1body configuration. Most external parts are finished in olive drab (OD) military color. It was sold specifically in mainland Japan only. The set included a wide strap and soft case also finished in olive drab. This setup is the most complete seen so far from any sales. It looks so beautiful... Hey, this is tempting enough, I have the urge inside to ask - how much would this photo camera cost ?

Technical Specification

FORMAT: 24 x 36 mm; DIMENSIONS:
146.7 x 99.5 x 49.5 mm
WEIGHT: weighing 845 g (Body only)
LOADING: Multi-slot spool, emulsion-in winding
LENS MOUNT, COUPLING: CANON breech-lock bayonet, FD coupling
PENTAPRISM: Interchangeable prism SLR
MAG.: 0.77x w/50mm lens  

VIEWFINDER INFORMATION: Meter Needle, Following Needle, Battery Check Mark and Shutter Speeds
FIELD OF VIEW: Vertically 97%; Horizontally 97%
RANGE-FINDING AIDS: Split-image/Microprism (E) Screen standard, plus 8 other user-interchangeable screens.
SHUTTER: Mechanical, dual roller focal plane
CURTAIN: Metal blades
SHUTTER SPEEDS: B 1 2 4 8 15 30 60 125 250 500 1000 2000
BATTERY: H-D Mercury cell, 1.35V S
SELF TIMER: Mechanical, 10 sec.
SYNC: X, FP
FILM TRANSPORT: Stroke: 139°, Standoff: 30°, Short-stroke winding OK, Power winder F, Motor Drive MA, and Motor Drive Unit usable
FRAME COUNTER: Additive
MULTI-EXPOSURE: Yes, via Rewind button
REWIND: Manual crank rewind after pushing automatic resetting rewind button.
EXPOSURE MODES & METERING: TTL, CdS, center area (12%) maximum aperture match needle metering. Metering angle: 18% w/50mm lens. Range: EV 2.5 to 18 (1/4 sec., f/1.2 to l/2000, f/11) with f/1.2 lens at ISO 100.
FILM SPEED RANGE ISO (ASA): 25 to 3,200 in 1/3 stop intervals
BATTERY CHECKER: ASA100;1/2000 needle indicator
MISC. SPECS.: The OD finish is the same quality as the black finish of the normal Production unit of the F-1.

information taken from mir.com.my