Going nuts with PhotoStitch -- with results! at DVinfo.net

Chris Hurd · August 5th, 2003, 08:01 AM

Howdy from Texas,

A good friend of mine, David Locke, bought my old PowerShot G2 last year and added a Raynox fisheye lens adapter to it. Since then, he's been going nuts with Canon's photostitch shooting mode and creating superb 360 degree horizontal plus vertical panoramas. These become virtual-reality interactive web photos, and you can pan and tilt all over them.

One of his projects is starting to get a bit of attention. Check out http://www.virtualbigbend.com/, an interactive touring experience at Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. The entire site, the photos, the code, everything is 100% David Locke, one of the most creative individuals I've ever met.

Anyway, for more great examples of David's unique employment of Canon's oft-overlooked photostitch mode taken to extremes, check out his panorama portfolio at http://www.fullmoon.us/panos/examples.php#screen -- there's about ten of them in the pull-down menu at the bottom of the page -- and remember it's a full pan plus tilt experience, be sure to look up and down! Hope y'all enjoy this as much as I do... it's a quite a step beyond your typical digital still image, done with less than $1000 worth of gear (he did get my G2 for a steal).

Robert Knecht Schmidt · August 5th, 2003, 08:12 AM

Creating seamless panos with the stitch method is quite an art, but the ones on Locke's site look great--though I am a bit dubious about his trip to the moon.

virtualbigbend.com appears to be down right now.

For more pano goodness see also my post in this thread.

David Locke · August 5th, 2003, 08:30 AM

Hello!

Thanks for all the kudos, Chris...(awe shucks)......I have to make one small amendment to your statement....I actually don't use Canon's Photostich Software. Although the software is VERY good, you cannot stitch fisheye images with it, as it will only work with the standard built in lens on the G-2. I use a really cool program called "panotools" by Helmut Dersch. This is a free DOS based program that is very cumbersome to use, but with very good results. It is a manual stitching program, so it can be quite frustrating and tedious at times, but very good nevertheless.....

Anywho...thanks again Chris for the post and the Kudos!

David Locke

PS-Yes, I did get your G-2 for a steal; The lens was more than the camera!

Chris Hurd · August 5th, 2003, 08:33 AM

Oops, well I thought you were using the Canon software!

David actually sat down with me and walked me through the entire process on his laptop once... but that was over a few glasses of beer and more than a little while ago -- http://www.virtualbigbend.com is loading fine for me, might be a bit slow due to traffic, but it's not down, at least it shouldn't be.

David Locke · August 5th, 2003, 08:35 AM

<<<-- Originally posted by Robert Knecht Schmidt : Creating seamless panos with the stitch method is quite an art, but the ones on Locke's site look great--though I am a bit dubious about his trip to the moon.
-->>>

Actually, that is where they filmed it ;)

Sorry, my hosting company stinks....but its cheap!

Chris Hurd · August 5th, 2003, 08:43 AM

It may not be readily apparant on Virtual Big Bend, but you can also zoom in and out of those pano's by using the Shift key (tele) and Control key (wide), at least in Windows IE6. David -- put this info on your site!

David Locke · August 5th, 2003, 09:50 AM

Yes, you can zoom in and out on both the quicktime and the java versions:

Quicktime: as Chris said, use "Shift" and "CTRL"

JAVA: use "A" and "Z"

I dont have this on my site yet.....(baby steps please), besides, the resolution of the images used are very low res compared to the originals (for easier downloads of course), so the zoom feature isn't as impressive as when its used with the higher resolution images......very cool!

thanks again Chris,
David

Rob Lohman · August 11th, 2003, 06:46 AM

I've been playing a bit with the Canon PhotoStitch sofware that
comes with my Canon digital camera but it works great indeed.
Never really had the time to jump into it though...

David Locke · August 11th, 2003, 03:00 PM

hey there,

Whether you are using Canon's Photostitch or some other panorama stitching software I thought you all might want to be aware of a couple of things:

Exposure- You must make sure your exposure setting is the same throughout the entire series of shots, no green box mode. This will keep the stitch lines invisible.

Vertical View- Keep your camera in the vertical position, this will allow for the maximum viewing area.

Nodal Point- Often overlooked, the nodal point is extremely important, expecially for things which are closer, ie., inside a room. The nodal point is basically the center of axis that your camera turns on when spinning the camera around the shot. The nodal point (think of it as the center if the circle that your tripod head turns on) this should be in the center of the lens and the face of the lens should be directly above the nodal point. If your nodal point is off, you might as well forget about getting a good stitch. For a far away landscape shot, the nodal point is less important. For 360 x180 panoramas, like mine, the nodal point is required otherwise, it would be impossible to stitch the panorama, which will require a "panoramic tripod head." You can get a good cheap one from Kaiden. This is kind of a hard concept to grasp, so if you dont get it, stick with doing outdoor scenic panoramas.

Anywho...thought you should know these basic tips.

Later,
David

John Locke · August 11th, 2003, 06:52 PM

Wow! Great stuff! I just checked out all the Big Bend panoramas...Big Bend is one of my favorite places on the whole planet--great to see it this way!

I also went to the http://www.fullmoon.us/panos/examples.php#screen link and could see the panorama that appears first, but couldn't view any others. The javascript in the drop down link shows an error (for a Mac user with the latest IE browser). Just letting you know...but I'll drop back by someday when I pass by an internet café to see them. It's worth it!

By the way...I'm from Austin (sort of) and I have no idea where/what "L'Entrée Grande" is...can you give some details?

David Locke · August 11th, 2003, 07:37 PM

Hi,

Yes, sorry mac users, but the drop down list does not work because Apple doesn't think javascript commands exist. Go figure. I am going to update the site this month and that is one of the fixes on my list :S

L Entree Grande is "The Grand Entrance" in French. Sorry, it's my lame attempt at being sophisticated. (hey, what do you want, i'm from texas).

thanks again,
david

John Locke · August 11th, 2003, 07:44 PM

Ha! That reminds me of the old joke...

Patron: What's the "soupe du jour"?
Waiter: Soup of the day.

No...what I meant is...is that some historic building? It's beautiful whatever/wherever it is. Looks more Santa Fe than Austin.

David Locke · August 11th, 2003, 07:58 PM

LOL.... Thats a house on the lake about 15 miles west of Austin....its a part of a virtual tour of a private residents I did last February for an interior designer. Here's the website I did for her, and the virtual tour.....

http://www.kvdesignstudio.com/portfolio.html

It's mac friendly ;-)

david

John Locke · August 11th, 2003, 08:08 PM

Think they'd let me move into just the media room?

What more could you want? Media, big furniture, pool table, and a wet bar...all in one room.

Nice work, David.

John

David Locke · August 11th, 2003, 08:39 PM

<<<-- Originally posted by John Locke : Think they'd let me move into just the media room?

What more could you want? Media, big furniture, pool table, and a wet bar...all in one room.
John -->>>

Thanks John,

I here ya! that media room cost more than my modest little three bedroom and 2 acres of land put together!

August 5th, 2003, 08:01 AM	#1
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,366 Images: 513	Going nuts with PhotoStitch -- with results! Howdy from Texas, A good friend of mine, David Locke, bought my old PowerShot G2 last year and added a Raynox fisheye lens adapter to it. Since then, he's been going nuts with Canon's photostitch shooting mode and creating superb 360 degree horizontal plus vertical panoramas. These become virtual-reality interactive web photos, and you can pan and tilt all over them. One of his projects is starting to get a bit of attention. Check out http://www.virtualbigbend.com/, an interactive touring experience at Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. The entire site, the photos, the code, everything is 100% David Locke, one of the most creative individuals I've ever met. Anyway, for more great examples of David's unique employment of Canon's oft-overlooked photostitch mode taken to extremes, check out his panorama portfolio at http://www.fullmoon.us/panos/examples.php#screen -- there's about ten of them in the pull-down menu at the bottom of the page -- and remember it's a full pan plus tilt experience, be sure to look up and down! Hope y'all enjoy this as much as I do... it's a quite a step beyond your typical digital still image, done with less than $1000 worth of gear (he did get my G2 for a steal). __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

August 5th, 2003, 08:12 AM	#2
Robert Knecht Schmidt Wrangler Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 1,933	Creating seamless panos with the stitch method is quite an art, but the ones on Locke's site look great--though I am a bit dubious about his trip to the moon. virtualbigbend.com appears to be down right now. For more pano goodness see also my post in this thread. __________________ All the best, Robert K S Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| The best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

August 5th, 2003, 08:33 AM	#4
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,366 Images: 513	Oops, well I thought you were using the Canon software! David actually sat down with me and walked me through the entire process on his laptop once... but that was over a few glasses of beer and more than a little while ago -- http://www.virtualbigbend.com is loading fine for me, might be a bit slow due to traffic, but it's not down, at least it shouldn't be. __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

August 5th, 2003, 08:43 AM	#6
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,366 Images: 513	It may not be readily apparant on Virtual Big Bend, but you can also zoom in and out of those pano's by using the Shift key (tele) and Control key (wide), at least in Windows IE6. David -- put this info on your site! __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

August 5th, 2003, 09:50 AM	#7
David Locke Full Moon Media Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Canyon Lake, TX Posts: 9	re: zooming Yes, you can zoom in and out on both the quicktime and the java versions: Quicktime: as Chris said, use "Shift" and "CTRL" JAVA: use "A" and "Z" I dont have this on my site yet.....(baby steps please), besides, the resolution of the images used are very low res compared to the originals (for easier downloads of course), so the zoom feature isn't as impressive as when its used with the higher resolution images......very cool! thanks again Chris, David

August 5th, 2003, 08:30 AM	#3
David Locke Full Moon Media Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Canyon Lake, TX Posts: 9	Hello! Thanks for all the kudos, Chris...(awe shucks)......I have to make one small amendment to your statement....I actually don't use Canon's Photostich Software. Although the software is VERY good, you cannot stitch fisheye images with it, as it will only work with the standard built in lens on the G-2. I use a really cool program called "panotools" by Helmut Dersch. This is a free DOS based program that is very cumbersome to use, but with very good results. It is a manual stitching program, so it can be quite frustrating and tedious at times, but very good nevertheless..... Anywho...thanks again Chris for the post and the Kudos! David Locke PS-Yes, I did get your G-2 for a steal; The lens was more than the camera!

August 5th, 2003, 08:35 AM	#5
David Locke Full Moon Media Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Canyon Lake, TX Posts: 9	<<<-- Originally posted by Robert Knecht Schmidt : Creating seamless panos with the stitch method is quite an art, but the ones on Locke's site look great--though I am a bit dubious about his trip to the moon. -->>> Actually, that is where they filmed it ;) Sorry, my hosting company stinks....but its cheap!

August 11th, 2003, 06:46 AM	#8
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	I've been playing a bit with the Canon PhotoStitch sofware that comes with my Canon digital camera but it works great indeed. Never really had the time to jump into it though... __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

August 11th, 2003, 03:00 PM	#9
David Locke Full Moon Media Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Canyon Lake, TX Posts: 9	pano tips hey there, Whether you are using Canon's Photostitch or some other panorama stitching software I thought you all might want to be aware of a couple of things: Exposure- You must make sure your exposure setting is the same throughout the entire series of shots, no green box mode. This will keep the stitch lines invisible. Vertical View- Keep your camera in the vertical position, this will allow for the maximum viewing area. Nodal Point- Often overlooked, the nodal point is extremely important, expecially for things which are closer, ie., inside a room. The nodal point is basically the center of axis that your camera turns on when spinning the camera around the shot. The nodal point (think of it as the center if the circle that your tripod head turns on) this should be in the center of the lens and the face of the lens should be directly above the nodal point. If your nodal point is off, you might as well forget about getting a good stitch. For a far away landscape shot, the nodal point is less important. For 360 x180 panoramas, like mine, the nodal point is required otherwise, it would be impossible to stitch the panorama, which will require a "panoramic tripod head." You can get a good cheap one from Kaiden. This is kind of a hard concept to grasp, so if you dont get it, stick with doing outdoor scenic panoramas. Anywho...thought you should know these basic tips. Later, David

August 11th, 2003, 06:52 PM	#10
John Locke Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Austin, TX USA Posts: 2,882	Wow! Great stuff! I just checked out all the Big Bend panoramas...Big Bend is one of my favorite places on the whole planet--great to see it this way! I also went to the http://www.fullmoon.us/panos/examples.php#screen link and could see the panorama that appears first, but couldn't view any others. The javascript in the drop down link shows an error (for a Mac user with the latest IE browser). Just letting you know...but I'll drop back by someday when I pass by an internet café to see them. It's worth it! By the way...I'm from Austin (sort of) and I have no idea where/what "L'Entrée Grande" is...can you give some details? __________________ John Locke SursumFilms.com

August 11th, 2003, 07:37 PM	#11
David Locke Full Moon Media Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Canyon Lake, TX Posts: 9	Hi, Yes, sorry mac users, but the drop down list does not work because Apple doesn't think javascript commands exist. Go figure. I am going to update the site this month and that is one of the fixes on my list :S L Entree Grande is "The Grand Entrance" in French. Sorry, it's my lame attempt at being sophisticated. (hey, what do you want, i'm from texas). thanks again, david

August 11th, 2003, 07:44 PM	#12
John Locke Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Austin, TX USA Posts: 2,882	Ha! That reminds me of the old joke... Patron: What's the "soupe du jour"? Waiter: Soup of the day. No...what I meant is...is that some historic building? It's beautiful whatever/wherever it is. Looks more Santa Fe than Austin. __________________ John Locke SursumFilms.com

August 11th, 2003, 07:58 PM	#13
David Locke Full Moon Media Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Canyon Lake, TX Posts: 9	LOL.... Thats a house on the lake about 15 miles west of Austin....its a part of a virtual tour of a private residents I did last February for an interior designer. Here's the website I did for her, and the virtual tour..... http://www.kvdesignstudio.com/portfolio.html It's mac friendly ;-) david

August 11th, 2003, 08:08 PM	#14
John Locke Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Austin, TX USA Posts: 2,882	Think they'd let me move into just the media room? What more could you want? Media, big furniture, pool table, and a wet bar...all in one room. Nice work, David. John __________________ John Locke SursumFilms.com

August 11th, 2003, 08:39 PM	#15
David Locke Full Moon Media Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Canyon Lake, TX Posts: 9	<<<-- Originally posted by John Locke : Think they'd let me move into just the media room? What more could you want? Media, big furniture, pool table, and a wet bar...all in one room. John -->>> Thanks John, I here ya! that media room cost more than my modest little three bedroom and 2 acres of land put together!