IOU Speaking Tubes- 360 Panoramic

IOU Dean Clough, Halifax

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We are having a group lesson on 14/12/12 explaining how to shoot using a 360 degree tripod head. We are attending the   " Talking Tubes" installation which is currently on display at 'Dean Clough' Halifax.
This technique can be a very useful tool as a professional photographer, as more and more businesses ranging from hotels, restaurants, to art galleries, to name a few, are taking advantage of having these videos on their websites to draw in the consumers by letting them explore their environment in a visual tour.

I found a video on you tube showing how to shoot 360 degree video on an i-phone.

http://youtu.be/Pt_gKB9p2cI

I found this link on you tube, which shows a ball with concealed cameras and when thrown up it takes panoramic photographs of the area. It looks amazing, I must look further into this.

http://youtu.be/Th5zlUe6gOE

14/12/12


We started off by determining the correct position for the camera, i.e. height and best spot  to shoot the 360 panoramic shots, firstly by studying the area chosen for the shoot and moving any unwanted objects that may be present, such as fire extinguishers on the wall for example. In the space we were shooting there was a stair lift which was permanently fixed to the wall, therefore removing it was not an option, so we had to work out a way of shooting the 360 panoramic which would omit the stair lift totally from view, this was done when finding the right position for the camera.

We will be using a 14mm fisheye lens on a Canon 5D mk 2, and shoot in portrait so as to achieve maximum FOV ( field of view). We have worked out that we need to take 6 shots of the room, giving us a 20% overlap to create the 360 degree, each shot consisting of 3 images to make them HDR.
Now that we have moved objects and eliminated unwanted fixed articles from being in the shots, we can now prepare the camera on the panoramic head, the first thing to do is attach the sliding plate to the camera and placing it onto the panoramic head, then turning the camera downwards, facing the vertical plate find the exact center, (nodal point) through the viewfinder on the camera, by adjusting the verticle arm along the horizontal axis.
Once the nodal point has been determined we now need to find the no paralax point,which is more time consuming. To do this we need two upright posts, like tripods or light stands in view, and move the camera on the vertical slider plate. By placing them aproximately a yard appart and at least 2-3 yards from the camera in this case, however they can be any distance. We can prevent paralax by looking through the viewfinder at the two upright stands and as we move the camera 30 degrees either side and see if the stands move, if they do we adjust the camera accordingly, forward or backwards until they have no movement, this indicates the no paralax point.

Here is a video I found on you tube explaining setting up the camera to find both the nodal and no paralax points, which I found very helpful.

 http://youtu.be/zEgLgReARxs