Initial Research - Panoramas

A panorama is a very wide angled image that is usually created with two or more images.
Panoramas have been around for a very long time and before photographs they were painted.


Here are some examples of panoramas:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panorama

As techniques developed and digital editing came into practice panoramic images now look as if they were taken in shot, the earlier photographs would have had to of been matched up manually and not altered which means that you can see the joins clearly.

Another form of panoramas is where the image is manipulated so that it looks as if it is a mini planet, this is quite an easy technique and you can get some interesting results:

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01359/pink_1359063i.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Globe_panorama03.jpg

Types of panoramas: 

http://www.panoguide.com/howto/panoramas/types.jsp

            Spherical panoramas:

A spherical panorama is where the images taken are projected and stitched to the inside of a sphere, this means that as you move around (on the spot) you can turn 360˚ to look at anything, however, it does have its disadvantages.

As you look down towards the ground it will seem that the images are being squished as the images meet and join, also the images need to go all the way around so that they join up end to end, this way as you pan around there is no blank space.

Cylindrical panoramas:


Cylindrical panoramas is the standard type of panorama, it is simply done by setting up a camera on a tripod and taking images at separate intervals then using a program to stitch them together. This type of panorama can either be displayed in a continuous cylindrical motion or it can be user operated. For example there could be zoom controls or the user can drag manually around the panorama.

Cubic panoramas:

Cubic panoramas are much preferred over spherical ones as the image is not distorted, this means wherever you look objects don't look squished. As the cube has 6 sides when the panoramic images are placed on these and looked at they look natural to the human eye as there is no distortion.