Car Panoramas

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Today I did an attempt at shooting panos inside cars, and it was a success. The camera was not aligned, but everything worked the way it should.

3 minutes and some seconds is all it took to shoot, and it was internet ready some 5 minutes later.

Not good quality, due to me not having set the manual settings right for the light conditions and focus, but the concept is proven to perfection. Will try more tomorrow and in the next days.... and of course provide phtotos of my setup and some comments.

Difficult to shoot Car Panos?

Not at all... for as long as the right tools have been used.

Hardware:

Automatic panohead.
Nokia n770 internet tablet as remote.
Modified tripod.
EZ leveler from Nodal Ninja.
12 volt 7 ah battery jerry-rigged to the head.
Battery serves as weight on the tripod feet.

http://www.flashificator.com/1/Diverse/CarSetup4.jpg

1. Camera (Olympus E-520 + Zuiko ED 8mm Fisheye
2. Shutter cable connects to the head and fires automatically when in position.
3. Automatic pano head.
4. Bluetooth unit for the head.
5. Hand control for the head.
6. Nodal Ninja EZ-leveler.
7. Cheap small tripod I modified for becoming fit for use.
8. Power cable for the head.
9. 12v 7ah battery, carrying enough power for a whole lot of time, capable of at least 300 recharges.

This setup is 70cm / 27in tall, and can be reduced in height by removing the EZ-leveler.

Need to have a new crown made for the head, along with a new arm cut to perfection in a CNC machine... still haven't found anyone who can do that yet.

[PauloGGPX]

I see you've found time to try the Merlin?

:) can't wait to see your results, what camera are you using? Do you really need to build a new crown? Have you seen the chart of camera sizes?

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

The camera is Olympus E-520 with Zuiko ED 8mm Fisheye. The crown appears in the photos, so at least a part of it should be cut off... but I would prefer having a completely new crown made, so that I could even mount the camera with the NN5 quick release..... As it is now, I am using a wooden "stick" on which I have the camera, and that is anything but stable and accurate.... but good enough for initial tests.

[BionicDroid]

The camera is Olympus E-520 with Zuiko ED 8mm Fisheye.
Like my camera and Fisheye. :D

I'm interesting in car Panoramas to, you can see at embed pano a good and beautifull example interactivity in 360º Volkswagen Tiguan here:
Turn Up your sound.
http://www.360tiguan.nl/vw-tiguan.html

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y61KWJeVKUk

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

No photoshopping or or manual correction... and the head is NOT aligned properly.

http://www.flashificator.com/1/Diverse/FirstTryCarAutoPanoHead

[Takoca]

Like my camera and Fisheye. :D

I'm interesting in car Panoramas to, you can see at embed pano a good and beautifull example interactivity in 360º Volkswagen Tiguan here:
Turn Up your sound.
http://www.360tiguan.nl/vw-tiguan.html

Lot of car panoramas here: http://www.carpanorama.eu/

and it is not car, but similrat: I prefer the cockpits on my site: www.kerekterek.hu (http://www.kerekterek.hu)

My biggest problem is to find a good and enough stable place for the tripod

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Nice cockpits!

With the automatic head, it is almost without importance to find a stable place for the tripod. The movements of the head are so soft that the very unstable seat of my car did not pose any problem for the shooting. Touching the head or tripod or the car, did cause the tripod to swing a lot, but when it was shooting, I could not see it move at all.

In my opinion, this is the only way to shoot panos from inside cars and ... cocpits and other places where it is almost impossible to find a good firm placement for a tripod.

[360VT.co.uk]

I've never done a car

But I did do a Motor Home the other day

http://www.seelincolnshire.co.uk/test/panos/MHS_01/index.html

could do with a nice seaside pano to use as an out side view

but other than that it's ok

[izoneguy]

I also do many MotorHomes...

http://mhsrv.com/virtual-tours/2009-mandalay-43c/mhsrv.html

The hardest part is the lighting.
I shoot 5 exposures for HDR and then usually
cut the windows out.
That is what takes the longest.
I have shot some car tests but this part of the country
is not really car central for advertising. I know folks
in California do a lot of car panos.

[Cameleer]

You guys are making me feel like I'm still back in the dark ages!
I've never done inside a car, motor home, plane or any motorized vehicle.
Although I have done inside a bicycle rickshaw and a plush camel cart.
Here's the view from inside the camel cart.
http://indiavrtours.com/pushkar/cart4.html

This was when I first started using a pole and was shot with my old Canon 20D, Sigma 8mm lens.

cheers,
Roger Berry

[allSaints]

I have looked at lots of your panos, Roger - you are a master with the pole!

Tommy

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Maybe he's partly Polish?

[allSaints]

What would that make you, Trausti - Caribbean Champion?

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

I'm just a button-pusher at this stage in my life:

Shoot a pano: push a button (and click a couple of others)
Stitch: push onscreen buttons
Create pano: click Flashificator buttons
Communicate with you all: push keyboard buttons
Make babies with my wife: push belly-buttons

[PauloGGPX]

Trausti is this now famous sport car that does 31 liters per 100 km? ;)

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

The Bluesmobile (ex cop-car ... the blue one) is the one famous for being thirsty. 7.5 miles per gallon ... 3km's per liter... 100 km's pr 31 liters...

Who's complaining? :)

[Ton den Ouden]

I think I can't stay behind now... http://www.pro4pics.com/site/portfolio/360_demo/x_kk.html

That's all nice of course, but slowly I am dieing to see the inside of Thrausti's car....

Was there any film in that camera? It was a great video, but I missed the result so far. Or did I overlook something?

Grtz, Ton

[Ton den Ouden]

Oops...

I am an old man, but sometimes I am stiill so fast in my reactions ..... :o

Just found it. Not bad for a first trial. Just some minor adjustments to make. This gear has potential!

Grtz, Ton

[PauloGGPX]

Ton,

you must tell me how you did that... was it a pole through the door? The refrigerator wasn't in the middle of the desert originally wasn't it?

:P

[Cameleer]

Here's some of the vehicle panos that I've done, with a pole of course. I like things simple!

Riding through Bharatpur in the back of a rickshaw. This was done with my old Canon 20D and Sigma 8mm lens.
http://indiavrtours.com/bharatpur/rickshaw4.html

View from in a Corracle boat crossing the Thungabadra River in Hampi.
This was shot with my old Canon 5D and Nikon 10.5mm lens.
Look down when pano opens.
http://indiavrtours.com/hampi/corracle_boat4.html

Okay, from the Corracle boat if you go up river you will find one I did in a motor boat. Sometimes I go the modern way in a vehicle that has a motor.

Cheers,
Roger Berry

[izoneguy]

Ton,

you must tell me how you did that... was it a pole through the door? The refrigerator wasn't in the middle of the desert originally wasn't it?

:P

Ton has some great work there....
The fridge pano almost looks computer generated?

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Ton... No more TV dinners for you... and what a big open spaced kitchen you have on the other side of the door!

[tinwe]

Here's some of the vehicle panos that I've done, with a pole of course. I like things simple!

Riding through Bharatpur in the back of a rickshaw. This was done with my old Canon 20D and Sigma 8mm lens.
http://indiavrtours.com/bharatpur/rickshaw4.html

View from in a Corracle boat crossing the Thungabadra River in Hampi.
This was shot with my old Canon 5D and Nikon 10.5mm lens.
Look down when pano opens.
http://indiavrtours.com/hampi/corracle_boat4.html

Okay, from the Corracle boat if you go up river you will find one I did in a motor boat. Sometimes I go the modern way in a vehicle that has a motor.

Cheers,
Roger Berry

Indeed some neat skills there.
Can you share some of your prefered panorama technique; shooting/stiching.
What panohead, amount of shots, and approach for that excellent nadir shot.

Is there a way to automate nadir stiching more in PTGUI that I haven't found yet, because I always end up having to tweak and add quite a lot of extra points manually.

[Ton den Ouden]

Yeah, I do have a big kitchen, though it is hot most of the time ;)

No seriously, it was a pole shot. Not half as difficult as Roger's great rickshaw shots, I am sure! I had plenty of time to make this (and I needed it).

The problem was that there was not enough space to turn the camera round, so I had to remove the upper drawer while turning around. The final shot was with the camera on its own in the fridge with the door open in this position. The rest is masking all non desired parts in Photoshop. The finishing touch was removing my kitchen and replace it with this nice desert shot.

All in all a hell of a job, but so rewarding in the end!

Thanks for your unexpected and nice remarks :)

Grtz, Ton

[Cameleer]

Hi Ton,
I really like your refrigerator pano, only one change I would have made.
I would have added a camel out there in the desert trying to look in through the door crack.

Cheers,
Roger Berry

[Ton den Ouden]

It is not fair to challenge me that way Roger :)

To be continued....

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

lol

I can just barely picture Ton going to the local zoo and ask for permission to borrow their camel....

[Cameleer]

Indeed some neat skills there.
Can you share some of your prefered panorama technique; shooting/stiching.
What panohead, amount of shots, and approach for that excellent nadir shot.

Is there a way to automate nadir stiching more in PTGUI that I haven't found yet, because I always end up having to tweak and add quite a lot of extra points manually.

This photo shows some of the ways I use my equipment. 99 percent of the time I'm using the pole setup. The image on the far right it shows how I use a thread and fishing weight in places where stands are not allowed.
http://indiavrtours.com/pic/equipment2.jpg

Here's a close-up of my pano head:
http://www.indiavrtours.com/pic/tokina10-17mm_shaved.jpg

Here's some more photos showing my setup with a laptop computer.
http://www.indiavrtours.com/pic/equipment4.jpg

With my pole setup I often walk up, stick my camera where I want it, take 4 shots (often 2 or 3 sets) and in a few seconds I'm headed off looking for the next shot. Fast, Easy, Simple and Clean.
Slide this pole under my belt and my hands are free for taking regular photos, shooting video, riding motorbikes, horses and elephants.

Look down in this pano, I'm shooting panos and video at the same time. (warning: the sounds a little loud on this one)
http://indiavrtours.com/nagaur/dancing_horse4.html

Cheers,
Roger Berry

[Ton den Ouden]

I can just barely picture Ton going to the local zoo and ask for permission to borrow their camel....

Well, then picture this.. http://www.pro4pics.com/site/kkk.html :)

How off topic can we get...

Roger makes it sound so easy, shooting from the pole. I have tried it a few times, allways ending up spending hours in Ptgui to get it right. I have the greatest respect for the few people who mastered this. If you have come this far, shooting a video with the other hand should be a piece of cake of course :eek:

I like the gear. The laptop stand is a nice feature!

Grtz, Ton

[tinwe]

I don't really get the whole "pole" thing.
I'm using a tripod solution myself, but the "pole" you used in the rikshaw and carriage - did you actually use a monopod stretched out horizontally by freehand, or did you setup a tripod inside the carriage?

[Cameleer]

I don't really get the whole "pole" thing.
I'm using a tripod solution myself, but the "pole" you used in the rikshaw and carriage - did you actually use a monopod stretched out horizontally by freehand, or did you setup a tripod inside the carriage?

I use a pole handheld, it can also telescope out to 17 feet.
Here is a pano where I left the pole's reflection on the water, this should give you an idea of what's going on.
http://indiavrtours.com/hampi/elephant_river4.html

Here's a photo of the pole being used vertically, although I no longer use a wired remote.
http://indiavrtours.com/pic/poleshot.jpg

For shooting inside of something you use the pole to stick the camera inside while your on the outside ducking out of the way.

If I where doing HDR photos showing the inside of a car, I would use my sturdy tripod with the center column extended (Keeping the tripod legs out of camera view). This would be outside of the car. On top of this extended center column, have a plastic block with a V notched out of it for a horizontal pole to balance and rotate on.
The horizontal pole would have a camera mounted on one end going inside the cars window, the other end would have a counter balance hanging from it.

With the use of a remote or having the camera wired to a laptop computer you would shot the photos. This type of setup needs a fisheye lens with over a 180 dreg view. A Canon 5D with a Nikon 10.5mm lens or Tokina 10-17mm lens works good for this type of shooting.

Roger Berry

[adriansalisbury]

that K-tek pole isn't cheap is it, $800!

I was getting all excited about this but think I'll need to look elsewhere :(