Peter Lautenslager's Posts
Panoramic Photography
There's something about the wide sweeping view of a panoramic scene that gives an image of drama and grandeur. Panoramic photography has been around for a long time. My Great Grandfather was a professional photographer (Circa 1900) and took panoramic photos in Upstate New York.
For 40 years, the Kodak Colorama in New York's Grand Central Terminal stood as a landmark for photography and the company. The Colorama's were 18 feet high and 36 feet wide! The first Colorama's were captured with an 8X10 view camera.
Today I make panoramic photos with my digital camera. The Kodak V570 has a built in feature that "stitches" three images together automatically. After each shot, a small slice of the previous shot stays on the display and all you do is line up the past image slice with the next shot. When you're done the camera runs an algorithm that aligns all three images into one seamless panoramic picture. It's very cool and fun to play with.
Get creative and take three successive images that are not panoramic and see how they get stitched together.
I think my Great Grandfather would be amazed.
Comments
Posted By: james (12/27/2007)
Comment: I love taking panoramic pictures but do not know where I can get them printed. The Kodak EasyShare allowed me one such print but have taken many more since...
Posted By: VW Oxygen Sensor (11/13/2007)
Comment: Nice panoramic shots...
Posted By: Mia (10/8/2007)
Comment: NEED A FILM PANORAMIC VIEW CAMERA (NOT DIGITAL) PLEASE. DON'T TIME OR PATIENCE TO "STICH". LOST THE ONE I HAD BEFORE. PLEASE.
Posted By: Peter Janson (5/19/2007)
Comment: It's amazing what one can do with digital camera nowadays (quite different from what I was used to when I was young). I wish they could even do a full-view spherical panorama stitching like what can be seen at http://3dtour.cz and some other so-called virtual tour sites. Maybe one day...
Posted By: Borg Trebor (12/15/2006)
Comment: Peter - You should do your next blog post on receommending a camera that can do many of the things you discuss in your posts. Then follow that up with a blog on software. Great Posts. Glad I found this site.
Posted By: Arvin J. (10/11/2006)
Comment: The Coloramas were a lot larger than you described. I grew up in NYC and saw them all the time. I think they were 60-feet long. By the way, where do you send your V570 panoramas to get printed?
Posted By: Roger (10/6/2006)
Comment: I agree that panoramic photos are very nice and with today's digital cameras, they are very easy to do. I've done a couple at the beach and also in the mountains.