360x180 HDR Panoramas - Goblin Valley and Moroni Slopes

[Ryebrye]

Goblin Valley:

http://images.ryebrye.com.s3.amazonaws.com/2010/08/GoblinValleyPreview.png

You can view it here:
http://www.ryebrye.com/blog/2010/08/03/goblin-valley-pano/

http://images.ryebrye.com.s3.amazonaws.com/2010/08/MoroniSlopesPreview.png
And storms from the base of Moroni Slopes (I posted a thread in the Canyoneering forum describing the story behind the Moroni Slopes one a bit)

http://www.ryebrye.com/blog/2010/08/03/storms-over-the-swell-panorama-from-base-of-moroni-slopes/

Both of them are around 117 or 120 shots each - 3 exposures each from 39 or 40 different angles. Merged using PtGui to a 32-bit equirectangular image, tone-mapped in a demo of HDR Expose, tweaked slightly in photoshop, split into cube faces using a equirectangular-to-cube-face-splitting app, bottom cube face edited in photoshop to remove the tripod and add the notes, then shuttled back into Photoshop to do some final retouching. Then posted here for your viewing pleasure!

I also set up my blog to offload my images to amazon s3 today, so they should load really fast for you. The high resolution panoramas are maybe 8 or 9 megs with the viewer - but they download instantly and have a quick preview that slowly resolves to the full image...

[asdf]

seriously SICK! something I need to look into.
I know right where you were standing for the goblin pano.

[Udink]

Those are way awesome!

[Ryebrye]

Glad you like it :) I'm using a panosaurus (see gregwired.com ) now. Chris Raver and I built one out of wood as a proof-of-concept kind of thing, but I was going to have to rebuild parts of it to get it to work how I wanted and I saw a guy selling the panosaurus on ebay cheap. It's a lot more sturdy than it looks like it should be - works great. I'm going to try to take it into a slot canyon this weekend and get some 360x180 inside a narrowish slot and see how it turns out. (Although I really NEED to get a wider-angle lens... if only because of the hyperfocal distance being so much shorter on them so the canyon walls right next to the canyon would be in focus too)

I had to take 10 per row to get it to turn out, but with your 11-16 you would only have to take 6 per row or something and probably cover the whole sphere with maybe 12 or 13 shots. (And the marginal loss of resolution wouldn't matter... I don't stitch at full resolution)

[ibenick]

Very nice! That panosaurus looks like a must have.

[Ryebrye]

The panosaurus is pretty sweet. Although I modified mine as soon as I got it to use the same quick-release plate as my normal head. I used a manfrotto 323 RC2 (or maybe it was a 322 RC2) I had to use my dremel to scallop out a small part of the normal mounting plate.

With a quick release, I love the thing. Without one... I'd probably not be as enthusiastic. There are a lot nicer panoheads out there in the $300 to $600 range. I think the panosaurus is a perfect starter though. If you later upgrade you can sell it for $50 or so.

Yeah, it would be cool if we started getting cool panoramas of all the cool places people here go.

For stitching I've been using ptgui, but hugin is free and looks just as good. Its just got a slightly different workflow.

[accadacca]

Re-damn-diculous dood. :hail2thechief: