Landscape VR Pano: Cliffside colors in Algonquin Park

Here is an (Interactive, Flash 9 VRpano) shot from a cliff in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Yes, I shot it on World Pentaxium Day, but since it is a Flash file, it doesn't really compute.

Click-and-drag to look around the pano:
http://www.mab3d.com/QTVR/algonquin.html

Here is a preview image to convince you to click:


BTW, I had a heart-attack moment on that cliff edge. I finished shooting my panorama and turned around to put away the cable-release, when I kicked the leg of the tripod and the entire bag of tricks (K20D & 10-17fisheye, on a NodalNinja panohead and my CF tripod) started to go over the edge! About 500 ft down, but I caught it by the upraised tripod leg.

Might've been my *last* pano of the season... but it wasn't! (No K-7 for me.)

[Heinrich Lohmann]

Very nice flash conversion, how many images in the original pano? Thanks for showing us,

[panoguy]

Originally Posted by Heinrich Lohmann

Very nice flash conversion, how many images in the original pano?

Thanks, Heinrich. The full pano is made from 7 images, all at 10mm. Using an indexed panohead makes it pretty easy (but also a bit less stable).

[skinja]

Very cool, now I need the readers digest version of how this all works, what program did you use? can the average do this? Are you a flash programmer disguising yourself as a pentaxian?

I really like what you did and if you don't mind sharing, I would like to know how.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John

[vizjerei]

I thought they say it is 90-100% when I went to Arrowhead and all i see is orange and green but I was expecting Algonquin should be red...

[Ash]

Cool result and web-based viewing feature.
Looked like you were at the cliff's edge taking these shots.

[panoguy]

Originally Posted by vizjerei

I thought they say it is 90-100% when I went to Arrowhead and all i see is orange and green but I was expecting Algonquin should be red...

Actually, it was a bit past the peak and the sugar maples had shed their leaves. Can't remember what the yellow-leafed trees are... Had a great time taking lots of (unbelievably saturated) foliage around the park, but waking up in a tent covered in ice wasn't exactly pleasant.

Originally Posted by Ash

Cool result and web-based viewing feature.
Looked like you were at the cliff's edge taking these shots.

Yep, and almost kicked my entire photo-kit over the edge. I'm also a rock climber, so heights don't bother me, but losing my gear would.

[panoguy]

Originally Posted by skinja

Very cool, now I need the readers digest version of how this all works, what program did you use? can the average do this? Are you a flash programmer disguising yourself as a pentaxian?

I really like what you did and if you don't mind sharing, I would like to know how.

Hi John,

This is how I do it, but there is lots of different software and hardware to get the same results. My method is just the fastest for me when I'm shooting (about 3 minutes) and then when I'm post-processing (about 30 minutes). I typically shoot 10-20 panos like this on a weekend camping trip, and only 3-5 are interesting to me.

Reader's digest photography part:
- Pentax K20D with a 10-17mm fisheye, set on 10mm, MF at Infinity.
- All mounted to a NodalNinja 5 panohead (it holds the camera in portrait orientation and spins it around the "nodal point" of the lens) on my trusty Feisol tripod.
- 6 shots in a circle (every 60 degrees), plus one straight up. Again, the panohead makes this easy, but it could also be done handheld.
- All settings on M, shot in raw with WB set consistently later on.

Reader's digest post-processing part:
- Raw files converted to TIFFs in ACR with constant settings
- Those files loaded into Autodesk Stitcher 2009 (I'm a loyal company man, but Hugin does the same thing for free...)
- Press "Autostitch" then "Autolevel" then "Render as 6k x 3k TIFF"
- Take resulting panoramic image, check colors and contrast and seams (hate that lensflare!)
- Open stitched pano image in Pano2VR, set "Flash 9 output" and settings.
- Upload results to webpage.

Link to it from here.