Hello, I have been up pondering this question all night!  I lost a job this past summer to do a series of panoramas at a 5-Star hotel in Budapest Hungary.  Now I know why.  Take a look at this homepage - http://www.corinthiahotels.com/ipix/roy/index.htm  Spend a few moments looking at some panoramas.  First, notice the clarity of the images.  Secondly,. notice the stiching of the images, particulary on the ceiling and floors where there are very intricate patterns and designs.   Thirdly, in the various shots, look at the windows, showing the outside scenes perfectly, with no wash out.  I'll be damn if I can't figure out how they did this so well.  Can you? 

Hello,

I did take a look and some of these panoramas are very well done. Others not so good. The floor and ceilings you point out I can see some stitching errors but all in all are very nice.

Your question on how is this done? Well the answer can vary.

1) You can take an up and down shot to accurately patch the Zenith and Nadir. (There are many ways to do this)

2) Using the "Clone" tool and "Healing" tool in Photoshop 7.0 or CS can help produce these results.

Some of the shots shown would have taken quite some time to get right, while others you can see little time has been put into them.

The lighting composition is also very well done in the one's I looked at. Typically by taking your photo's a little underexposed is best for these results and then by using "curves" in Photoshop bring the image to life. (This also helps with window "blow out")

I hope this has gone some way into answering your questions.

By asking questions and practise is always the best way to learn!

Regards, Smooth

Thanks Smooth, I was thinking you'd come through for me.  I assume the Zenith and Nadir are the floor and ceiling, yes?  You reference there are many ways to do this, are there any tutorials you know of for doing this?  If I use a fish-eye to shoot the panoramas, do I also use the same lens to shot the Zenith and Nadir?  As for the lighting, I always get confused between aperature and exposure.  If you can point me to any tutorials for this also, I'd be obliged.  Thanks so much. 

Tom

Hello Tom,

I'm not sure that I know of any tutorials on these subjects? Though I'm sure they exist! A search on www.google.com may yeild some results.

What lens for the Zenith and Nadir? Well technically you could use a standard or fisheye. I would recommend using the same fisheye lens as this would cut down on time changing the lens and also "shifting light" again there are many techniques for this procedure. Converting to a "Cubed" image first will result in an easier situation for patching. Though this produces a 'Flattened' image and so you will need to flatten your Zenith & Nadir shots as well. This can be done in Panotools Photoshop Filter Plug-in or by using Paint Shop Pro 8's remapping option.

I'm slowly working on a small addition to my website that will offer my tips and advise (tutorials & reviews) on my experiences with certain products including hardware, software and the use of such.

You are right in assuming that Zenith & Nadir are Floor and Ceiling portions of a panorama image.

As for your aperture and exposure quote.

The simple answer is Aperture is how much light is allowed in to the camera's focal plane and Exposure is how long light (time) is allowed into the camera's focal plane.

Hope this helps, Smooth

Yes, Smooth's definitions are correct. 

The aperture is the lens multi leaf opening diaphragm which controls the amount of light passing through the glass optics.  The diaphragm diameter is expressed in F-Stops like f1.4, f2.8 f11 and f16.  These f-numbers are not arbitrary; they are based on the ratio between the diameter of the arperture opening and the focal length of the lens.  In simple terms, focal length is the distance from the front of the lens to the ccd recording chip (film plane).

Exposure is the length of time the lens aperture is open to produce the desired exposure on the ccd recording chip [film camera plane], usually expressed in parts of a second 1/30th, 1/60th, 135th etc.

I don't keep these facts in my head.  The definitions are quoted from my reference book "The Joy of Photography" by Eastman Kodak company. Third edition [page 80 Cameras, A Camera's Lens]

Hope this helps

Dave

Ok, I sent a nice letter to them as if I was an admiring fan, here is their reply:

Dear Thomas,
Thank you very much for letter, we are pleased that you liked our work. At the moment, we dont have any vacancies in connection with web design, but we might let you know in the future if we do.
About the technical issue: it requires about 10-15 pictures to create a high detailed full spherical panorama, mainly depending on the lightning conditions.

Ok.. I too looked at the site.  Very Nice - well done project.  Here is what I learned.

It appears that the mouse overs are all done in a104kb Flash .swf.  When clicked it produces a new smaller popup page with 2 flavors of panoramas.  1 default for dialup.  1 'full screen' larger one 'lobby' that is 353kb... hence the higher quality and more detail.  Both panoramas are driven using a 34kb version of PtViewer.jar, even though they are pathed to an ipix folder.  Meaning while the pano's may reside in an ipix folder, they are none the less .jpgs and use ptviewer.

Can we do this ??  Most certainly.  In fact you probably can use Flash's smaller older brother SWISH 2  or newest SwishMax ($60).. which generates similar output .swf effect files that operate the same way as Micromedia's Flash.

Dave