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How to shoot fisheye photos for creating panorama?

Fisheye lenses that can be used for taking fisheye photos

The following fisheye lenses are mostly used on digital SLR cameras to take fisheye images, click on each image to see its compatible cameras.

Sigma 8mm F3.5(or F4) EX DG Circular Fisheye	Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX Diagonal Fisheye Autofocus Lens	Canon Fisheye EF 15mm f/2.8 Autofocus Lens	AF DX Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED

Fisheye photo taken by Canon EOS 10D with Sigma 8mm fisheye lens:

There are also fisheye converters for Nikon Coolpix series to get full circular fisheye photos.
Nikon Fisheye Converter FC-E8
Nikon Fisheye Converter FC-E9

Full circular fisheye photos taken by Nikon Coolpix 5000 with FC-E9:

It is easy to shoot fisheye photos for creating panorama with panorama software Panoweaver. Follow the steps below, and you are able to create your own panorama with Panoweaver easily and fast.

In order to stitch panorama with Panoweaver, you need digital camera, fisheye lens, pano head and tripod. Refer to Panoweaver 6.00 compatible equipment.

Pano Head:

Pano Head is also called tripod panoramic head, or rotator. To understand the function of pano head, "nodal point" should be explained first. The nodal point is a special point in space, where light entering the lens converges into a point and then diverges to impact on the recording medium. As one rotates a camera and shoots a sequence of photos to later be stitched together, all of the photos must be shot with the camera rotating about its nodal point! The pano head is just used for this purpose.

How many fisheye photos should I take?

You can take 2-8 fisheye photos for stitching a panorama with Panoweaver. Photo types supported by Panoweaver 6.00 are:

	2 circular fisheye photos
	3 circular fisheye photos
	4 drum (+ zenith + nadir) fisheye photos
	4 or 6 full frame (+ zenith + nadir) fisheye photos
	6 photos by wide-angle zoom lens
	6 cube face image

How should I shoot the fisheye photos?

Before shooting your first fisheye image, please adjust your camera.

1. Shoot the first fisheye photo
Place the point of interest in the center of the viewfinder then half press the shutter to focus.

2. Shoot the other consecutive fisheye photo
To guarantee the tripod stableness, hold it with one hand. Turn the pano head gently with the other hand. Rotate appropriate degrees and take the photos around 360 degree.
Note: It is suggested the photos be shot clockwise, otherwise, you may have to reverse the sequence when loading photos in Panoweaver.

3. Shoot top/bottom fisheye photo (optional)
When shoot top and bottom fisheye images, please rotate pano head up and down to take pictures of the zenith and nadir. For example, you can shoot this way with Sigma 8mm lens and Nikon D200 to get 4 + top + bottom fisheye photos.

shoot fisheye images for creating panorama

4. Shooting another scene
After shooting a scene, cover the fisheye lens cap. Move all the equipment to the other scene you want to shoot.
Note: Turn the “AE Lock Off” otherwise the shutter speed and aperture are locked. The shooting procedure is the same as stated above.

5. Import the photos to the computer
After Finishing, import the fisheye photos to computer through DC or card reader. If the original image has much noise or are not sharp enough, it can be retouched in any image editing application such as Photoshop, Fireworks etc.

How to stitch fisheye photos to panoramas? | How to create a virtual tour?