Newbie questions :s

[TehBulldog]

Hi guys,

I'm an amateur photographer and have been looking for a good pano solution - I came across FPP and have just purchased and had a play with it - and looks good.

I used the included 'nature' pictures to recreate the nature pano and it looks great and works perfect. But my questions is, do I need a wide angle lens so as to be able to fit the range of all f,l,r,b,u,d shots in?

I just tried this on my street but could not fit everything into view on the six required images.

Also - how does FPP know how to stitch them all together so well and is there a way to intervene?

Sorry for the newbieness of my questions, any help, advice or links would be really, really appreciated!

Cheers,
TehBulldog :)

[discocandy]

Hi tehbuldog.

first of all welcome!

what you found here is software to use equirectangular images or spherical images. that means that most of us take pictures as much that you can fill a whole sphere with it.
that is made into 6 cubic images. with specialized software.
If I am right you tried to put in loose images you took from all sides.
that will not work.:cool:
If you are interested in doing this kind of photography I suggest you take a look at Hugin (free) or ptgui (payware).
there you will find some tutorials on how to take these kind of images.

Regards.
freddy

[TehBulldog]

Hi tehbuldog.

first of all welcome!

what you found here is software to use equirectangular images or spherical images. that means that most of us take pictures as much that you can fill a whole sphere with it.
that is made into 6 cubic images. with specialized software.
If I am right you tried to put in loose images you took from all sides.
that will not work.:cool:
If you are interested in doing this kind of photography I suggest you take a look at Hugin (free) or ptgui (payware).
there you will find some tutorials on how to take these kind of images.

Regards.
freddy

Hey Freddy,

Many thanks for your message. Doh! I thought it was easier than that :???:

I've had a look at PTGUI before and it seemed kinda straightforward - and I am assuming I need to create 6 cubic images in this, and then feed them into FPP?

Also, do you know if it is possible to use FPP to make a panoramic which isn't 360 (i.e. up and down), but instead just panning from left to right in a full rotation? TBH this is all I really need to be able to do ATM, and think I can work out stitching consecutive images together for this more simple purpose.

Thanks again!

TehBulldog :D

[PauloGGPX]

Hi TehBulldog :)

yes FPP can be used with partial or cylindrical panoramas, you must use the cylConverter.swf plugin (you could also use the limits.swf plugin).

And about PTGui, yes it's pretty straightforward, but it can become quite a complex and powerful tool when needed.

So get your pano ready and if you need help with FPP just ask :)

[TehBulldog]

Hi TehBulldog :)

yes FPP can be used with partial or cylindrical panoramas, you must use the cylConvertes.swf plugin (you could also use the limits.swf plugin).

And about PTGui, yes it's pretty straightforward, but it can become quite a complex and powerful tool when needed.

So get your pano ready and if you need help with FPP just ask :)

Hey Paulo,

Thanks for your help!

Okay I'm inspired to take a 360 of a landscape which I'm going to do tomorrow if the winds aren't too bad here in the UK (not up and down only left to right, which I now understand is a partial panorama thanks!).

I've never really used Flash but will have a play and try and get the plugin working, and then let you know how I get on.

I assume there are of course a million ways of doing all of this, but it would be great to have a start-to-finish tutorial of taking images to feeding them into FPP -for a simple/beginners Flash Panorama.

Cheers Paulo!

[PauloGGPX]

you won't be messing about with flash (at least for now) all you need to do is create a XML (it's like a simple text file, very similar to html) to tell FPP what to do and what to load.

I will give you a advice, don't worry about FPP for now, concentrate in making your landscape/panorama picture (it can be a bit hard and frustrating at first, but the end results are well worth it), after your image's ready you can concentrate on FPP, it's not hard, but it can be a bit tricky :P

here's some more generic panorama making tips (sorry if already know this):

- turn off autofocus, auto-exposure ,auto-white balance and don't change zoom level between shots
- if possible put your camera in portrait position (sideways)
- avoid close objects (unless you have a panoramic tripod head, and have found the nodal point of your lens)
- use a tripod and keep it level...

Good luck, and don't forget to show us your results :)

PS: almost forgot, Welcome to the forums ;)

[TehBulldog]

you won't be messing about with flash (at least for now) all you need to do is create a XML (it's like a simple text file, very similar to html) to tell FPP what to do and what to load.

I will give you a advice, don't worry about FPP for now, concentrate in making your landscape/panorama picture (it can be a bit hard and frustrating at first, but the end results are well worth it), after your image's ready you can concentrate on FPP, it's not hard, but it can be a bit tricky :P

here's some more generic panorama making tips (sorry if already know this):

- turn off autofocus, auto-exposure ,auto-white balance and don't change zoom level between shots
- if possible put your camera in portrait position (sideways)
- avoid close objects (unless you have a panoramic tripod head, and have found the nodal point of your lens)
- use a tripod and keep it level...

Good luck, and don't forget to show us your results :)

PS: almost forgot, Welcome to the forums ;)

Hey thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.

Sadly didn't get chance to head out today but hope to do so soon...

Thanks for the advice about not playing with FPP yet.

And also thanks for the panoramic making tips - I didn't know these and so they're very, very welcome, and I hope to have a stitched landscape done soon :)

Have a good rest of the weekend!

[TehBulldog]

Hi guys,

Had a read around but can't figure this out. I have what I think is called a partial pano; a single jpg pano image from left to right, no up or down. PTGUI has stitched it together nicely but I am trying to work out how to load it into FPP.

I understand I need to use cylConcerter but have never really used flash and can't code. Tried putting cylConcerter.swf and pano.swf and pano.jpg in a folder together but no luck... so assuming this is wrong!!!

Thanks in advance :p

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

To get yourself started in an easy and painless way (if you are on a PC) you should download the flashificator free version (in my signature link) download and install the latest BETA version of AIR from Adobe (the free version was develloped with the beta version, and won't work with the recently released full version... yet).

Armed with Flashificator, you will be able to make your cylindrical pano in less than 5 seconds.