What Is Panoramic Photography?

If you are a host to a get together of say, old friends (in large number), then you would want to have a single photograph in which all of them would appear. Using normal photography, you can achieve this but the end result won’t be satisfying (recognition becomes a problem). Here’s where panoramic photography comes in handy.

Panoramic photography is defined as

“Panoramic photography is a style of photography that aims to create images with exceptionally wide fields of view, but has also come to refer to any photograph that is cropped to a relatively wide aspect ratio”-Wikipedia

An image is considered as panoramic if it captures a field of view comparable to, or greater as, that of the human eye - about 160° by 75° - and should do so while maintaining detail across the entire picture. Thus we can capture the complete panorama, using this technology. Thus the name panoramic photography.

History:

Panoramic photography has been there since the invention of photography. Initially two to a dozen photographs were taken and place together to get a panoramic photograph. One of the most famous early panoramic photographers was George Barnard. He took many panoramic photographs of the fortifications and terrains during the American Civil war in 1860’s.Here’s an early panoramic photograph of the view from the top of Lookout Mountain, February, 1864.. Photograph taken by George N Barnard.

The invention of the flexible film came as a boon to panoramic photography. It was originally designed by Hannibal Goodwin which was later brought into mass production by Eastman Kodak Company. This was followed by the emergence of numerous panoramic cameras like Cylindrograph, Cyclograph, Cycloramic, Wonder Panoramic, Pantascopic, Multiscope, Cyclorama, Panomax, Veriwide, Wiscawide, Ultrawide, Cyclo-Pan, Fuji 617, Art Panorama 624 and 617, Tomiyama 617, Noblex 617, Roundshot 35mm & 70mm, Widelux, Technorama, Hulcherama, Tecnorama, Globoscope, Al-Vista, Cyclops Wide-Eye [1], the I-Pan, V-Pan, Hasselblad X-Pan, and Z-pan to name a few. Here are some of early panoramic photographs.

Panoramic Methods:

Short rotation (or SWING-LENS):

“Short rotation is a term used to define cameras that have a lens that rotates around the camera's rear nodal point (the optical point from which the focal length is measured) opposite a curved film plane.[1] As the photograph is taken, the lens pivots around its nodal point while, at the same time, a slit exposes the vertical strip of film that is aligned with the axis of the lens.”-Wikipedia.

Full rotation:

“Rotating panoramic cameras (also referred to as slit scan or scanning cameras) are cameras that are similar to the swing-lens (or short rotation) cameras, but are capable of 360° of rotation or more, because the whole camera rotates, not just the lens.”-Wikipedia.

Fixed lens:

“Fixed lens cameras (also known as flat back and wide view or "wide field") are essentially panoramic cameras that have fixed, stationary lenses and a flat film plane - as opposed to the rotating lenses and curved film planes of short rotation panoramic cameras. These are the most common form of panoramic camera and range from relatively poor quality and inexpensive APS cameras, right up to the professional 6x17 and 6x24cm medium format variety.”-Wikipedia.

Segmented:

“Segmented panoramas, also referred to as stitched panoramas, are made by joining multiple conventional photographs with slightly overlapping fields of view so as to create a larger, panoramic image once assembled.”-Wikipedia.

Today:

The evolution of panoramic photography has been massive with the development of new technologies in the field of photography. Here are some of the recent panoramic photographs. You browser must have Quicktime plugin to view the content in the following links. To install the plugin click here.

Grand Place Belgium

Big Wheel Manchetser

Paris

Birmingham

For more go to

http://scotthaefner.com

http://www.360spin.co.uk

http://www.panoramas.dk/

Now a days panoramic photography is used in game development, marketing and many other fields. It has also become a hot carrier option. Well that's it from me.If you have any other answers or any other resources other than, the above resources feel free to mail at writewithmeblog@gmail.com . Comments and criticisms are taken positively. Remember, help yourself and help me. This Harravi signing off.