A Miniature World

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A few months ago one of the photo magazines I subscribe to printed an article on how to produce 'planet' panoramics.  The idea is to produce a 360 degree panoramic image and turn it on itself to produce a round image that looks like a mini planet.

Bahrain International Circuit

It doesn't work with all subjects and it has to be a strong image to work properly so I decided to try this technique at the final three circuits of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship - Bahrain, Fuji and Shanghai.

The ones in Bahrain and Fuji worked well because I was using a D700 with a 17-35 f2.8 set at 17mm.  The one in Shanghai was taken on my Fuji X100 using the 35mm (equivalent) lens, which really wasn't wide enough.

The technique is fairly easy -

  • Take overlapping images in a 360 degree rotation.  It is easier on a level tripod but it can be achieved handheld with a little patience.  The problem comes when you join the ends, they have to match at the join.
  • Stitch the 19 or so images into a long panoramic image.  Crop the ends so when the image is turned into a 360 degree image the ends match.
  • Invert the image so it is upside down
  • Resize the image so it is square (ie make the height of the image the same as the length.
  • Using the 'Polar Coordinates' filter in Photoshop (and Elements) turn the image into a 'Planet'.
  • Remember to flip the image horizontally as the resulting picture from the Polar Corordinates filter is back to front.
This technique produces a Planet Panoramic like this one - 

Fuji International Speedway
Shanghai International Circuit
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