360x180 stitching

[Mikeybikey1966]

Ok I'm a bit confused.

I take panoramic photographs which usually consist of 5 or 6 images that I stitch together to produce your standard wide format image.
Some weeks ago I stumbled upon a photographer who had some hard copy prints that looked like they were covering a full 360 degree rotation yet they had been printed as a "flat" panoramic image. I love this look but do not know how to reproduce it.
I think I have all the ingredients, Canon 5D2, 15mm fisheye, Hugin stitching software, time on my hands. But I am having trouble nailing down the workflow.
I think I understand the "taking the images" part.... a full 360 set of images with the camera in a portrait orientation. It's the Hugin software workflow that is confusing me. Most of the tutorials I have found don't seem to cover using a full frame camera using a full frame fisheye.
Can anyone please offer a workflow or point me to a well written tutorial.
Thank you
Mike

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Mike,

Have you seen the three here at CiC?

Photo Stitching Digital Panoramas, Part 1: Overview & Capture

Photo Stitching Digital Panoramas, Part 2: Using Stitching Software

Photo Stitching Digital Panoramas: Image Projections

I don't do panoramas, but I have to say I don't understand why the format (FF vs crop) makes a difference - but I suspect I'll learn that soon enough

Good luck with the quest,

[inkista]

I resurrect to answer a question that's probably been answered long ago.

Mike, you don't do much different in Hugin for an equirectangular than you do for a regular pano. You need to specify that you're using a fisheye lens, and you might have to manually edit a few control points, but the only other real difference is that you say you want an equirectangular mapping, not a rectilinear or cylindrical one as your output.

Dave: the big deal with full frame vs. crop-body is that the field of view changes with the format, and FoV of the individual shots determines how many shots you need to cover the scene. With a 15mm diagonal fisheye lens on a full-frame camera, you could squeak by with four portrait shots in yaw rotation, but you'd be safer with 6 or 8, and you either need to tilt the camera while rotating and take one of the zenith or nadir shots, or hold the camera level and do both, if you want polar coverage. I know this, because I'm using a 7.5 diagonal fisheye on a micro four-thirds camera.