Creating a panosphere

Processing the photos part 4

In this series of web pages, I have documented the process which I currently use to create 360x180 degree panoramas and panospheres. This page explains how I create panospheres using Hugin and it is a process which is dependent upon already having successfully created a 360x180 degree equirectangular panorama, which I have explained in the previous pages. Hugin is free software, which can be obtained from this link.

Creating a panosphere

Once the 360x180 degree panorama has been finished, creating a panosphere or mini planet is fairly straightforward.

1. Save the Hugin project with a new name

If you had closed the project, then create a copy and then rename it before opening it in Hugin. Alternatively, use the Save As icon in Hugin to create a copy, which will then preserve your original Equirectangular panorama.

2. Project with a stereographic projection

Unfortunately, this is what Hugin first comes up with, in Panorama preview.

3. Adjust the centre and zoom

To create a mini planet, left click in the image close to where the tripod was standing. Alternatively click in the sky to form a tunnel or tube. The effect does not look promising at first, but one further step will sort that out.

Use the slider at the bottom of the window to change to zoom and fill the screen. After a bit more recentering, this is the final result.

This is the same image in this screenshot as in the previous two, all I have changed is what is at the centre of the image and the zoom level.

4. Crop in Fast Panorama preview

As I noted earlier, there are two previews available in Hugin. The previous three screenshots have been of the Panorama preview. This one is of the Fast Panorama preview and it is the view I use to crop the image.

The default size for a stereographic projection image can be enormous, with mostly blue sky. Without cropping, the batch processor can fail through lack of memory. The easiest way to crop the image is interactively in Fast Panorama preview, as shown in this screenshot, but leave enough blue sky all around the image to allow rotation in an image editor later.

5. Stitch

The process of stitching the panosphere is much the same as producing the panorama, just don't change the crop in the Stitch tab if you have already set it in Fast Panorama preview.

This image shows the final product of the stitching process. Click on it to view it in my Flickr photostream.

In the next page, I explain how I edit my panoramas in GIMP, publish images on Flickr and publish images on 360cities.