Panos

[aerialimagery]

I've seen some and they are interesting. I've never done one. What purpose do they serve and what type of customer uses them?

 

[FatherXmas]

I've provided a few to a local realtor. There's a neighborhood here on top the mountain with a killer view of the valley below and a pano from above the house is awesome.

 

[R.Perry]

The client I have prefers panos, they are perfect for very large construction sites for one. They allow your client to see and inspect a very large area without moving from photo to photo, or watching a video they can't control. The job site I'm on I have 14 panos set up that I do each week. I do elevations and progressions as well and I honestly don't think they even look at them.
I shoot my panos from 200 feet AGL, mine are set up to shoot 34 photos on each pano giving my client a beautiful panoramic view.
Contact Multivista and see if they have some pano demos they will share with you. I use Litchi for the panos.

 

[aerialimagery]

Thanks for the responses.

I've never used Litchi, but I imagine everything is automated and you just plot the coordinates and Litchi does the rest? How long does it take to do the processing? Do panos need to be hosted on a server or can the local computer handle it? Is there special software that needs to be purchased or monthly fees?

 

[SanCap]

Thanks for the responses.

I've never used Litchi, but I imagine everything is automated and you just plot the coordinates and Litchi does the rest? How long does it take to do the processing? Do panos need to be hosted on a server or can the local computer handle it? Is there special software that needs to be purchased or monthly fees?

I take all my panos manually, it really doesn't take a lot of extra time and maybe be faster in some cases. I can do a basic pano in an hour and a half. Adding hot links and can obviously take longer. I host mine on the Amazon S3 server which creates and hosts a url. For software I use PtGui, Kolor Pano Tour Pro and AutoPano Pro, these are paid for programs. This one was used to sell a few lots in a newer development.

Tarpon Estates | Virtual tour generated by SanCap Aerial

 

[R.Perry]

The client I have prefers panos, they are perfect for very large construction sites for one. They allow your client to see and inspect a very large area without moving from photo to photo, or watching a video they can't control. The job site I'm on I have 14 panos set up that I do each week. I do elevations and progressions as well and I honestly don't think they even look at them.
I shoot my panos from 200 feet AGL, mine are set up to shoot 34 photos on each pano giving my client a beautiful panoramic view.
Contact Multivista and see if they have some pano demos they will share with you. I use Litchi for the panos.

You can stitch your own panos and there are several very good programs out there that are inexpensive and a few are free. All our photos are placed on a server so our clients can view them, we have over eighty people that review our work so it must be on a server available to them.

As for Litchi, it is a good tool, I can have it fly to the exact pano location each time and then perform the panos. You can set the number of photos for any given pano and your camera angle on each set of photos. I shoot 34 photos on each pano.

Try it out and have fun with it, and good luck.

 

[Ryan Fox]

Hugin is powerful. It's got a scripting interface for automating the process if you need to run batch jobs or process without human intervention.

 

[Kristina Fowler]

For software I use PtGui, Kolor Pano Tour Pro and AutoPano Pro, these are paid for programs.

SanCap - how do you get the navigation controls (tilt/pan) to reverse field and go the other way (Like the Tarpon Estates project)? I have PtGui and find it frustrating that the controls are "reversed" from most other viewers I've seen. Counterintuitive. Despite some rather spirited emails between the PtGui developer and myself, they refuse to add the option to reverse the control ergonomics. I'm in the U.S. and it's like driving on the left side of the road. Is there some secret html code I can add to the viewing webpage to reverse the navigation?? Thanks in advance... KF

 

[SanCap]

SanCap - how do you get the navigation controls (tilt/pan) to reverse field and go the other way (Like the Tarpon Estates project)? I have PtGui and find it frustrating that the controls are "reversed" from most other viewers I've seen. Counterintuitive. Despite some rather spirited emails between the PtGui developer and myself, they refuse to add the option to reverse the control ergonomics. I'm in the U.S. and it's like driving on the left side of the road. Is there some secret html code I can add to the viewing webpage to reverse the navigation?? Thanks in advance... KF

I never thought about that, I only stitch the pano in PTGui or AutoPano. I build the pano in Panotour Pro and that is the default setting. Sorry I can not be of more help.

 

[Roger A. Ford]

You can also stitch the pano with Microsoft's free ICE program (Image Composite Editor) Some of the features have been discontinued, but the basic stitching options work great.
Image Composite Editor - Microsoft Research

 

[Meta4]

You can also stitch the pano with Microsoft's free ICE program (Image Composite Editor) Some of the features have been discontinued, but the basic stitching options work great.

ICE hasn't been updated for a long time but I haven't found any functions that don't work properly.

 

[GadgetGuy]

ICE hasn't been updated for a long time but I haven't found any functions that don't work properly.

If I remember correctly, MS originally supported ICE with an iPad app, which they have since been removed from the App Store. That unfortunately limits its use away from a desktop. Still a cool program, though!