Out behind the bus shop in the middle of the night — by Joe Reifer
This full moon 360º night panorama includes light painting on two of the classic buses. I was able to find a camera position where there was no overlap between shots on the buses I planned to light paint. I knew the lighting on the bus inside the garage would be more tricky, so I did one take without lighting, and then 2 versions with light painting before rotating the camera around to make the rest of the shots. I also did a practice shot to make sure I could nail the light painting on the back of the bus on the trailer.
Shooting 360s at Night: Noise and ISO
The pano is composed of 4 shots around with a Canon 8-15mm f/4L fisheye at 8mm on a Canon EOS 60D. I also made a 5th shot to patch the ground (the “nadir” in panospeak). Each exposure was 90 seconds at f/8, ISO 800. Balancing the exposure time and ISO is important when shooting 360s at night. If the exposure times are too long, the stars may not line up well. By testing different exposure times and ISOs, I’ve found that I can usually shoot up to 90 seconds at ISO 800 without an objectionable amount of noise. This particular night was pushing the limits because there is more noise in long exposures when it’s hot outside — and it was about 70º at midnight when I made this pano!
Light Painting a 360 Pano
I used a Streamlight Stinger flashlight for the light painting on both buses. There was already moonlight on part of the bus in the garage. I went inside behind the blue wall (between the buses) and lit the front window and top of the bus. Then I walked back outside and lit the side of the bus at a shallow angle. The blend of moonlight and light painting was optimized using a layer mask in Photoshop before stitching the pano in PTGui Pro.
The bus on the back of the trailer was lit from over by the left corner of the blue building. The test shot looked a little bit too flat, so I chose a more shallow angle to show contrast and detail. If you zoom in on the bus, you’ll see a little kiss of moonlight on the top left corner. I love it when a light painting plan comes together.
Viewing the Pano on an iPad or iPhone
If you’re viewing the pano in a web browser, you’ll see the Flash version. If you have an iPad or iPhone, you’ll see at HTML5 version, and you can use your finger to move around inside the 360, and pinch to zoom. Unfortunately, the panopress plugin for WordPress does not show the navigation on the HTML version or allow gyroscope control.
If you’re on an iPad or iPhone, here’s a direct link to the HTML version of the pano that takes advantage of the gyroscope functionality. Hold your iPad or iPhone up and spin in a circle to move around in the panorama. It’s the next best thing to being there, and you won’t get any mosquito bites. Enjoy — and don’t get too dizzy!
A 360º full moon night panorama shows a collection of classic motorcoaches awaiting restoration in Northern California. Cars and trucks speed by on Highway 5 in the background.
This full moon 360º night panorama is composed of 4 shots around with a Canon 8-15mm f/4L fisheye lens at 8mm on a Canon EOS 60D. I used a Really Right Stuff PG-02 Pro Omni-Pivot tripod head on a Gitzo 3541XLS tripod. Three shots were taken at each camera position, and blended with Exposure Fusion in PTGui Pro. Hours of testing and calibration of the pano head paid off, as I achieved the elusive PTGui rating of too good to be true when I stitched the pano. Not bad for an image that was made at 3:12 a.m.! Many thanks to the owner of this facility for kindly allowing some full moon freaks to photograph in his wonderful yard.
This bird’s eye view of my backyard was shot at a camera height of 10 feet. The elevated perspective is a lot of fun — especially when you look straight down!
I’ve recently been experimenting with shooting 360º panoramas with the camera mounted on a 9 foot Nodal Ninja carbon fiber pole. I already had a Nodal Ninja R1 panohead and D4 rotator. I mounted the R1 on top of the pole with an adapter, and screwed the D4 rotator into the bottom. A footplate was mounted under the rotator for stability, and a bubble level was clamped mid-way up the pole to keep things level.
The entire pole setup weighs under 3 pounds, and collapses down to 3 feet for traveling. Everything works quite smoothly — my only nitpick is that the footplate must be removed to put the pole in the case. The pole came with a wireless remote to fire the camera, but at 9 feet, a standard cable release dangles down to a convenient height to fire manually.
Once I got the pole and accessories assembled, I needed to get the lens and panohead settings dialed in. I’ve been shooting panos with my backup Canon EOS 60D camera. I mounted the Canon 8-15mm f/4L fisheye lens, and spent some time experimenting with the optimum focus settings using live view at 10x magnification. Once the depth of field was optimized at f/8, I taped the focus ring down, and mounted the Nodal Ninja lens ring. Next I experimented with shooting at different tilt settings on the R1 head:
The resulting panorama is 10,700 x 5350 pixels, which is a nice balance between resolution and ease of shooting/stitching. I got some great tips on shooting pole panos from Wim Koornneef, and adapted the technique for removing the nadir shadow from Dennis Stover. Shooting 360 panoramas can be complex — I’m really thankful there are some expert panorama photographers out there who are willing to share their techniques. I hope these pole panorama experiments are helpful for anyone who wants to give pole panos a try. I’m looking forward to using this setup at some more scintillating locations!