360 Panoramas
Below some (not all) 360 panoramas from various trips are linked.
All our 360 panoramas - pre July 2026 - are made with a Canon 8-15mm fisheye @8mm, positioned at the
no-parallax point
(as best as we can) on a RRS base and tripod. Most panos
are made from HDR images (5 shots from -2 to +2, mostly through SNS-HDR), 4 in the round to assure
sufficient overlap, so 20 pics in all. Everything is shot in RAW and then
processed through DXO PureRaw (probably a bit overkill for this purpose, but
we like the results) before being stitched with PTGUI.
Zenith and Nadir are
then processed with Pano2VR (extraction) and Photoshop (filling the holes),
before the pano is returned to Lightroom for final processing. PTGUI then
exports the pano to a web format and we use JPEGminiPro to reduce the size
of the resulting JPGs even further.
We have been working with the same basic
setup for years now, but the software and the camera sensors have
made significant progress since then
As from July 2026, we use the new Canon 7-14mm fisheye.The other
pano's are from various other picturesque (or so we thought) places
we stayed.
-
A a special mention of Stargazers -
www.stargazersbb.com -
where hosts Alastair and Harriette Brickell run a wonderful bed
& breakfast and provide very enjoyable and informative astronomy
tours at their private observatory.
The night
pano is - inevitably - a bit noisy, and with exposure times around 1
minute for each shot, the
stars are a bit blurry. The shot has only been possible because of
the clarity of the nightskies over NZ, which we had never seen to
such a degree in W-Europe. It allows for spectacular "gazing" at
Stargazers. Warmly recommended.
-
In October 2025, the Schagen Photoclub
visted the province of Friesland, with its many picturesque
villages and the old "Woudagemaal", a steam-driven pumping
station that was built in 1920 and is still active (if needed).
It is now also a Unesco world heritage site and open for guided
tours when not in action. It is an ideal site for some 360
panos; the
Boilerhouse,
the
Main Hall
and the
Outside
(backside).
-
In August 2025, the Schagen photoclub
visited 2 old windmills: "De Onderneming" in Hippolytushoef and
"De Hoop" " in Den Oever. Pano's can be seen
HERE (Mill De Onderneming) and
HERE
(Mill De Hoop, ground floor),
HERE (De Hoop, first floor),
HERE (De Hoop, second floor) and
HERE (De Hoop, third floor). Some other
pics
HERE.
Sites that link (or have linked) to our 360s
In some cases the owners of the places
where we made our 360s ave put links to our panos on their websites (you are
very welcome) and they are listed below.. We still like the Stargazers NZ panos (2014), but it is
clear that noise reduction has
also advanced spectacularly in the intervening years,
especially of course for the night pano (we would love to go back to
Stargazers and update the panos, but NZ is a long way from NL).
What's next?
Tthere
are continuous updates of the various software applications we use.
A motorized 360 head is under consideration (don't hold your
breath).