Many of you have by now seen my lobster bake photo in the Mary Day 2010 calendar. Pretty wild, huh?
And I’ve gotten a couple of “HOW did you do that?” questions. So I might as well answer all at once.
I wish I could tell you it’s my idea, completely original, etc. Not so much. I found this technique on the internet. Here’s a good roundup of how it’s done: http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/create-your-own-panorama-planets/
Fairly simple:
1. Make a panoramic series. In this case, I stood on a rock with a good 360-degree view, with the schooner, the lobster bake and the beginning of sunset. I then took about a dozen pictures, turning a few degrees each time and making sure I overlapped enough. (I hesitate to publicly name a private island but I’ll tell you it’s near Bucks Harbor. If you know the area, you can likely figure it out.)
2. Turn the series into a panorama I use Photoshop’s “autostitch” function to automatically (if slowly) create the panorama. All I have to do afterwards is a bit of cropping and cleanup.
3. Turn image 180 degrees This ensures that the ground will be at the center and the sky will be at the edges. You can do it the opposite by not turning the image before doing the next step.
4. Apply the Filter In Photoshop: Filter: Distort: Polar Coordinates.
And Bob’s your uncle.
Obviously, this requires a little planning and it won’t work for every picture. But it’s a nice tool to have ready for when it fits.
Enjoy, Jim Dugan
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