Cathedral of St. Paul

I took the following 360 degree spherical panoramic image of the Cathedral of St. Paul recently. It was created by taking 179 images. Each view consisted of 3 images (at 2 stop intervals). 19 different views were taken to complete a 360 degree circle at true vertical followed by 18 views each taken at a 45 degree high angle and a 45 degree low angle. One view was taken of the ceiling to form the zenith of the image and one was taken of the nadir to form the bottom of the image.

I used my Canon 5D MII camera with a 16-35/f2.8 zoom on a Bogen/Manfrotto tripod with a Nodal Ninja panoramic tripod head. The 3 exposures were at ISO 400, f/11 with the first exposure at 2.5 seconds, the second at .6 seconds, and the third at 10 seconds.

Each set of 3 images was processed as an HDR (High Dynamic Range Image) using Photomatix Pro® and optimized in Adobe Photoshop®. The panoramic was created in Autodesk Stitcher Pro® as a cubic QTVR (Quicktime movie) and coded to the net using freevideocoding.

Viewing this image: when the image first appears, it will look like a blurry grey mess. Depending on the speed of your computer it may take anywhere from a few moments to 30 seconds or more to render on the screen. As you use your cursor to move around the church, you may encounter sections which are still black and white and blurry. Wait a bit or move back and forth and this area will render to full color. You can use the zoom controls to zoom in and out.



FreeVideoCoding.com


The panoramic is now on display at the Cathedral's web site:

Cathedral of St. Paul

Comments from Yahoo HDR User Group:
"That is remarkable... and a lot of time to process...thanks for sharing the link."
"Wow - this is an incredible piece of work. The best thing I've seen yet."
"Very impressive, clever and imaginative. Thank you for sharing."


For more information,

www.stevesilvermanimaging.com

4445 W. 77th St. #130
Edina, MN 55435
952-844-0119 c952-905-1197
steve@stevesilvermanimaging.com