Apple QuickTime VR - Manual (Page 82)

Indoor photography
It can be difficult to ensure consistent lighting effects for indoor photography, especially
when there are windows in the scene. You should take meter readings, shoot test shots, and
experiment with lighting before you shoot the final scene. Using additional lights to
illuminate and accent an interior scene gives you more control and provides higher-quality
results. However, adding lights generally is costlier and more time-consuming.
Outdoor photography
Lens flare can result from direct sunlight or bright lights at night, and it’s more likely to
occur with a wide-angle lens. To avoid lens flare, mask the lens from the sunlight by placing
the tripod in a shaded area, shielding the lens from direct light, or shooting when there
are clouds.
Choosing a lens
The length of the lens used to capture a panoramic image affects the user’s ability to pan
up and down in the resulting QuickTime VR panorama, as well as the detail of distant objects
when zooming in. Using a wide-angle lens to capture a scene provides the user with the
greatest zoom and vertical panning range.
A 14mm or 15mm lens provides the best overall view for many types of scenes, but these are
expensive and prone to lens flare. An 18mm lens may be a better choice, giving the user a
better view of objects farther off in the distance. For outdoor photography, a 24mm or 28mm
lens gives better resolution to small objects or points of interest near the horizon in the
resulting QTVR panorama. These lenses are also usually less expensive.
Determining the number of images
The number of shots depends on your lens size, orientation (portrait or landscape), and the
amount of overlap between images. It’s a good idea to overlap the images by at least 50
percent in case one of the images does not turn out. You can get good results by overlapping
images by as little as 30 percent, but if one image is poor, you will not be able to replace it.
Although it is possible to create a panorama from images that overlap by as little as 1 percent,
you will not get a satisfactory image.
Tip: Overlap images by at least 30 percent to avoid banding. Banding describes vertical
bands that appear in the final QTVR panorama due to different exposures between images.
When the images overlap by 30 percent or more, the Panorama Stitcher tool blends the
overlapping areas so the transition from one image to another appears as seamless as possible.
One way to estimate the number of images you need to capture to provide for at least 50
percent overlap is to look through the view finder of your camera and count how many
images you need to make a 360-degree panorama without overlap. Round that value to an
integer and multiply by 2. You can use this method with any type of camera.
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