Shortly after I began reading Corinna Jacobs’ book - Interactive Panoramas: Techniques for Digital Panoramic Photography - I immediately understood why her publishers were so quick to get an English version in print. Just months after the book was released in its original German language as Digitale Panoramen, Jacob’s publishers asked her to work on the English version, which she did, also updating the software and worksheet components to reflect improvements and, together with translator Jeff Parrish, had it ready four months later and in print November 2004. (And just now, Jacobs has learned that the book will be translated into Russian by the publishing company "Kudits-Obraz", and will likely be out this summer.)The book is impressive: well-written, thoughtfully organized, comprehensive in scope, and the included CD-ROM is a nice bonus. The prose is simple and direct, and when the subject matter veers towards the complex, Jacobs backs up her written explanation with charts, photos and screenshots. When the topic is nodal points and parallax errors, she offers visual demonstrations with photo examples; in her discussion of stitching software she includes screenshots of the software while filming a panoramic scene; she introduces various manufacturers’ equipment with a short description and accompanying photo.
The book is ideal for beginners to panoramic photography, even for those who aren’t that experienced with photography in general, as Jacobs does an excellent job of cutting through a broad swath of material with expediency. Jacobs covers all the necessary steps involved in panoramic photography: from the production of digital and analog picture sequences to stitching using appropriate software tools, all the way to publishing interactive panoramas on the Internet.
Beginners will appreciate Chapter 3, which covers the differences between analog and digital photography, right down to explaining how scanners work, the various types of scanners (hand, feed, photo, flatbed, drum, slide and film) for the analog end of things, and moving on to resolution, compression and focal length multipliers for the digital cameras. She finishes the chapter with tips for taking panoramic pictures, with both digital and analog cameras.
Jacobs in thorough; for example, in discussing cylindrical projection and its realistic impression, she notes why some Java viewers and panoramas made with Flash look more simplistic, explaining that “a panoramic filmstrip is moved to the right or the left behind a cut-out window…this little trick makes the panorama appear flat when compared to the slightly convex, ‘real’ cylindrical projection”. She also gives an overview of various lenses and a detailed outline of focal length, field of view, image distortion (linear and perspective), vignetting, chromatic aberration followed by a lesson on determining the required number of pictures (complete with tables, for both single-row and multi-row takes) and another on determining the nodal point.
The subject matter is well-balanced; while it necessarily covers a broad spectrum of topics, starting with a quick review of the history of panoramic art, it also covers material germane to more experienced users, such as special correction methods (correcting optical and perspective distortion, vignnetting, chromatic aberration and high dynamic range) in Chapter 4 and object movies in Chapter 8.
The chapter on publication covers five of the most common viewers used on the Internet – QuickTime VR, PTViewer, iPix, HotMedia, Cortona VRML viewer – and printing panos to paper. Another chapter provides a comparative overview of the most common viewer solutions and includes a table-based comparison of the viewers.
Jacobs was studying at the University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule der Medien) in Stuttgart when she saw the cubic panoramas on Apple’s Cubic VR Gallery and decided that, given her background in audiovisual media, panoramas were the perfect subject for her diploma thesis. She ran into a roadblock, however, while trying to collect her research material: she couldn’t find much research in print so nearly all her sources were from the Internet. That’s when her professor suggested she write a book. She quickly found a publisher, expanded greatly upon her original thesis, and had the book written six months later.
Interactive Panoramas, available on Amazon.com, with 179 illustrations and a CD-ROM, 244 pages, including a bibliography, list of manufacturers, glossary and index, is a great staple for anyone interested in panoramic photography.
The first three chapters cover the fundamentals of digital and panoramic photography, starting with a quick review of the history of panoramic art, with references to early historical panoramas, or rotundas, with their physical locations and Internet references. Following chapters delve into special correction methods, tips for selecting suitable equipment and the production of cylindrical and spherical panoramas. Jacobs then devotes a chapter each to the production of object movies, creating virtual tours, and publishing interactive panoramas and object movies to the Internet. Three chapters focus on comparisons between: photo technology and techniques, software applications, and viewers. The final two chapters discuss application possibilities and a brief outlook for the technology.
Glossary: Terms and special expressions are explained.
CD-ROM: Includes sample files and demo versions of the software, as well as project files to aid workflow comprehension (references to the CD are noted in the book by the CD icon), various examples of cylindrical, spherical and cubic panoramas, virtual tours and object movies.
Required software: Version 5 or higher of QuickTime, Java.
Software products mentioned: REALVIZ Stitcher, VR Worx and PanoTools, QuickTime VR, PTViewer, VRML, iPix and HotMedia.
