Can I include a person in a 360° panorama by keeping them in just one frame?
Asked 9/7/2013
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2 answers
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I want to make a 360° spherical panorama with a person standing near the camera position. My idea is to shoot the person in a single frame, then capture the rest of the panorama and stitch it afterward, masking or cropping the person out of any overlapping frames.
Will this work reliably for a 360° pano? Are there best practices for shooting and stitching so the person appears cleanly without causing stitching errors? I currently use Microsoft ICE, but I’m open to other software if manual masking is needed.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
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I have done something similar before (can't post the result because I don't have a model release). I only did it for non-360˚ but the technique will work for 360˚ as well.
Essentially, do it the normal way and make sure your model is not at the loop-closure.
- Start one image left of the model/person. (Here is where you will match it with the end of your panorama.)
- Take your panorama in the normal way panning right. The next image will be the one with your person in it. Try to do it, so that you only have one image with the model. That will save you time later because you don't need to do masking. If you want you can take multiple images of the person. Later pick the one you like most and throw away the rest.
- Continue with your panorama until you reach the point where you started of.
This techniques works so well, because you won't have problems masking your person's movements. Starting just left (or right) of the person will make it easy, so that the next image will have the person completely in it.
Originally by user7718. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user7718
12y ago
0
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Yes — this can work, and the simplest approach is to keep the person in only one frame if possible.
Best practice:
- Start your pano so the loop closure is away from the person.
- Pan normally and place the person in a single image, or in a few images if you want options.
- Continue the panorama until you return to the start.
- If adjacent frames include part of the person, mask/crop those areas so only one version remains.
This is easier than having the person walk away, because keeping them in place makes it clearer which areas to exclude.
The main technical issue is parallax: when a nearby subject is included, you should rotate the camera around the lens’s entrance pupil/nodal point, ideally with a panoramic tripod head. Handheld shooting is more likely to cause imperfect stitching, especially with a person close to the camera.
If automatic stitching struggles, use software that lets you export layers or manually mask/blend overlapping frames. In short: yes, your method is valid, and careful framing plus masking can give a good result.
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