Tip: Marking North in your final Panorama...

[Keith]

When building multi-node panoramas in Pano2VR its possible to add coordinates and the direction of North to each node so that map overlays work accurately. Have a look at a work in progress here: Cae Mabon (this link is a temporary one for now, about ⅓ done). 

To make life easier back at base I geotag the photos in the camera when they are taken. Olympus use an app on your phone to log your movements and it's easy to geotag the photos in a batch at the end of the shoot. Though I have used many other techniques in the past to do similar things.

Where is North?

I have been placing a small figure on the ground near the tripod to mark where North is, so I can set this in Pano2VR later. Works well, and hardly anyone notices it if I leave it in the final image. Quite a cute 'Easter Egg' too. I can have text popups in the final pano if the viewer hovers over the figure too, helps with promotion :-)

I was shooting over 30 panos in one session recently and using this figure really became a bit tedious believe it or not! 

In detail: 

• I have to get a compass out (its on the phone as well, might switch to a real one next time?)
  
• face the tripod
  
• have the compass indicating South
  
• shuffle sideways to find North at my feet
  
• place the figure on the ground
  
• make sure all the things hanging round my neck and back don't spill their contents onto the floor or get tangled up in each other
• put the compass somewhere, in a pocket or bag
  
• shoot the pano (remote release is hanging on a lanyard around my neck, not in my hand as I kept setting it off accidentally!)
  
• remember not to tread on the figure
  
• pick it up and the end
  
• sometimes I leave it behind, which can involve a longish walk to retrieve it! 
  

All a bit fiddly and ads to the workflow, but ok for a single pano I guess.

A different option I want to try is to use something like the Theodolite app on the iPhone. I can hold this directly over the tripod, point at North and take a photo of the scene with the GPS coordinates and North overlaying the image. I can then just view this on-screen back at base when setting North in Pano2VR. So I'll be trying out this method next time to save my back:-). 

It's another way of geotaging the tripod every time too, just in case the other method fails. A small point: Pano2VR will only accept GPS coordinates in full decimal format, so I can set the Theodolite app to the same, which helps a lot.

Cheers,

Keith

[floz]

I don't have time for this on-location. Here's what I use: https://www.pano-guru.com/misc/setting-a-panoramas-compass-heading-bearing/

[JPS]

Thanks for the tip about "Theodolite" application, Keith ! I just downloaded it (CHF/$ 6.- only) ! It is indeed a great application, giving very precisely the YAW and ROLL when the iPhone is VERTICAL ! ...plus of course the Lat./Long, time, degrees,etc... and allows to grab a screen-copy and send it as an email ! Looks like it will be a precious auxiliary !

Pity though that there's no application allowing to get those datas when shooting INSIDE, out of reach of a satellite ;-) !

:-)


Le mardi 31 mai 2016 05:34:14 UTC-3, Keith a écrit :

.......................A different option I want to try is to use something like the Theodolite app on the iPhone. I can hold this directly over the tripod, point at North and take a photo of the scene with the GPS coordinates and North overlaying the image. I can then just view this on-screen back at base when setting North in Pano2VR. So I'll be trying out this method next time to save my back:-). 

[Erik Krause]

Am 31.05.2016 um 10:34 schrieb Keith:

> *Where is North?*

Use a compass and shoot the first image north, then in PTGui set the
first image as anchor an to Yaw = 0. Then the panorama is northed
automatically - at least in 360cities.
Another possibility is to use the sun position to calculate the north
direction. Wolfram alpha does that automatically. To further simplify
the process I wrote a small droplet where you drop an image on and it
calls wolfram alpha. Get it from
http://erik-krause.de/ttt/index.htm#wolfram%20alpha%20azimuth

--
Erik Krause

[Jürgen Georg Lang - Crossmediabureau]

https://plus.google.com/+GoogleMaps/posts/HJbE9zbEeh2

so please tell me how do you still reach this functionality?