Customer Reviews

360 Degree Imaging: The Photographer's Panoramic Virtual Reality Manual (Photography on the Web)

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As a panoramic (or virtual tour) photographer myself, I was hopeful about this book. It's bound well with lots of glossy photos and an easy-to-read layout. It is the only book (that I know of) dealing with the growing area of 360 degree or virtual tour photography. That in and of itself deserves some credibility.

The author gives lots of step-by-step photos, showing the different camera brackets and tripod heads needed, and covers the various techniques for shooting in-line or full cylindrical virtual tours. There are even a few sidebars with comments from other virtual tour photographers or company owners. The coverage and explanation of parallax errors is done well.

I wish there had been more of an explanation as far as the different software types, the pros and cons of each, expenses involved, etc., although there is a nice section on how to polish up finished images, and what to do to get a good exposure when the room & light you're in prohibits it.

Shooting these types of tours with a fisheye isn't really covered, and even though it's not the most popular way to create a panoramic or 360 degree tour right now, neither is the egg-type of 1-shot method the book does go into detail with.

If you're looking for a book on 360 degree imaging, I suggest this book. The website references and up-close equipment shots, and diagrams of stitching methods is very good. It's not a coffee table book full of breathtaking panoramics, so don't buy it if you're looking for that. (Although there are a few nice landscapes.)It's not the be-all of 360 degree imaging, but it's a great start.

I had no prior experience with VR 360 panoramas and this book really provided me with the information I was looking for. It reviews software, equipment, and helped me to gain a better understanding of how it all works. I especially found the section on finding the nodal point helpful.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in doing VR 360 panoramas.

This has got to be a "must have" for any photographers keen in learning how to take a 360 panoramic photo. It covers very comprehensively the hardware: panoramic tripod heads, printing of such big photos, the various technique such as single row or multi row panoramic photography, a little heritage of panoramic photography and the many software. This book does need an update and it's good to go once again for year 2008 and beyond! It's one of the best book on this topic has it not been a little outdated.