Assembling Panoramic Photos: A Designer's Notebook

I found this book to be a great book on artistically making PANORMIC Photos, and More... It is an excellent book in showing different techniques as well as the art of "Assembling" Panoramic pictures. But it is also a work of art in helping you get an idea of the artistic and somewhat abstract way of doing this. I followed the techniques, for example taking multiple shot of the same subject and then assembling that together, as another example I used the planning that is pointed out in this book, and multiple shots from the same view to make it super high resolution. I used PhtotoShop for the "Stitching" and I got the same outstanding results. This is a Great book for photographers. Bruce Razban Silicon Valley, CA, USA

This book is small but really comprehensive. Through specific examples people that knows the secret of panoramic photography, gives tips & tricks for a good panoramic photo using normal cameras and lenses. In the beginning i read it very quick but then i discover more more than even in the smallest paragraph there is a nice tip. The only "bad" is that most of the writers use realviz stitcher as main stitching program. Why this is "bad"? Because the program costs more than 400 euro. There is also a express release around 100 euro but with limited use. But the tips and tricks are still there. I personally use PTGui with Pano2cube software and i can use most of this books advices. it is highly recommended for the photographer he wants to involved in panoramic photography.

Few books on photograph go into much detail or depth on handling panorama format photos, which makes the advice of Assembling Panoramic Photos: A Designer's Notebook important. Another feature which lends unique value: leading French photographers and artists present their techniques, translated by William Rodarmor for English readers, with step-by-step examples of technique beginning with initial shots and progressing to specific panoramic techniques. The end result is an essential reference which should be a part of any solid photography book collection.

Digital cameras and powerful software tools have made panoramic photography much easier than it's been in the past. If you want to see real state-of-the-art panoramic work, you'll like Assembling Panoramic Photos - A Designer's Notebook published by O'Reilly. Contents: Studio 01 - Waterfalls of Ice - Bertrand Bodin; Studio 02 - At the Restaurant - Arnaud Frich; Studio 03 - Frenzy at Almanarre Beach - Albert Lemoine; Studio 04 - The Workshop - Christophe Noel; Studio 05 - Urban Sphere - Sacha Popovic; Studio 06 - On the Boulevards - Peet Simard; Studio 07 - The Phare des Baleines Lighthouse - Laurent Thion; Studio 08 - Venice - The Orseolo Basin - Gilles Vidal This book was translated from French by William Rodarmor, and all of the photographers hail from France. The general format of the book takes a particular panoramic photo from the person who created the picture, and then goes into detail about how it was done. This goes everywhere from the thoughts behind the composition, the equipment used to take the raw material, the software used to retouch and stitch the different pictures, and how certain difficulties had to be overcome. There are a number of different types of panoramas, going from traditional wide-angle content to a circular composition wrapped around a point on a sidewalk. This book will serve as both a source of inspiration and a catalog of techniques. You'll get the most out of this book if you are intermediate to advanced in both digital photography and Photoshop. A number of stitching programs are used in the images, so you'll learn why some people prefer one over the other. If you're just Joe Schmoe with a digital camera and a stitching program, you'll probably be a little lost here. These photographers are professionals, and the results they produce are professional. They understand the tools of their trade very well, and it's that knowledge that allows them to get these types of results. So don't feel bad if the book is a little beyond you when you first start reading. But if you're willing to work at it and try out some of the techniques shown here, you'll soon be showing off some interesting results.

Panoramic photos have always been a favorite of mine. I'm obviously not alone, as this book (as well as web sites devoted to panoramic photos and QuickTime VR) proves. This book takes eight different scenes and describes the artist's methods and thought processes to creating the panorama. My favorite is the "Urban Sphere", which takes a set of photos an creates a sphere. This creates a photo with no notion of top or bottom. As you rotate the page around your brain focuses on what is "up" and the photo appears "new" every 45 degrees or so... Uber-cool. The descriptions and instruction come from the artists perspective. While it does have a "how to" feel, in my opinion, the value is in the artistic ideas and the information about how to get the shots to make a compelling panorama. If you've got a Canon camera, you probably have PhotoStitch on the CD that came with it - which is what got me originally hooked on panoramas. While pretty cool, this book will take you beyond simple panoramas to artistic, visually unique panoramas.