Panorama Styles

Photography is only part of the battle in creating your artwork; the next step is deciding on the style of panorama. 

Creating an extreme wide angle field of view in a two dimensional medium has it challenges, and, as such, many different panorama styles have been created to help deal with those challenges.  Below are the styles we choose to work with.

Vedutismo is a style of panorama named after an 18th century Italian painting technique that keeps the vertical and diagonal lines straight while curving the horizontal lines in the image.  The image can be compressed to adjust the degree of horizontal curvature, but can never be fully straightened. We consider this style of panorama, with a 30% compression, to be the best compromise in producing imagery showcasing the entire field of view with appropriate scaling at the edges with minimal distortions. This is our default style for on location proofs. It works well in many situations especially with moderately long horizontal lines. However, when dealing with row houses, wide structures or streets, all with long continuous horizontal lines, the curvature can be distracting.

A cylindrical panorama is a simulation of the field of view projected on the interior of a cylinder. It is probably the most popular panorama style amongst the general public and allows for the greatest amount of information to be included in the final crop. However, only the vertical lines remain straight with all other lines becoming curved, and, unlike with Vedutismo, the level of curvature is not adjustable. Due to this, we greatly limit our use of this style for cityscapes captured from an elevated position, at least 20 stories high, with no long continuous horizontal lines in the view.

Rectilinear panoramas keep all vertical, diagonal and horizontal lines straight. However, in order to do this, objects must be progressively stretched the further they are from the center of view. This creates oddly distorted buildings in the final image at the edges. This distortion can be adjusted, but only by so much without distorting the view in a different way. This style is best for panoramas with long continuous straight lines.

Hybrid panoramas are when we take the rectilinear version of the center third of the view and stitch the Vedutismo versions on the outer thirds, for a single directional view. However, for backdrops that wrap around the set, we may choose to use multiple cuts of each rectilinear and Vedutismo versions from multiple vantages. For example the backdrop below of Portland, OR is a blend of six different cuts from four panoramic versions of the view captured from two vantages. This keeps the parallax at the center of the panorama true while allowing the edges to swing into the distance, keeping them from becoming oddly stretched. On wide backdrops, this also helps the edge views maintain their proper scale even though the drop is considerably closer to set then the view would be in real life. This is best for wide panoramas, especially at ground level, with long continuous lines.

At Precision Backdrops we will work with you to ensure we have the right style given your set and needs.