Vito Paratore Photography » vr

Blue Mountain Summit Virtual Tour, Adirondacks, NY

Vito Paratore — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:45:53 +0000

This past August, I took a trip to the Adirondacks with my long-time friends, the Ritter family. This trip in particular, I spent some time beforehand researching possible photo locations and trails to hike. I found two summit hikes with fire towers at the top that seemed to have good views. The first was Blue Mountain, right near the Adirondack Museum. It was a relatively short hike, 2.2 miles to the top, but with the largest climb I had done at 1500 feet. I talked my friend, Edward, into climbing it with me. It turned out that 2.2 miles is quite long when you are climbing the entire time, but we pushed through it and made it to the top in good time. I am not a fan of heights; it took an internal battle to will myself up the rickety-looking fire tower. I took this virtual tour from the inside.

Click here to view the virtual tour.

Master Bathroom Virtual Tour

Vito Paratore — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:47:42 +0000

Here is another virtual tour from this house, featuring the large master bathroom. This one is a single exposure, but I took a second exposure that I could use to gain some more light inside the master bedroom.

Click on image to view virtual tour.

Kitchen Virtual Tour : Blended Exposures

Vito Paratore — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:00:14 +0000

After the conservatory, I moved my setup into the kitchen to take a virtual tour in there. In the photo in the last entry, you can see the kitchen area underneath the arches in the left-hand side. To properly expose the inside of the house, I had to increase the exposure enough to wash out the conservatory. To combat this, I took two exposures in each position, stitched them both seperately, and blended the equirectangular panoramas. I was able to figure out a way to stitch two identical (or near identical) panoramas with two different sets of photos. According to theory, the two sets of photos are of the same place taken at the same time without the camera moving, but without Hugin stitching both exactly the same, trying to blend the two exposures would be impossible. Here is my final result:

Click on image to view virtual tour.

Conservatory Virtual Tour

Vito Paratore — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:10:08 +0000

On Saturday, I took photos of a house a friend of mine built. This house features a large high-end kitchen, large living and dining room, and this gorgeous conservatory. This room screamed ‘virtual tour’ to me, so I set up and started shooting. Here is the result.

Click on image to view virtual tour.

I also took virtual tours from inside the kitchen area, in between the living room and dining room, and inside the master bathroom. I’ll post them as I finish processing them.

Virtual Reality Panoramas (QTVR)

Vito Paratore — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:41:16 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days. I have been making virtual tours like crazy! I have added a brand new “Virtual Reality” gallery to my main website. I will be adding more as I make them, so check back from time to time. www.vitoparatore.com

“Virtual” Learning Curve – Figuring out QTVR Panoramas

Vito Paratore — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:45:02 +0000

The past few days I have been stitching and re-stitching a 360 by 180 degree panorama I shot in my living room. I have not had the opportunity to take any in other people’s houses, so I have to practice with my own. The learning curve of Hugin (the open source panorama creator I use) is pretty steep, but I am figuring out the nuances of the program and what I have to do to make it stitch efficiently. Hopefully in a few weeks I will have the whole process down well enough to write an article on it. If that happens, you will be the first to know! Check back in the near future for new photos and panoramas.