Panoramas into Planets
Lima, Peru
Planet Manhattan
I stumbled across a really neat little photo manipulation technique today that's begging to be shared. You'll need Photoshop (or a free copy of GIMP), and a panorama photo (where the width is at least twice the height). Actually, if you feel like cropping down a normal photo into a panorama shape, that'll do as well.
The process is simple:
- Convert the photo into a square image. Use the Photo/Image Size menu item to change the image size into a large square. Uncheck 'Constrain Properties' and set the "height" value to the same value as your "width" value.
- Rotate 180°.
- Apply the polar effect. Navigate to "Filter/Distort/Polar Coordinates" and choose the "Rectangular to Polar" setting. If you are a user of The Gimp the command is "Filters/Distorts/Polar Coords".
- Rotate and clean up.
The Results Can Be Striking
Planet Südstadtpark Fürth
Planet Cowland
Planet Buenos Aires
Planet Maldives
The instructions above were lifted from Dirk Paessler's Photoblog tutorial, who seems to be quite popular in this arena (referring to the results as "Little Planets". Check out his Flickr photos tagged with this technique.
Happy Photoshopping—
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Travelvice is the home of Craig Heimburger, a perpetual wanderer who has visited over forty countries and is currently in his third year of uninterrupted travel. He is a writer, a photographer, and a free spirit. Recently his girlfriend, Tatiana, and their newborn son, Aidric, can be found by his side.
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