Normally you mount your camera on top of your pole to reach a more elevated viewpoint above the ground. But if you tilt your pole ~90° and point it over a railing or a cliff then you are doing a horizontal pole shot.
You can also use this technique whenever you want the nadir over an area where you can’t stand. For example like in this panorama where I used this technique to place the fumarole in the nadir.
Also see a detailed description on horizontal pole shooting at 360texas.com.
This image was taken inside the iconic dome of the State Library of Victoria. The room was opened 1913 and was designed to provide room for over a million books and up to 600 readers.
Technique
The shooting was done with a pole which I held at aprrox. 45° over the middle section (as there was a sign which said “no admittance” at the little doors of the central area.) The lens was mounted with a custom-made bracket. Stitched from four images taken with a Walimex (Samyang) 7.5mm fish eye lens on a Sony QX1. Four images around (up, down, left, right). I removed myself by hand in post-processing.
Recently I got a question about this panorama I published on Maps Views:
Hi Markus, nice shot, but what happen with the focus, the right of the river is blurred?
Here I try to explain the problem. In short: I’ve just been too lazy to make an “up” shot (zenith). It is completely missing. The stitching result has not been retouched at all.
When making a horizontal pole shot the “zenith” and “nadir” end up near the equator of the photo sphere. You can see this clearly in the image below, where the red image borders cross. “Zenith” and “nadir” in this case means the direction where the pole is pointing!
Making Of Barnafoss Horizontal Pole Shot (1)
When removing all images but one, this looks like the image below. You can clearly see, that the worst part of the fish eye lens ends up in an area of interest. In this case the right side of the river bank.
Making Of Barnafoss Horizontal Pole Shot (2)
This image shows the original fish eye shot. You see the bad part of the lens ending up on the right hand side of the river bank.
Making Of Barnafoss Horizontal Pole Shot (3)
The solution to this problem is easy: You just need to take an “up” shot. However in this case “up” is again in the direction of the pole! Unfortunately for minimizing the parallax problems I would have needed a different mounting option for my camera.
From the 85m high tower of Munich’s town hall you have a great view over the city centre. When you’re lucky you can even see the Bavarian alps in the distance. The tower can easily be ascend via elevator.
[pano file=”https://www.panotwins.de/wp-content/panos/MMatern_20121102_2633_RathausTurmHPoleNW.xml” preview=”https://www.panotwins.de/wp-content/panos/MMatern_20121102_2633_RathausTurmHPoleNW.jpg”] Show on map
From the 85m high tower of Munich’s town hall you have a great view over the city centre. When you’re lucky you can even see the Bavarian alps in the distance. The tower can easily be ascend via elevator.
[pano file=”https://www.panotwins.de/wp-content/panos/MMatern_20121102_2605_RathausTurmHPoleSW_LDR.xml” preview=”https://www.panotwins.de/wp-content/panos/MMatern_20121102_2605_RathausTurmHPoleSW_LDR.jpg”] Show on map
Dyrhólaey is a small peninsula in the south of Iceland. It is located not far from the village Vík í Mýrdal. The peninsula is well known for its colony of atlantic puffins, but offers also some intersting rock formations like this arch.
Hverarönð is a geothermal area east of the mountain Námafjall in the north of Iceland. It is part of the volcanic system of the Krafla volcano which is lokated about 8 km (5 miles) to the north.
This is one of the rare occasions where I can provide an image, which documents the making of the panorama.
Shooting a horizontal pole panorama
I took six images with a fisheye lens. After taking an image the pole was rotated about 60° before I took the next image. As the images were taken with a fisheye lens we were visible in the “nadir” of the final panorama. I retouched “nadir” and “zenith” manually in Photoshop. The real nadir and zenith were left unt(re-)touched as one shot was facing up and one was facing down.
This image shows a hot mud pot in the Hverarönð geothermal area. The area is part of the volcanic system of the Krafla volcano which is lokated about 8 km (5 miles) to the north.
I recently visited the Heini Klopfer ski jump near Oberstdorf. The Heini Klopfer ski jump is currently the third largest ski jump in the world. It’s hillsize is 213 m and the jump record is at 225,5 m.
The panorama was taken with a pole which I held horizontally over the railing of the middle platform.
The two Navajo Bridges span Marble Canyon near Lee’s Ferry. The first bridge was constructed from 1927-1929, the construction of the second bridge was completed in 1995.
I was standing on the older bridge and held my monopod in vertical direction right over the railing.
Surfing is a popular water sport you would not expect in Munich, hundreds of kilometers away from the next coast line. The location is at the Eisbach, which translates to ice brook just next to the Haus der Kunst in Munich. The standing wave can be surfed the whole year, but even in summer the water is very cold.
The history of surfing the Eisbach goes back into the year 1972 (according to Wikipedia).
The Eisbach flows under ground for some kilometers and is a part of the Isar river. After the popular surf spot it flows through the Englischer Garten a large park where you can relax just in the heart of the city.
Show on map
