50 Dazzling Examples of Polar Panorama Photography

30 Jun

50 Dazzling Examples of Polar Panorama Photography

Inspiration, Photography, Photoshop

74

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Polar panoramas, also known as stereographic projections or ‘little planets’, are spectacular images that are created out of panoramic photos.

While the effects are quite stunning, these images are actually very easy for anyone to produce.

The basic principle is to take a panoramic photo, make some easy changes to it, and finally apply a Photoshop filter (Distort > Polar Coordinates) to complete the effect.

For detailed instructions, please follow this easy tutorial.

Here are 50 dazzling examples of polar panorama photography.

Have you tried this technique on your panoramic photos? Please share your comments below, we’d love to hear from you…

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74 Comments »

#1

Oliver
June 30th, 2009 at 9:54 am

awesome. They look amazing

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#2

Mahallo Media
June 30th, 2009 at 10:11 am

Wow Oliver you are right, its just amazing!!

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#3

Simple
June 30th, 2009 at 10:22 am

Truly amazing

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#4

Jonny Pioww
June 30th, 2009 at 10:54 am

Wow that’s amazing. I’ve always wondered what genuinely creative effects you could get with the “Polar Coordinates” filter. Thanks for a great post!

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#5

irishmark
June 30th, 2009 at 12:36 pm

I did this ages back:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l81/irishmark23/GFX/topoworld.jpg?t=1246354430

The shot is of my Bro at a service station on the way up to Glasgow.

1 Reply
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Walter
June 30th, 2009 at 11:05 pm

I like it

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#6

Dragon013
June 30th, 2009 at 1:01 pm

Amazing pictures!

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#7

Adam
June 30th, 2009 at 1:32 pm

Those are absolutely amazing – I love them. They remind me of that new Mario game where he’s landing on all the planets. If they were a better shape I’d be using them as my desktop background. Any chance of some wallpapers?

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#8

gkleon
June 30th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

there is even the little prince world

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#9

Caitlin
June 30th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

These are all very cool. Thanks a lot!

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#10

Paul Payne
June 30th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

wow, I want to know how to do that!

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#11

Jake
June 30th, 2009 at 3:03 pm

Wow, these are awesome! I especially like the city-scape ones with bright lights… amazing effects

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#12

theamoeba
June 30th, 2009 at 3:37 pm

very nice, just like the little prince – similar little planets

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#13

Afsin
June 30th, 2009 at 4:39 pm

Some results are very good.

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#14

John G
June 30th, 2009 at 4:57 pm

Wow. How do people come up with this stuff?

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#15

Mondo Jay
June 30th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

…
These are all amazing,
really cool use of the polar panorama photography
nice post…
…

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#16

Vizin
June 30th, 2009 at 5:45 pm

INCREDIBLE!

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#17

Alejandro
June 30th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

Wow! Cool Article! by the way… GREAT website!!! Congratulations!!!

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#18

e-Muškarac.com
June 30th, 2009 at 6:25 pm

Fantastic!

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#19

bebopdesigner
June 30th, 2009 at 10:17 pm

Amazing work! thanks for putting these together and sharing !

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#20

Lucky
June 30th, 2009 at 10:29 pm

Here’s my first try at such a panorama: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucky0/3675492957

What do you think?

2 Replies
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Walter
June 30th, 2009 at 11:05 pm

I like the top, but at the bottom it gets a bit blurry…

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Muzbot
July 1st, 2009 at 3:40 am

I like it.

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#21

DJ
July 1st, 2009 at 1:05 am

Anybody got a link to a tutorial on accomplishing this?

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#22

Walter
July 1st, 2009 at 1:22 am

@DJ: It’s on the intro to this post.

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#23

Liora
July 1st, 2009 at 3:29 am

Where do you find these things? This blog is a contant source of inspiration and variation. I love the examples with the paved sidewalks and mosaics in the foreground.

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#24

Walter
July 1st, 2009 at 3:34 am

Thanks for the kind comments. I’m glad that everyone’s enjoying the pics!

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#25

Muzbot
July 1st, 2009 at 3:39 am

This was my first attempt at creating one of these. It’s a bit rough.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/muzbot/3079165242/

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#26

e11world
July 1st, 2009 at 3:57 am

I’ll google how to make these and try and come up with something. I’m also looking to learn how to photograph smoke and things like that a bit better.

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#27

RoaldA
July 1st, 2009 at 8:48 am

Cool

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#28

Carl - Web Courses Bangkok Instructor
July 1st, 2009 at 9:41 am

Amazing!

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#29

Lisa
July 1st, 2009 at 10:10 am

Wow… they are so surreal. Stunning idea

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#30

Chris Puttick
July 1st, 2009 at 12:20 pm

For those with better things to spend their money on, the same functionality can be found in Gimp (2.6.6) under Filters/Distorts/Polar Coordinates.

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#31

web development
July 1st, 2009 at 1:08 pm

I love the photos. Thanks for sharing the tutorials.

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#32

B-82
July 1st, 2009 at 1:26 pm

heres mine !
http://b-82.deviantart.com/art/Notes-en-Bulles-planet-127315010

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#33

Daniel
July 1st, 2009 at 3:37 pm

beatiful images. thank you

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#34

ted @pangio
July 1st, 2009 at 5:26 pm

A simple way to create a little planet projection is to use the krpano flash viewer. I have used this flash player on Panogio.com.

Take a look at the equirectangular panorama images here http://bit.ly/lXaRt
Beneath the image on the left side of spherical panoramas there is a small link called “little planet” for viewing the panorama image as a planet.

You can upload your own panoramas to Panogio http://bit.ly/rRkOh and look at them as planets! Here are my panoramas! http://www.panogio.com/user/ted

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#35

djashish
July 1st, 2009 at 7:12 pm

marvelous work..hats off to such a creative and imaginary work

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#36

ThePortfolioPro
July 1st, 2009 at 7:18 pm

Great Use of effects, light, color, mood, and tone. You did really good work on those very amazing to look at! Thanks

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#37

omar
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:02 pm

wow really neat gonna have fun with that tonight

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#38

Allen
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:16 pm

These are really nice, creative photographs

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#39

DoN
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:59 pm

Actually they ain’t that easy to do, if you want to do it properly – and using polar coordinates isn’t the proper way as you get horrible distortions in the middle and on the edges. You should have an equirectangular panorama covering 360×180 degrees and then change the projection. But the hardest part is to get that panorama, having a panoramic tripod head is really usefull. I’ve done some experiments few years ago, mainly shot from hand with wideangle lens: http://don.vn.cz/photos/planets/

2 Replies
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mike
July 11th, 2009 at 7:37 pm

I looked at your shots. frankly… they are way better than any of these here. The majority of the pictures shown in this blog seem distorted, as if someone just went in an image editing/manipulation application and applied an effect.

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andy
July 13th, 2009 at 1:17 am

I agree with them below(or above) me. Your photos look much better because the group hasn’t been distorted terribly. If you happen to read this comment, could you possibly post a quick how to, a little more in depth that your comment above has? I’m quite intrigued by your shots and would like to create my own

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#40

Michael
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:21 pm

Wow! Great inspiration! I really like the effect! #7 is really, really good.

Well, I got distracted and made my own just now! http://www.flickr.com/photos/smileysimm/3681171015/

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#41

ideamashups.com
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:33 am

Great collection!

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#42

Tim
July 4th, 2009 at 5:50 am

Wow these are great. How were they made? I think a tutorial or 2 is in order.

1 Reply
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Michael
July 4th, 2009 at 4:15 pm

The tutorial link is at the top.

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#43

Bridget Casas
July 8th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

I think I would like to try this. I have seen this before and I thought a special wide angle lens was used. Thank you for the tutorial.

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#44

veronica
July 8th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

woah baby.. im feeling real inspired right about now. :]

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#45

robb
July 9th, 2009 at 11:31 am

wow these are all incredible.
hopes to see tutorial soon.

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#46

Web Design Company
July 9th, 2009 at 4:18 pm

These are great!

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#47

Luke Jones
July 9th, 2009 at 5:55 pm

Amazing, these are the best though:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/martin_heigan/1450046162/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heiwa4126/2685589384/sizes/l/in/set-72157601616772815/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heiwa4126/1183357702/sizes/l/in/set-72157601616772815/

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#48

felonious monk
July 10th, 2009 at 11:46 am

wow… some radical photography there by the way… absolutely brilliant…
fantastic… : )

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#49

spaceface
July 11th, 2009 at 6:46 pm

Most of these are crap, sorry. I only found about 5% of it aesthetically pleasing. Yes, I am difficult to please.

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#50

Calgary Graphic Design
July 14th, 2009 at 11:09 am

Being difficult to please is not an attribute.

Fascinating post – thanks for sharing!

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#51

Iceman
July 16th, 2009 at 12:15 pm

Simply amazing visuals.
It’s always a pleasure to see the world in a different way.

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#52

Adam
July 17th, 2009 at 5:51 am

What a crazy arse effect!

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#53

Hosting boy
July 21st, 2009 at 3:04 pm

Incredible pics.

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#54

kuba
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:55 pm

Here’s mine:
http://www.szabelski.net/picture.php?/310/category/inne

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#55

tombarreto
July 27th, 2009 at 12:26 am

I made this

http://www.worth1000.com/view.asp?entry=471529&display=photoshop

for a contest in the Worth1000 site.
Hope you enjoy.

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#56

Alexander Bickov
July 30th, 2009 at 10:11 am

Amazing photo editing

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#57

ben
August 23rd, 2009 at 4:09 pm

thanks it’s so easy

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#58

Most Interesting Ideas
August 31st, 2009 at 10:08 pm

Awesome examples.

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#59

pesho
September 17th, 2009 at 12:07 pm

Thanks 4 every thing

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#60

leo
September 21st, 2009 at 1:26 am

these are my first attempts some years back
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/225/472905592_6efc8860a8_b.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/160/427276895_c0425f73fe_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2222/1811307706_2548b25da9_b.jpg

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#61

leo
September 21st, 2009 at 1:29 am

these are my first attempts some years back
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldstein/472905592/in/set-72157600009897868
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldstein/427276895/in/set-72157600009897868
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldstein/1811307706/in/set-72157600009897868
[edit: non-direct flickr pages]

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#62

Peter
September 21st, 2009 at 9:28 am

Your posts would be way better if shorter and more focused. Half of these are half-assed attempts, not anything near “dazzling”.

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#63

Web Design Maidstone Kent
October 27th, 2009 at 3:09 am

absolutely amazing

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#64

photo stitching
November 4th, 2009 at 6:28 am

Beautiful photography!! Thanks for sharing!!

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#65

Jim
November 13th, 2009 at 1:13 am

Here’s another, of a lobster bake on a Maine island:

http://jimdugan.com/pixelpost/index.php?showimage=199

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#66

Will McNeice
November 18th, 2009 at 8:37 pm

Very interesting project. I’d never seen these polar panoramic photos before. I like them a lot, though get a slight sense of vertigo if I look at them too long!

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#67

Dan Moore
November 18th, 2009 at 11:29 pm

I have shot a few of these with with a 4×5 camera. They are a lot of fun though there are some much better ways in doing them.

Mine can be seen on my website at http://www.lightwriterstudios.net

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#68

Lidia
November 20th, 2009 at 5:31 am

Good work, I especially like the inclusion of good ol’ NMC hahhaaha wasn’t expecting to stumble upon that.
TC REPRESENT!

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#69

Dave
November 22nd, 2009 at 12:44 am

Wow.. Those are really nice. Huge imagination. I like the football field one myself…

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#70

Jennifer
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:11 pm

Wow. These are amazing.. Thanks for sharing. Great collection of photographs. I would love to see how these would look enlarged on Canvas. At http://www.canvaspop.com we have created a lot of canvas enlargements of traditional panoramic photos but I think these would look fantastic!

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#71

Brandon Kitajchuk
December 4th, 2009 at 1:27 am

These are sweet! I love photos like this. Been meaning to take a stab at one of my own

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#72

nc انسیه
December 11th, 2009 at 11:07 pm

very nice,tnx 4 share…

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#73

Site Reviver
February 4th, 2010 at 2:49 am

Awesome photography

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#74

peach
February 4th, 2010 at 12:37 pm

Woah! These are all great shots.

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50 Dazzling Examples of Polar Panorama Photography

Inspiration, Photography, Photoshop

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74 Comments »