Shooting car interior

[marcodg13]

Hello,

I'm almost new on VR photography. I try to improve my techique of shooting car interiors and I fell it is difficult. So I would very much apreciate a few advices and help from the community.
I have seen some very nice results on the web and I am wondering how they are done.
Some questions :
1/ how can I place my tripod. Is it outside of the car and the camera goes through an open window ?
2/ Should I use a fisheye like Samyang 12mm F2.8 on a nikon D750 or another lens ? 16mm ?
3/ due to the tigh place int he car, witch vr head is best ?

Many thanks for your help.

Marc.

[VRwave]

Hello,

1. You can place the tripod inside or outside. Both methods work, but one is easier than the other

Ideally, you would use an external tripod with a long boom arm and a counterweight. You should probably build it yourself, it will be cheaper. Something like this: http://i.imgur.com/QFKP9i8.jpg

The pano head needs to be placed horizontally, so the nadir patch will be situated inside the frame of the window. Try to get the smallest nadir possible. There will be nothing to retouch, unlike when you place the tripod inside the car.

2. Definitely a fisheye, you want the least amount of images you can get away with. Make use of the hyperfocal distance to keep everything sharp.

3. Any small/medium size pano head will be OK, as long as it can be locked to keep its position fixed at each increment while placed horizontally.

[marcodg13]

Hello,
Thank you very much with this idear of placing the pano head horizontally. I am going to try it.
I'll let you know as soon I have chosen the pano head to be sure it could work this way.
Many thanks.
Marc.

[marcodg13]

A few more questions regarding the lens. I'am hesitating between a fisheye that gives a circular image like the samyang 8mm or sigma 8mm (for full frame) or a fisheye that gives the 180° only in the diagonale of the image like the samyang 12 mm or sigma 15mm.
I'm sure this differrence is important. With a 12 mm I might be needed to shoot a few more pics like one more for the zenith and one more for the nidar. But will there be any difference in the geometry of the image ?

Many thanks again.

[VRwave]

A fisheye that gives a circular image will waste lots of pixels on your sensor. However, the benefit of not having to take a zenith image could be significant. So, it all depends on how much resolution do you need for the final panorama.

But will there be any difference in the geometry of the image ?

It's irrelevant, PTgui will handle anything you can throw at it

The particular fisheye projection of the source images has no impact on the look of the final image, if the images are stitched correctly.