through the streets of Haiti and the person can actually move the
camera around and view any direction he/she wants.
This type of vantage point gives a totally different view than still
life photos. Thought the rest of the class would find it interesting.
I saw this too and was actually going to post it as one of my blog entries!
ReplyDeleteSo cool! I shoot a lot of video, but I don't think I've ever seen a camera like this or such a cool way to present it.
If you or anyone knows what kind of camera/cameras that was, I'd love to know how they did it.
It is actually quite simple and you can make a similar camera yourself if you want to experiment. The actual camera is pointing UP looking into a half-dome mirror (not exactly, it is more like an inverted parabola) This mirror is what is reflecting the 360 degree panorama, except for a black spot in the center, which you can see if you pan all the way "down".
ReplyDeleteYou can try it out with a still camera pointing at a mirror/reflective sphere (like a big Xmas ornament for example!) Of course you and the camera will be reflected, so in the actual setup you would have a black cardboard with an opening for the lens. Usually the lens actually supports the mirror (imagine you glue a stick on your lens and the other end supports the convex mirror) otherwise you would see the supports of the mirror all around.
In the Haiti movie I think the mirror is supported by a bigger plexiglass dome because you can always see a reflection on the left side of the image if you look carefully