Question
I noticed that sometime panoramic images have essentially lesser
height than initial snapshots. I try to make 360-degree panoramic picture of
our cottage and garden, but got only long and narrow strip, like you could
see from observation slot. My wife even could not recognize her own our home.
She said that it is picture of colored shoelace! Why it happened?
For the sake of justice I should admit that loss of height was bearable,
when I used tripod for my camera.
Alan Crouse, Hillsboro, TX
Answer
Dear Mr. Crouse,
Shortage in height of panoramic image inevitable, if adjacent snapshots are not
exactly aligned in horizontal direction.
Look on the scheme. If the horizontal direction of camera was changed between
two adjacent snapshots, there is no way to cut rectangular part from joined
images, beside cutting edges up and down.
As a matter of fact, the situation even worth, because stitching
snapshots requires several transformations that bend straight edges of
rectangular image borders. That is why there is some loss of height
even if your snapshots are perfectly aligned.
Of course, it is difficult to make accurately aligned snapshots
that covered 360-degree vision area. In spite of accumulated errors
PanoGraph make its best for joining last and first pictures in the row.
Nevertheless, clutching of opposite sides of stitched sequence of snapshots
leads to additional distortion and. hence, to additional shrink of height.
Look at intermediate image construct PanoGraph in order to
make virtual tour out of eight snapshots that are not accurately aligned.
Of course, even after elaborate transformation it is impossible to cut
rectangular image from this picture without loss of height.
How to minimize this negative effect?
-
As you already have noticed, it is better to use
tripod for making snapshots.
-
Use snapshots of portrait format
instead of landscape 
.
-
In difficult cases you can use manual adjustment of stitching.
