Gadget: How to Make Panoramic Weather Photos in 3D

As I typically do during the Holidays, I'll be broadcasting a series of weather-related Gadget reviews for the 2011 hopping season. The first can really help you capture weather more like it's seen with the naked eye.

Some newer digital cameras and free software programs claim to "stitch together" more than one photo into a wider (or longer) pic, but the few I've used have trouble blending the different hues and contrasts of the originals, and make it obvious that it was multiple photos. Several years ago I purchased ArcSoft Panorama Maker 4 Pro for Windows. Version 6 is now out and is as good as ever. Here are two panoramas that I created during the October snow storm at my house last week.

I was impressed that the differently placed snowflakes in each shot didn't fool the software (though I've yet to test it on waves/surf which presents a worse problem because they form lines). Think those pictures are cool? In version 6, they've improved their 3D feature which makes use of the QuicktimeVR file format, which lets you zoom and pan on a panorama. Here's a low-res sample of that (Quicktime software required). Click the -/+ to zoom in and out; click and drag to pan.

If you think that's cool, you owe it to yourself to check out the high-res version (available here for download) is great but is also huge -- 55 mb -- so keep that in mind if you're planning on embedding the huge file in your webpage. Now, I only used 3 photos here -- the more you use, the more "panning" you can do in your Quicktime. If you have the patience to take enough photos to complete a circle, the panorama will be seamless. I did this once in 2009, and if you'll bear with me until later tonight, I'll create and upload the Quicktime VR here for you to check out.