PanoraMacrophotography:

What is it ?

The way to produce a panorama in which most of the scene (any direction) is at some few centimeters of maximum distance from the lens that took the images. Syn. MacroPanoramas, Claustropanos

This definition is yet to be included in a dictionary.

It's generally avoided by casual PanoPhotographers because parallax errors that produces ugly missing or ghosts parts in the composite final image are so frustrating (at the least).

Here is one parallax-error-free example (QTVR 1.5Mb).

Yes, this is my fridge. This was done using :

• Canon 300D (REBEL) camera & SIGMA 8mm f:4 FishEye,
• Eight shots / ISO100,
• F/22,
• 8sec,
• Manual exposure
• PTools (I use PTGui or PTMac)
• PhotoShop 7.01
• MakeCubic 1.1.6
• Home made set-up

All these bars that are located at different distances (including closeup) make this picture a real challenge for PTOptimizer: The foreground can present parallax errors of about 40 pixels wrt the background (in a 6000 x 3000 JPG pano) for a mispositionning of the nodal point as little as 0.3mm along the optical axis!

In the case you still wish to reproduce this pano with a SIGMA8mm FishEye, I would then recommand:

• To wear warm clothing while stepping up inside the fridge. It's cold in there and please dont confuse the refrigerator with the freezer, it's even colder!
• Not to close the refrigerator door tightly shut (or alternatively bring in your own lighting inside),
• Set the nodal point (i.e. Lens entrance pupil) for beta=90deg,
  • Use an accurate tripod and panohead. As long exposure time is unavoidable, hand-held shots are not manageable...

More seriously, I have written here a short tutorial about close range spherical panorama.