Tuesday, March 2, 2010

New VR Photography Book Teaches How to Create Interactive Panoramas

Scott Highton is a San Francisco-based photojournalist and documentary filmmaker whose credits include over 60 productions for PBS, Discovery Channel, Arts & Entertainment, Turner Broadcasting and the National Audubon Society.

He has also helped pioneer the field of virtual reality photography. You've seen VR photographs on the Web if you've ever encountered an interactive 360-degree panoramic image, where you can "navigate" the scene by dragging and clicking, so that you appear to move left and right, up and down, and closer and further away. VR photography is also used online for giving the appearance of spinning an object around, with your cursor or keyboard, to observe it from all angles and perspectives.

Highton's now published the definitive volume on "Virtual Reality Photography," so that multimedia journalists can learn the required techniques for creating state-of-the-art VR images for themselves. It's amply illustrated in full-color throughout, with tips, techniques, and detailed instruction.

In four sections it covers photography basics, panoramic VR imaging, object VR imaging, and "how to run an effective business offering professional VR photography services, based on the author's 30+ years of experience."

Watch Scott Highton lecture on VR photography here (74-minute video).

See examples of VR photography here and here.

For more info on the book (including sample chapters), or to order, go here.

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