My name is Zhijian Zhang. I live in Panzhihua, a city in the mountain, in Southwest China.

I just created my first three panorama on Panomonkey. In fact that was only testing. I found that creating panorama is interesting and I was trying to do it better. So I climbed up a roof and had my first try. I took three groups of photos in different way to see which is better. The Panomonkey let the work easy.

My English is poor, maybe there’s something wrong with the grammar. I hope you can know my meaning. I am a Chinese in PRC, so I can’t visit some foreign websites such as Youtube freely except using proxy. Fortunately Panomonkey is not in the GFW‘s blacklist, at least for now. :)

Matt Brushett of Helios Design Labs used Panomonkey to create an interactive panorama from source images of an imaginary oil rig, made from a 3d visualization program:

Matt says,

The panorama is a sketch for a project in progress at Helios Design Labs so we can’t go into too much detail except to say the image is entirely modelled and rendered from a 3d application and then stitched together using panomonkey. This is the initial state of the pano before we take it into photoshop to do final colour and compositing.

Panomonkey has helped make the process of turning the images into actual panos super easy and helped save me so much time so thanks for creating such an awesome product.

I recently bought a cheap fisheye adapter for my phone from eBay. Hey, why not – it was twenty bucks! Worst case, it ends up in my kids’ toy box. But I actually underestimated this thing. Last time I played with one of these was a couple years ago, and it seems that the quality has improved quite a bit since then. It still does not come close to the quality you get from an SLR camera and a $900 fisheye lens of course. But it is inching closer. It is, I dare say, getting close to the quality I got back in 2005 with the $1000 Canon 300d SLR and a $500 fisheye lens.

The below images were all shot using my Samsung Nexus S mobile phone (5 megapixel camera) with this miniature fisheye lens, and stitched using Panomonkey. Click the pictures to go to the interactive versions.

Last but not least: Bathrooms are a good test for shooting panoramas…. :-) Small confined spaces! I didn’t manage to keep my feet out of this one!

I took the train to Beroun with my kids. They’re young, so they like trains. We didn’t even do anything in Beroun – just ran around the train station and then got back on the train and went home!

This panorama was made on my Android mobile phone (a Samsung Nexus S)s from 30 shots – 2 rows of 15 shots. The first row was shot pointing the phone straight ahead, and the second row was shot pointing about 45º upwards.

Here is the “flat” image:

Here is the 360º panorama:

One great thing about making panoramas is that you can extend the capabilities of your camera in some very significant ways. This panorama here was shot with the camera on my Nexus S phone. The panorama was made from 6 individual photos which I uploaded to Panomonkey.com to process into a single panoramic photo.

As you can see, the nearest part of the image (the teeth) are in focus, as well as the most distant parts of the image (Prague skyline). Additionally, all parts of the image have good exposure and contrast. This panorama could not have been created using even a very expensive camera in a single shot. By using a very modest camera (my phone!), taking multiple photos, and using the powerful software inside Panomonkey, I’ve created a nice-looking image very easily and without any fancy tools!

Here is Ben. Ben is nearly 3 years old. He’s enjoying himself in Letna Beer Garden which overlooks Prague. From here you can see Prague from a great angle, including the whole of Prague’s Old Town. This is one picturesque place (with beer!) that I take most visitors to Prague if I have the chance.

Novy Svet is a little street in Prague, somewhere at the bottom of a hill behind Prague Castle. It feels like you have stepped back in time a few centuries. It is almost always silent here. The street is lined with cobblestones and it is so narrow that you can almost stretch your arms across it. One one side of the street there is a wall. In one place there is a door in the wall. Lo and behold, it’s a grassy playground, filled with awesome, fancy new playground things…

I shot this with my phone (Samsung Nexus S) – Here is the “flat” 360º image:

And here is the interactive version. Be sure to click “fullscreen” to enjoy it fully :)

Do you want to make 360º panoramic photos like this? It’s easy :) Just go to Panomonkey and try it!

This is Břevnovsky Klaster (Břevnov Monastery) in Prague. You can read all about it on Wikipedia.

Shot with a Canon 550D and Sigma 8mm fisheye lens using only four photos. It was stitched using Panomonkey without any further retouching.

To shoot a fully spherical panorama like this one using only four photos, it’s best to have an SLR camera (I prefer Canon) and an 8mm fisheye lens. You can read more about it on our “how to shoot panoramas” page.

Brevnovsky Klaster (Monastery) in Autumn in Prague

Every year I become more and more a fan of growing things. Tomatoes are a kick because (at least for me), they seem to grow in abundance, as long as there is sun! Here were the last tomatoes of the 2010 season. Not all of these ended up turning red….

Last Tomatoes of 2010 in Prague

This panorama was made using a Canon 550D and a Sigma 8mm fisheye lens, shot handheld (with a string). Stitched fully automatically using Panomonkey. This panorama was not retouched in any way after stitching.

I shot this last summer on a walk through Okor, near Prague, with a Canon 5D and a shaved Samyang 8mm lens.

Waterfall near Okor in Czech Republic