The term panoramic format is used to refer to high aspect ratio or wide screen image format. Especially suitable for landscapes, where a lot of scenery can be taken in at a glance.

Especially in panoramic photography, the panoramic format can be taken to extremes, like in this example showing Riddarfjärden in Stockholm:

Example of panoramic format.

Panoramic images such as that above may be taken using specialized cameras or they may be pieced together from multiple digitized photographs in a process called stitching. Portions of an image such as that above may be rendered into an undistorted view in response to user control in one form of virtual reality.

Panorama paintings were very popular in the 19th century. The Bourbaki Panorama in Lucerne, Switzerland exhibits a circular painting of 1881 painted by Edouard Castres . The painting measures about 10 metres in height with a circumference of more than 100 metres,

Extreme panoramic formats in cinema are also possible, but require special projection rooms and projection systems. The first 360° installation was at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Another 360° system was shown at the Swiss Transport Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland. The theater is a large cylindrical space with an arrangement of screens whose bottom is several meters above the floor. This allows viewers to enter and exit through doors in the lower part of the cylinder and view the presentation without visual interference from other viewers. There is no seating but there are rails to lean against and to hold on to in case of vertigo induced by camera motion. The projection system consists of an odd number of screens arranged in a circle with a gap between each, which avoids minor disruputive discontinuities by introducing major discontinuities that can easily be overlooked. Within the gap between each screen is the lens of a movie projector that displays an image on its specific screen, which is diametrically opposite across the room.

Locations of circular panoramic movie theaters:

• Disneyland, Anaheim, California, USA
• Museum of the Terracotta Army, Xian, China

See also

• Panoramic photography
• Panning
• Film format
• Panorama Tools (Open source software)
• Hugin (Open source software)

External links

• 1906 San Francisco earthquake damage shown in panoramas taken from a kite flown panoramic camera
• Free Tool to create your own Panoramas