Borbin the 🐱

Imagine standing in front of a pastry display – the kind you would find in an Italian café, filled with cakes behind glass. In my part of the world it is a Kuchentheke. Not just a place to store and display cakes. It is where they take the stage.
Now picture a Tiramisu cake, viewed through a fisheye lens. The distortion, the curvature, the way the image wraps around the edges – all of it hints at the need for a projection method that can handle such transformations. This blog explores how panoramic projections like Transverse Mercator relate to real-world visual experiences, starting with this sweet example:

❌ Equirectangular Projection

The equirectangular projection maps latitude and longitude directly onto a flat grid, making it easy to process and display panoramic images. However, with wide fields of view, it introduces noticeable distortion at the top, bottom, and sides. Straight lines curve unnaturally, and objects near the poles or edges appear stretched. While it is widely used for 360° viewers and stitching software, it is not ideal for realistic close-up scenes.

❌ Cylindric Projection

Unlike the equirectangular projection, the cylindrical projection introduces more distortion, especially in vertical lines since the vertical projection is rectilinear. This makes the center of the image appear more prominent, while the sides curve away, creating a tunnel-like effect. It is useful for immersive panoramas, but in wide-angle scenes, it can exaggerate the central area and distort peripheral objects.

❌ Rectilinear Projection

The rectilinear projection keeps straight lines straight, which is useful for architectural photography. However, when applied to wide-angle panoramic images, it introduces strong stretching at the edges. Objects on the left and right sides appear unnaturally large or distorted, especially in close-up scenes like a pastry display (Kuchentheke) photographed with a fisheye lens.

✅ Transverse Mercator Projection

The classic Mercator projection is widely known for its use in navigation maps, where it preserves angles and represents lines of constant bearing as straight. The Transverse Mercator is a rotated variant, where the cylindrical surface is aligned along a central meridian instead of the equator. This makes it especially useful for mapping narrow regions that extend north–south, such as countries or cities, with minimal distortion near the central axis.

In panoramic photography, the Transverse Mercator projection can be creatively applied to emphasize the central vertical axis of an image. It helps reduce distortion toward the edges and provides a more balanced appearance in wide-angle scenes, such as standing in front of a pastry display (Kuchentheke) and capturing it with a fisheye lens. The result is a projection that keeps the center prominent while minimizing distortion on the sides.

Only a few horizontal control points are needed to achieve good alignment. For this type of optimization, at least three horizontal control points are required.
Once the optimization is complete, the areas marked by green lines in the image will be perfectly horizontal.

Only yaw, pitch, and roll angles need to be optimized.
Usually it gets you a perfect result.

More of the same scene:

From A Day in Florence, Italy
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See also Panotools projection, The Balcony Panorama, Panotools projections example and Stereographic projection.

THCUO RPQVR IHIEZ EQBJS UELFW BGNCK CXBEW BGQEY SDH

In der alten Bibliothek fand man drei Manuskripte: I, II und III. Jeder Abschnitt war mit AAA markiert – ein merkwürdiger Zufall, denn auch die letzten Seiten trugen erneut das Kürzel AAA. Manche glauben, es handle sich um ein Werk, das Gedanken in Zeichen verwandelte – und Zeichen in Schweigen.
Amgine erscheint dort, wo der Weg zurück zum Ausgang führt.

Editing equirectangular panoramic images can be challenging, especially near the zenit (top) and nadir (bottom) due to the heavy distortion in those areas. A practical solution is to convert the equirectangular image into cube faces, which represent the six sides of a cube (front, back, left, right, top, bottom). This format allows for easier and more precise editing. Once the modifications are complete, the cube faces can be reassembled into a seamless equirectangular panorama.

🖼️ Convert ➝ 🧊 Cube Faces ➝ 🖼️ Edit ➝ 🔄 Reassemble ➝ ✅ Done

This guide outlines the complete process using PTGui:

🧊 Step 1: Load the Equirectangular Image into PTGui and convert to Cube Faces

1. Open PTGui.
2. In the "Extras" menu, select the option to convert to cube faces.
3. Add the equirectangular image, set the Jpeg-Quality to 95 if you are using Jpeg, and click "Convert"

🖼️ Step 2: Edit the Cube Faces

Open the six undistorted cube face images in your preferred image editor and apply the necessary edits to the relevant face(s), such as removing a tripod from the nadir or retouching the sky in the zenit.
Save the edited images with the same filenames.

🔄 Step 3: Reassemble the Cube Faces into an Equirectangular Image

1. Open PTGui.
2. Load the six edited cube face images. You can simply drag and drop the cube face images from the explorer.

The images are automatically aligned for equirectangular output in the PTGui editor:

3. Go to the "Create Panorama" tab.
4. Choose your desired output resolution and click "Create Panorama".

Converting an equirectangular panorama into cube faces provides precise control over editing problematic areas like the nadir and zenit. PTGui simplifies this workflow, enabling seamless transitions between projections and accurate reassembly of the final panorama. This method is particularly effective for high-quality virtual tours, 360° photography, and professional post-processing tasks.

Thinking a step further, what you really need is the 15,3mm lens reported by PTGui:

Because sometimes, the best way to solve a problem … is to avoid it entirely in the first place. The 15,3mm cube face lens captures the world in exactly 90° intervals. Just six clean shots stitched with pixel-perfect seamlines, and leave the fisheye theatrics at the door.

Spokane, Washington, nestled along the Spokane River in the eastern part of the state, is known for its rich history, vibrant arts scene, and stunning natural surroundings. Named after the Spokane Tribe, 'Children of the Sun' in the Salish language, the city reflects deep indigenous roots and natural beauty.

All pictures and panoramic images are taken with 1/1000s f/5,6 ISO 100/21° f=7,5mm, unless noted otherwise.

🏥 UW

Our journey begins at the University of Washington School of Medicine's Spokane campus, where the first panorama captures the academic heart of the city.

Interactive Panorama UW

🌳 Riverfront Park

Spokane's green centerpiece, once the site of Expo '74, is now a vibrant public space full of history and movement. Bridges connect the city to Havermale Island, where some panoramas were taken. The view here spans from the upper Spokane Falls to the Pavilion, capturing the park's dynamic blend of nature, architecture, and community life.

The Centennial Sculpture on a cloudy day

And next to it, The Great Northern Clocktower

View from a nearby Hotel to the Riverfront Park

This particular panorama proved trickier than expected. Without a tripod, aligning the frames by hand made it difficult to maintain precise rotation around the nodal point, which is essential for perfect stitching. I even added an extra frame to help with stitching, but small imperfections remain. Still, the result captures the essence of the scene, even if a few pixels had a mind of their own. Sometimes, the story behind the image is part of the image itself.

Interactive Panorama Spokane Pavilion

Interactive Panorama King Cole Woodbridge

Interactive Panorama Spokane Falls Brücke

🌊 Spokane River

The Spokane River winds through the city, carving its path through stone and story alike. Along its banks, trails, bridges and parks invite exploration. The panoramic images captures the river's flow near one of its quieter bends, where reflections of sky and trees ripple across the surface.

Framed by Steel: A View Through the Bridge

River bend

Sunlit Walk Along the Water

More Pictures Along the Riverside

The World Wide Panorama contribution for the event 'Why'

A single dead tree stands between the walkway and the riverbank. Its bare branches reaching skyward in contrast to the lush greenery around it.
Why did it die? Was it disease, drought, or simply age?
Its presence adds a quiet tension to the scene, a reminder that even in places full of life and movement, stillness and decay have their place too.

Interactive Panorama Spokane River

🏢 Apartment Where We Stayed

Spokane offers a wide spectrum of hotel experiences, like a roulette wheel of hospitality. On one end, you've got places like the Ramada by Wyndham, where the décor is "early abandonment", the guests are... let's say colorful, and the rooms come with a complimentary layer of grime. On the other end, there are sleek 4-star hotels that promise luxury but sometimes deliver lukewarm service and Yelp reviews that read like cautionary tales. And in the middle? The classic 3-star American hotel, where breakfast includes a waffle machine, questionable eggs, and the lingering scent of disappointment. Choose wisely, or at least pack your sense of humor.

We were lucky. Tucked into a quiet neighborhood close to the campus, our apartment served as a perfect base for exploring the city. With morning light filtering through the windows and the scent of pine in the air, it offered a peaceful retreat.

Interactive Panorama Apartment 1

Interactive Panorama Apartment 2

✈️ Airport

Our journey ends where we first arrived, and we leave Spokane behind with memories captured in light and lines. Spokane International Airport welcomes visitors with a mix of regional charm and modern convenience. The terminal's open design and surrounding pine-dotted landscape offer a first glimpse of the Inland Northwest's character.

Interactive Panorama C7

1/80s f/5,6 ISO 200/24° f=7,5mm

1/80s f/5,6 ISO 160/23° f=7,5mm

The 737 arrives

Taxi-in

Passenger boarding bridge attaches

Start refueling and unloading

The windows facing the airfield are tinted with a subtle blue hue, and be corrected by adjusting the white balance (photos were taken using the sunlight white balance setting).

Forty minutes later, we rolled into Seattle and the Spokane chapter came to a close, pixels packed, panoramas pending, and the last bit of sunlight archived in RAW.

🌥️ Above the Clouds – To Spokane and Back

Every journey begins with a takeoff and ends with a landing, but what happens in between is often the most quietly beautiful. This segment captures both the outbound flight into Spokane and the return above the rugged silhouettes of the Cascade Mountains. From the first lift-off into layered skies to the final descent through fading light, the airborne chapters of this trip offer shifting perspectives: pine forests from above, rivers winding like thoughts, and clouds that blur the boundary between memory and motion.

All images and clips were captured using my Android phone.

SEA - GEG¹

Boarding

Taxi out from Seattle

Our turn now, with all the other Bombers lined up for their turn

Takeoff

Imagine being stuck in that one for 10 hours. It is just you, sushi, and the slow unraveling of time.

View on the Main Terminal

The South Terminal. The empty spot is S11, where the Frankfurt flight LH491 departs.

This view shows Steel Lake at the bottom and Lake Dolloff at the top, separated by Interstate 5

Landing in Spokane

GEG - SEA

Taxi out from Spokane

That view is half of Spokane Airport

Spokane Taxi Out – In Motion

Takeoff

GEG National Forest (Unofficial)

The Space Needle

Landing in Seattle

Arrived at Gate Q2

Fireworks Photos with a Long Zoom Lens: A Better Approach

Photographing fireworks from a distance of several kilometers can be tricky if your tripod setup is not absolutely stable, especially when using long exposures. I used a Nikon Z30 with the 50–250mm lens on a tripod, aiming to capture sharp bursts with surrounding buildings in the frame:

📸 Fireworks Photography: The Classic Recipe

Here is the standard setup for capturing fireworks:

• ISO: 100 (or as low as your camera allows)
• Aperture: f/8 to f/11 for sharpness and depth
• Shutter Speed: 2 to 10 seconds (use BULB mode and adjust based on burst duration)
• Focus: Manual, set to infinity or pre-focus on a distant object
• White Balance: Daylight or Auto
• Stabilization: Use a tripod and disable VR
• Remote Trigger: Optional, but helps avoid camera shake

This setup works great when you are close to the action and using a standard or wide-angle lens. But what if the fireworks are several kilometers away, you are shooting with a long zoom, and your tripod setup is not exactly rock-solid? That's where things get interesting.

The Problem

While the fireworks were crisp, the buildings appeared blurry. The cause is vibrations from people walking nearby and the long shutter time (several seconds). Even if you take pictures without a tripod and have VR enabled, the system could not stabilize the image over such long exposures.
And tripods, especially on unstable surfaces, do not eliminate this issue. Using shorter shutter speeds helps reduce motion blur, but it introduces a new challenge: you often miss the perfect moment. Sometimes, all it takes is a fraction of a second to turn a potential masterpiece into a chaotic blur of light.

13,0s f/8 ISO 100/21° f=200mm/300mm

The Solution: Slow-Shutter Video

Switching to video mode at 1/25s shutter speed solved the problem:

• Sliding through the video to capture the perfect frame as a new level of content creation
• No motion blur in buildings or other static elements
• Fireworks still looked vibrant and dynamic
• Overall stabilization was noticeably better

You lose the long light trails typical of multi-second exposures, but the bursts remain visually striking.
Instead of hoping to hit the perfect moment with a single shot, just extract stills from the exact frame you want. For example, using VLC (Shift+S or Menu → Video → Take Snapshot) makes it easy to grab high-quality frames directly from your footage.

Video resolution these days is 3840×2160. Not far off from stills at 5568×3712 with my camera. That's more than enough to crop, zoom, and relive every spark in crisp detail: gone are the days of grainy VGA 640×480 clips from early digital cameras. The kind that looked halfway decent on a VHS-era TV. This is not VHS anymore. This is IMAX, and you are in the front row.