360x180º imaging of sample (like product photography?)

[Seapy]

A friend has a piece of Hematite, quite a spectacular spherical piece, about 100mm (4 inches) in diameter, very heavy, black with dark grey and faint dark red/brown markings/streaks. It has a rosetted fracture mark where it may have separated from another piece of Hematite. Otherwise not a lot of texture.  I believe it's of the type known as 'kidney ore' and the spheres  were sometimes found in clusters. Hematite is known to be brittle and has an almost glass-like feel.

This is the only piece of Hematite ore I have seen to handle. It's quite spectacular and I believe an outstanding example. I want to photograph it but am unsure how to capture the piece to do it justice. I feel that it really needs recording so that others can see this lovely example and examine it closely if they wish.

From my recent attempts at 360/180º landscapes (as 360cities), my thoughts turn towards 360º imaging, in this case inwards, rather than outwards.  I would need fine detail, a depth of good focus of about 2 to 3 inches and presumably a longish focal length (~105mm?) to avoid the distortion which a wider angle lens would produce.  I will be using a D3, I have Nikkor D 50mm f1.4, Micro Nikkor 55mm f2.8, Nikkor AI 105mm f2.5 and Micro Nikkor 105mm f4 in the range I feel may may appropriate.

From what I can gather, about 24 images around a subject are good but perhaps it also needs 'zenith' and 'nadir' image too? It can be placed on a turntable or a bearing to rotate it.

I have searched 360º product photography but what I am finding seems entirely commercially orientated with very expensive software or licences to host the images on specialised servers.

I have been pondering this for a year or more but I need to actually do something, the owner is elderly and in poor health. I currently have permission to photograph it, that could change, so any suggestions are welcome.

I am guessing it needs to be converted to some specialised format for display, I would like the viewer to be able to zoom in, rotate and tilt the image to view the entire sphere, in a similar way to 360/180º panoramas.

[Frank Fremerey]

There are lots of tutorials like this one: http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/3D/howto/VRManual.pdf

If you search like this: https://www.google.de/search?q=how+to+create+a+360+degreee+object+movie&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=L-YaWsfUO6TBXtT5uqgM

[Seapy]

Thank you Frank,  I think you have misunderstood, I definitely don't want video, I don't have a problem doing video, it's just time lapse, that's easy, I wouldn't have bothered anybody here asking how to do time lapse.   

What I want to do is a viewer interactive experience where the viewer can zoom in or rotate the image both on a vertical axis or horizontal so they can view or examine the subject from any angle, close up or the whole image, from above or below, totally under the viewers control.

This is what I want to do:  It zooms, rotates and tilts.

https://www.snap36.com/blog/portfolio_page/turbo-charger-2/

[Frank Fremerey]

What I want to do is a viewer interactive experience where the viewer can zoom in or rotate the image both on a vertical axis or horizontal so they can view or examine the subject from any angle, close up or the whole image, from above or below, totally under the viewers control.

Right. And the terminus technicus for exactly what you want is "object movie" (like I said above)

Does not have a thing to do with "video"

You create a photographic 3d-representation of your product for the internet or the point of sale

[Bent Hjarbo]

Hi
I don't know if Apple stil support this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuickTime_VR
Maybe this is what you are looking for
/Bent

[Seapy]

OK Frank, thank you for sticking with me, my mistake I misunderstood.

However, I have followed up the Becker document, which is excellent but 11 years old.  Quicktime seems to have gone or morphed into something else, Apple core MI I think, no mention of Object Movie, I have explored iMovie and being as simplistic as it is I can see no way of creating an Object Movie.  I  am a long time Apple user and had Quicktime Pro many years ago.  Software evolves and morphs over time and pretty quickly in niche areas like this.

I seem to remember Photoshop had some rudimentary movie features, perhaps they can be harnessed to achieve my goal.  I have Adobe Photoshop CC.

VR ObjectWorx, website still seems to exist but appears to be in German.  QuickTime VR Authoring Studio seems to no longer exist.  I have looked at Widgetizer but there seems to be some confusion between Object Movies and widgets which are small apps.  The only Widgetizer which was appropriate seemed to be a way of enhancing or even creating, Warcraft scenes.

I will plod on, I will take a set of images soon, that way I at least have the material for an Object Movie for the time I get software. I will of course have stills too.  I will experiment with lenses, I think the Micro Nikkor 105mm f4 may be the best, but will also try the Micro Nikkor 55mm.