Visual Plane
every picture states the point it is correct from
Concept

Spherical panorama — where it appears

2 essays name this object, across 2 fields. What follows is each of them, and the objects they name alongside it.
no picture at 300°the plane is unbounded at 180°plane — bend 0.0%cylinder — bend 6.0%stereographic — bend 3.5%equidistant — bend 4.5%equal-area — bend 5.1%equirect. — bend 5.7%300° across in every panelsame scene, same angle, six surfaces

What a 360-degree photograph actually is

The format every spherical camera writes preserves nothing — not straightness, not shape, not area — and it is the right choice anyway, for a reason that has nothing to do with looking at it. An equirectangular file is a lookup table of directions, and the picture only exists at the moment something re-projects a piece of it.

curved · panorama a rotating eye — the panorama2e-15 ma projectiona translating eye — the scroll7.97 mnot oneboth of these draw a straight world line as a curverms miss of the least-squares centreone of them is a projection

A scroll is not a panorama

Both draw straight world lines as curves, and one of them is a projection. A rotating eye keeps its centre exactly however far it turns; a translating eye has none at all. Curvature and centrelessness are independent properties, and conflating them is the standard mistake about both objects.

scroll · panorama

Named alongside it

The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.

EquirectangularArea scaleAzimuthcentre of projectionCylindrical projectionElevationFisheyeFocal lengthHandscrollLight fieldMoving viewpointPanorama

All concepts