How to make a Globe/Planet photo manipulation in GIMP

This photo manipulation is called a stereographic projection, which takes a standard photograph and stretches it around in a circle creating a Globe or Planet like image!

Planet Photo Manipulation in GIMP

1. Starting – Cropping

Open up your image – preferably one with lots of depth of field and landscape!
Duplicate Layer, and hide (uncheck eye):
Crop your image – an even balance of sky and ground:
Crop Tool settings: Guides: Center Lines:

Duplicate-Crop

1.b Seamless Join (optional)

To make a more seamless join later you may consider making duplicate sides:
Increase your canvas size on one side – 500px (Image –> Canvas Size…):
Make a selection of at the opposite end and float it: Select –> Float – make it a new layer and duplicate it:
Move the selection in the space at the opposite end:
Add a Layer Mask (White) – ‘Right Click’ on Layer:
Use Blend Tool with FG Only: Black, Bi-Linear:
Blend the overlap:
Crop to size and cut off excess:
Apply Layer Mask and Merge Down (‘Right Click’ Layer) after you have finished:

Seamless Join - Masking

2. Resizing – Square

We need a square image so, go Image –> Scale Image…
Set the width to your original height so they are the same – uncheck the proportions lock first (chain):

Resizing - Square (Image --> Scale Image...)

3. Polar Coordinates

To make the Planet go, Filters –> Distorts –> Polar Coordinates…:
Settings: 100, 180, To Polar (as shown):

Polar Coordinates

4. Retouching – Masking (Skip if completed 1.b)

Since this is not a 360° image it is not continuous, so we need to retouch the join:
Duplicate Globe Layer:
Rotate top layer until clear of the join – about 90° (Layer –> Transform –> Rotate 90°):
Add Layer Mask (White) – ‘Right Click” on Layer or Layer –> Mask –> Add Layer Mask…:

Duplicate - Rotate - Add Layer Mask

Use the Blend/Gradient Tool with Radial and FG Only: Black:
Mask away the line (small strokes).
Use the Brush Tool if you need to refine things: Circle Fuzzy:
Apply Layer Mask and Merge Down (‘Right Click’ Layer) after you have finished:

Layer Masking

5. Centre Retouching (optional)

You might like to fix up the centre, it can look heavily stretched:
On your Original (Background) Layer make a selection of the foreground, use the Ellipse Tool:
Float the selection, go Select –> Float:
To allow a Layer Mask you’ll need to make it an actual layer, *Click* the New Layer Button:
Add Layer Mask (White), use the Brush Tool and smooth out the edges:
Apply Layer Mask and Merge Down (‘Right Click’ Layer) after you have finished:

Centre Retouch

6. Rotate – Crop

Simply rotate your image to your preferably orientation (Layer –> Transform –> Arbitrary Rotation):
And, crop off the edges:

Rotate - Crop

That’s It!

Here is another example, where water is ideal as foreground:

Sydney
by Michael Scott

For some more tips go here!

If you get stuck anywhere just comment below!

Planets | Inspiration

For some inspiration please checkout:
Planet (Stereographic Projection) Photography

If you’d like to use these photographs please Contact Me!

Please comment below if you have any questions and I’ll answer them ASAP!

Written by Mike

Michael Scott is the publisher and photographer behind Scott Photographics! He is very passionate about his photography and enjoys sharing the best of his experiences for others to enjoy too! Contact Mike via email!

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27 Comments Post a comment

Mike

May 6 2013

Hi Kate,

It may be a case of resizing / cropping your photograph to the right proportions. In this short tutorial I show how the distortion is most effective on the outer and inner edges: http://www.scottphotographics.com/planet-tutorial/

Let me know if that works!

Thanks,
Mike
Kate

May 6 2013

Hey, i tried to do this with the London skyline, but all the buildings were badly distorted (the gherkin was just a stripy circle), how do i reshape the buildings?
Mike

Oct 30 2011

Hey John,

Yeah this is a tricky step. Just double check your layers, make sure the mask is in the right place and the layers are position in the right order.

If you are still having trouble you can email me.

Mike
John

Oct 30 2011

Hey Mike
It’s me again. I’m having problem with the center retouching step. Went through all the steps but the paintbrush does not work i.e there’s no smoothing of the edges.
Mike

Jun 10 2011

Hey Warwick,

What part are you having a problem with?

Make sure that your working layer is on top (in your layers tool bar), and your using a White Layer Mask and your gradient tool has black foreground colour.

Thanks,

Mike
Warwick

Jun 9 2011

hey i cant get rid of the joins??
Mike

Dec 22 2010

Hi Cameron,

Sorry for the late reply, you may need to make that Floated Layer a new layer, so *Click* the new layer button in the layers panel!

If that doesn’t fix it just comment and I’ll see what else could be the problem!

Thanks,

Mike
Cameron

Dec 18 2010

Hey, I am stuck at step five. I cannot creat a layer mask on the floated layer
Computer Tutorials

Oct 14 2010

I really get amazed with what we can create with Gimp software. I think I should begin writing some Gimp tutorials.
Michael

Aug 3 2010

Yes, you can apply it to anything and the 360degree images are very cool!
dongogo

Aug 3 2010

Great tut. I stop to use hugin in order to create planets ;)
Caesar Tjalbo

Aug 3 2010

Add. To give you an idea, take the labels on the Pink Floyd record Animals:
http://www.pinkfloydarchives.com/Discog/Sweden/LP/Animals/labels.jpg
Caesar Tjalbo

Aug 2 2010

I’d say that if you’d use this technique on a 360 deg image, you’ll get something close to a fisheye lens.
Michael

Aug 1 2010

Thanks for the feedback :)
Lilly

Aug 1 2010

great tut! .. thanks :)
Alex

Aug 1 2010

Thanks for the tutorial. Looks easy to follow, so I hope to try it out soon.