Today on Monday Mysteries we consider a few photos of Sweep Scenes. Unlike standard street scenes, these photos are slightly mysterious, since they are clearly not anything you’d see in real life, even though the contents of the photos have not been altered in any way after the fact of the photo being taken.

Before we get to the explanation of what’s going on,  let’s take a look at the photos to see their slightly strange representations of the world. Remember you can click on these photos to open up bigger versions in a new window. Also,  the carousel photo below will increase further when you click on it in the new window and show an amazing amount of detail.

Scene from a Train, Italy

Looking up at christmas decorations hanging above  street in Verona

Carousel, Verona

All of these photos were deliberate tests — based on an idea Chris had — to see what would happen if I used something called a  “sweep panorama” feature on my cell phone to construct a panoramic image of a moving object or scene. Normally you create a panorama photo  — i.e. a photo of a scene that’s wider than a single photo will allow — by taking one or more individual photos and “stitching” them together (on the computer or in a darkroom).  However, with my cell phone camera I can take what’s called a  “sweep” panorama, where I move the camera from one side to the other in order to take a long panoramic photo of a scene all in one go.

Chris wondered: what would happen if instead of my moving the camera from side to side, the object that was in front of the camera was itself moving, or the camera was moving in a different way?

So that’s what I set out to test. In the scene from the train photo, the train was in motion and the “sweep panorama” was created as the camera tried to piece together the view as the landscape changed in front of the camera.

For the view of the decorative lights hanging above the street in Verona, I was in motion with the camera, but aiming the camera up above me as I walked down the street.

For the carousel photo, the sweep panorama image was constructed by views of the moving carousel taken continuously over (approximately) 1.5 minutes, from when the ride started to when it ended. This makes for a photo of a carousel that is far wider than the real thing, and if you click on it a couple of times (once above and then again in the new window) you should see details like the same little kid in a hat repeated 3 times which shows the motion of the carousel). Fun!

For the last one today, consider this next photo which was taken on the train coming back from Italy last Friday. I’ve cropped it a little to eliminate some junk on the far right edge; the cropping then has made this one a different shape than the rest. But it’s a “sweep panorama” just like the first one taken out of the window  on the train:

Scene from a Train, Austria

At first glance it might look like a painting or print that has a fold in the middle.  But of course, it’s not – it’s just a digital photo – and one that has never been physically printed.

Intriguing, wouldn’t you say? Looking at those photos without an explanation, I find them a bit mysterious when trying to guess how they were done. Mysterious enough, at least, for a Monday. 😉