# making a Panorama Planet



## iamunique127 (Jan 23, 2008)

I've been tasked with making a group portrait for a friends' workplace. 

I'm thinking a "panorma planet" might make a good conversation piece for them.

I've found that I can use Filter>Distort>Polar Coordinates in Photoshop or GIMP but I own neither.

I use Pixelmator but it doesn't have that functionality.

Is anyone aware of another app or another command that is a) useable and b) affordable that I can use for this effect?


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

The GIMP while always somewhat buggy and rather pokey compared to PhotoShop or PS Elements is part of the GNU license and there fore available at no charge. It does require X11 and it is a rather large download. As long as you are running Leopard or Snow Leopard then X11 is installed by default. 

Here is a good place to start. Have not used GIMP in a very long time but you may have to also install some Linux Libraries as well.

Hopefully someone that has done this recently can offer more assistance.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

Try Lemkesoft's "Graphic Converter"
It has Plugin filters and effects just like PhotoShop.

It's shareware.


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## iamunique127 (Jan 23, 2008)

dolawren said:


> Try Lemkesoft's "Graphic Converter"
> It has Plugin filters and effects just like PhotoShop.
> 
> It's shareware.


Thanks for the suggestion.
It does have lots of great features but just doesn't have the one(Polar Coordinates) that I need.

I'll use the trial version of Photoshop for this one project.

For most purposes, Pixelmator meets my needs nicely.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

If you do a search for Plugins,
You'll come up with quite a number of sites with free plugins.



Like this one


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## iamunique127 (Jan 23, 2008)

@dolawren
thanks for the idea and the link.
I was really trying to stay away from Photoshop because I don't own it and can't justify the cost for one image.
The only apps I can find with the Polar Coordinates filter is PS and GIMP (which I don't easily understand).
I solved my dilemna by using the 30 day trial of PS for this project.


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