Yo!
Thanks for the welcomes back! I got to change my username though. My old one was Mr.Brick and Brickone is some writer in Australia.
The spherical one is a basic photostitch.
Here is how you do an image like that:
1. take any image that is a 2:1 or 3:1 aspect ratio (you can crop a single image if you want)
2. stretch that bitch! lets say your image is 2000x768. You want to stretch the smallest part out. Make sure you uncheck constrain proportions so you end up with an image that is 2000x2000.
3. ROTATE THE IMAGE 180 DEGREES!
if you don't hilter will smack you.
or the little planet will stretch around the outside, and not in the center. (which can be cool too).
4. I hate photoshop filters. They are garbage. Don't ever use them ever.
Having said that...
Use the polar co-ordinates filter (in distortion i think). Check out the settings. You can get some cool effects out of this.
5. The middle of your image is going to be all pinched and gross. so fix it. When I take these photos and I usually snap a few that are straight down(ish) in a few directions so that fixing the middle will be easier.
File sizes can get huge, so look out.
and yes- the construction images are HDR. I prefer HDR's toned down and not too crazy.
