Using photos to map a 3D sphere onto a 2d map/plane?
I have a physical sphere with a pattern on it that I've photographed from every angle and I'm trying to figure out how to merge those images into a 2D surface. Photo Merge doesn't work well when I simply rotate the object but keep the camera stationary. I think I might need to move the camera through an arc to photograph the sphere, but that wouldn't give me every part of the surface to translate into a map of the sphere.
Are there any tips on getting Photoshop to translate these photos to a plane? I know there will be distortion, but I'm hoping there's some way within Photoshop to do this regardless.
