Panorama Photography
Panoramas are a striking way to photograph a landscape,
and are a lot of fun to shoot. Learn how to capture and stitch a
successful panorama.
I really enjoy taking my camera out to explore new places and see what
interesting subjects I can find. Often when I do, I'll stumble across a
stunning landscape that would make a great photograph.
Unfortunately, you often can't fit enough of the scene into a single
frame to do it justice. This leaves you with two options - either shoot a
smaller part of the scene, potentially losing some of the overall
impact, or take multiple shots that can be stitched into a panorama.
Panorama photography is generally very easy, though it does require you
to plan your photo in advance and be methodical with the way you shoot
it. Follow these steps to ensure your panorama photos come out just the
way you intend.
Planning your panorama shoot...
When photographing panoramas choose a location with a consistent tonal
range. Because you are shooting a much wider angle than a regular shot
it is easy to end up with a scene with so much contrast that you lose
most of the detail.
Choose a scene with an even level of contrast throughout so that you don't lose detail.
Shooting in the harsh midday sun is a sure way to create too much
contrast in your panoramas. Instead, shoot closer to the start or end of
the day, or when the sky is overcast, as this will help reduce the
contract, allowing you to capture detail in all areas of the scene.
Sunrise and sunset can make for dramatic panoramas, but the rapidly
changing light conditions mean you have to work quickly. Get to your
location with plenty of time to set up your equipment so you don't miss
the critical moment.
Equipment
You can photograph panoramas with a hand-held camera, but you will
achieve better results with a tripod. A panoramic head on your tripod is
ideal, but they are very expensive, and you can still achieve some
superb shots with a standard tripod. You can use a spirit level to
ensure your tripod is perfectly level.
Panoramic tripod heads produce the best results but are expensive.
Set your camera to shoot in JPEG rather than RAW. RAW files give more
detail than we realistically need, and their large file size can cripple
your computer when stitching shots together.
Avoid using filters, such as polarizing filters, when shooting
panoramas, as they produce very obvious color changes at the edges of
your shots, making them difficult to blend together when stitching.
Make a set of cardboard frames in varying panoramic ratios (3:1, 4:1,
5:1 etc). These are perfect for visualizing the scene when you are at
your shooting location.
Setting up
Mount your camera on your tripod in portrait rather than landscape.
This allows you to capture more vertical detail, giving depth to your
panorama.
Set your camera's zoom to somewhere around its middle setting. This is
where lens distortion is at a minimum, which will make stitching the
shots considerably easier.
Look through your camera's viewfinder and ensure you can fit all of
your scene in. It is important to include more of your scene than you
actually want, because you will lose some of it through cropping during
the stitching process. A good rule of thumb is to try to contain the
part of the scene you actually want in the centre two thirds of the
image, giving you a generous border top and bottom.
Including some foreground detail will add depth and interest to your
panorama, but be aware that the closer something is, the more it is
affected by alignment issues (called parallax error). When shooting,
keep foreground objects away from image overlaps as much as possible.
Composition is just as important in panorama photography as it is in
any other sort; don't get so bogged down in the technical details that
you forget to photograph a visually appealing shot.
Carry out a few test pans of your tripod to ensure that your panorama's
horizon is level. This is also a good time to figure out roughly how
you will divide your scene into separate shots.
Focus on an object in the foreground and use a narrow aperture to give you maximum depth of field.
For consistency between shots, lock as many of the camera's settings as
you can, including focus, white balance (or use a preset), shutter
speed, and aperture diameter. This will make stitching and blending your
panorama as easy as possible. Some cameras offer a panorama mode that
locks all of these setting for you, based on the first image you shoot.
Shooting
Choose a shooting direction, e.g. left to right, and stick with it.
Starting off one side of your scene, begin photographing. Work carefully
but quickly to minimise any differences between your shots, especially
when shooting in rapidly changing lighting conditions.
Get plenty of overlap between your photos - around 50%. This gives you
plenty of pixels to play with when stitching your panorama.
Allow an overlap of around 50% between shots to aid in stitching the panorama.
Be careful where you place your overlaps - avoid moving objects such as
people or cars, and keep split lines away from any foreground objects
or stand-out features in the scene.
When shooting multiple panorama scenes, separate them by shooting a
frame with your hand over the lens. When reviewing your photos later
this makes it much easier to see where one panorama ends and another
starts.
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