Panoramas – So easy you wouldn't believe......

A panoramic picture is made out of several images stitched into one using a special software like Autostitch.

In order to take a good panoramic shoot you only need to follow some very simple guidelines and you'll do just fine.

1.The camera should be in Manuel mode.

2.Use Manual focus

3.Have at least 30%-50% coverage between every 2 pictures.

4.Keep it leveled

5.Leave room in the top and bottom of the image

6.Preferably take the picture vertically.

7.As close to 50mm zoom as possible

Here is what we need to do:

1.The camera should be in Manuel mode.

Make sure the exposure is set to fit the brightest part of the scene (A panoramic image usually have different amount of light through out the scene. In the above picture you can see the sun in the middle is making the area brighter then the sides.). In order to determine the right exposure I usually set the camera to shutter priority mode (Tv in Canon, T in Nikon = “Time Value”), Set the camera to a shutter speed fast enough to keep the image from been blurred (read more in the “Photography Basics” page) and then, while moving the camera around the scene, I see what is the F (aperture value) the camera gives me and I pick the smallest value (I.e- the highest F number)

here is an example:

let's say the panoramic picture will be made out of 5 images. And this is the camera exposure for each image:

If I'll use F4, the middle image will be too bright and we'll lose details in it. Therefor we'll choose the F5.6 and this way the entire picture will be exposed correctly.

Now we switch to Manuel mode and enter this values: 1/125 F5.6.

**some times, the scene has so much difference in it that something needs to be scarified. This usually happens at sunrise or sunset and then we sometimes “loose” some details in the sun

2.Use Manual focus – focus once at disable the auto focus. If you don't do that the camera will re-focus with every picture you take, and you'll end up with a blurred panorama.

3.Have at least 30%-50% coverage between every 2 pictures. The stitching software will look for objects that appears in 2 images in order to stitch them. Therefore make sure you have a non-moving image as your anchor in every images and that you merging space for the software. Failing to do so may keep some of the images out of the panorama...

*** if you have moving objects in the merged areas, they will appear “ghosty”

4.Keep it leveled

Photographing a panorama without a special Tri-pod will result in an “arch” like image (see below). In order to minimize this, try and keep the pictures as leveled as possible.

I knew most of the guides talk about how important the tri-pod but I almost never use it. Actually I only use it in low light situations. In the rest of the time I actually make my “arch” even bigger since I'm using a regular tri-pod head and not one which keeps the pivot point leveled at all times like this one

5.remember to leave room in the top and bottom of the image

Since most of the times the panoramas will have this “Arch” I like leaving some space on the top and bottom side of the images. If you want the top of the mountain to be in the picture, make sure you leave some space above it. If not, you might have to cut it while you are getting rid of the black left-overs of your image

6.preferably take the picture vertically.

This is not a most. The only thing is that your image is going to be a lot more width then high so if the images are vertical it will give more hight to your panorama.

7. Use as close to 50mm zoom as possible

The wider the zoom, the more distorted the image will be. It is better to take 10 pictures to cover the scene using 40mm and not 5 pictures in 16mm , if you have to use the widest zoom you have, try to take a lot of pictures so you have more then 50% coverage, this will help with the distortion.