Best Tips to Take Cool Panoramic Photographs

For the travelers among us, you’re sure to have encountered situations where even a wide-angle lens was unable to capture the full scope of certain landscapes you have come across. In those situations, the only way to capture an extremely wide image is by shooting a series of images and stitching them together to obtain a panoramic image. The panorama will offer viewers a left-to-right view that encompasses more than the human eye is capable of seeing. Here’s how to get started.

#Tips 1.

Cameras that can be set to manual mode (such as DSLRs) will give you much more impressive panoramas. But this does not mean you can’t produce quality panoramas if your camera doesn’t have any manual modes. It’s just a matter of shooting the images properly.

If you are bringing along your DSLR, grab a lens that has a focal length of 50mm or longer (use the 35mm equivalent lens for cropped sensor DSLR models). This focal length will result in a normal perspective when viewing the finished panorama and keeps distortion to a minimum.

While a tripod is not compulsory for day scenes, do bring one along if you have it as it helps you to keep your images level horizontally. A night scene panorama will require slower shutter speeds, so in order to minimize camera shake you will definitely need to use a tripod.

#Tips 2.

Consistency is the key to shooting a good panorama. The autofocus point and aperture settings should all be consistent so that the individual images can be linked seamlessly. It is also important to know that Auto mode can cause varied exposure in the images you shoot. Even if you can not adjust your shutter speeds or aperture values, do remember that there’s a possibility that shooting in Auto mode will result in varying ISO settings, and thus produce inconsistent image quality.

As most panoramas are a capture of a wide scene, everything in the image should reasonably sharp. We can obtain this sharpness with a deep depth of field, so the first thing is to decide on the aperture value to shoot at.

Once you have decided on the aperture value, focus on the main subject in your image, and switch to manual focus. This prevents your focus point from shifting when you pan the camera.

Take a few test shots to see if the details you are interested in capturing are not lost. For example, if your main focus in the panorama is the blue sky above the hills, do check that the sky is not blown out with the current exposure setting that you’re shooting at. It is easier to recover details that are lost in shadow rather than trying to work with blown highlights.

#Tips 3.

Do not have a camera with you? Well a smartphone can capture a panorama too if you have the right apps.

Photosynth
360 Panorama
Pano
PhotoStitch

#Tips 4.

Start shooting and do not forget to ensure that each shot overlaps the previous shot by a fair margin. One trick you can use is to always remember a significant object or landmark at the edge of the previous shot and make sure it is included in the edge of the next shot.

Try to take the photos as quick as possible to prevent any undesired changes in the image such as a child running into the frame or having the light change between shots. Uneven lighting conditions can confuse the camera to producing images with the wrong exposure, so you can manually correct that either by manipulating the shutter speed, or by using the exposure compensation feature if your camera has no manual mode.

#Tips 5.

Merging all the Shots using PhotoShop

Once you are done taking all the images, open them up in Photoshop. Make sure all the images you want to stitch together are opened up concurrently in multiple tabs.



From there, hit File -> Automate -> Photomerge. From there, select Add Open Files and all the images you have opened up will be added, which is far more convenient than having to browse and add your files. You can then select any of the layout options available and hit OK to have your panorama completed.