Panoramic – A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν “all” + ὅραμα “sight”) is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model.
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Panoramic photography really is not difficult. Once you learn a few key ingredients, it all blends together quickly and you are often left with some amazing results!
Key Rules To Remember:
- Overlay your images by about 1/3 on each side.
- Keep your aperture constant.
Panoramic Myths:
- You need to shoot vertical. – False! If you are doing a single row pano it’s often better to shoot vertical and as level as possible to avoid a lot of cropping afterwards. Other than that, shoot on angles if you really feel like it!
- You need to shoot manual – False! Well… kinda. If you’re still using Photoshop to stitch photo’s you may want to keep shooting manual, however I highly recommend using Autopano Pro. Shooting AV will actually make nicer, more realistic blends without washing out backgrounds.
Tips:
- Shooting on a tripod makes it all much easier.
Photoshop is not your best stitching utility. In the past I’ve done huge pano’s that took six hours in PS, yet took under half an hour in Autopano Pro, or PTGui Pro. These two programs are much more reliable, much quicker, and produce much better results. Autopano Pro even crop’s the image properly if it recognizes the image is 360 degrees, unlike Photoshop.
The Panoramic Enemy – Parallax
Parallax is the difference in placement of objects while rotating your camera on a tripod. This occurs on standard tripods (or hand held) because the sensor of
your camera is not positioned directly centre of your tripod, thus making objects move and shift. It is more visible with closer objects.
Well, what do you do against this panoramic enemy? Buy yourself a Panoramic clamp that mounts on your tripod. I recommend Really Right Stuff, or Pano Ninja.
As a final note, when you are out shooting remember to try something new! Maybe tomorrow morning you will get up and not only do a panoramic, but an HDR panoramic! Good luck, and enjoy your shoot!