The railing of a wharf on the Pacific ocean provided a level surface for the camera for this panorama (stitched together from several photos) when the tripod was left at home.
Many scenes, especially open space with very wide vistas, lend themselves to a panoramic treatment, where the picture is much wider than a normally-framed photograph. A panorama shows a broad expanse, effective in revealing just how large an area in a scene is, and how much of interest there is in it to see. A panoramic landscape picture can invoke a sense of awe at nature's majesty that is unachievable with a standard image format. Subjects that are too large to photograph in their entirety from your shooting position, including vertical subjects such as a tall building, can often be panoramically treated so that they "fit" into a single image.
There are cameras made specifically to capture a wider than normal picture of a scene in one exposure, appropriately called panoramic cameras. In some models, the lens is actually a vertical slit in a turret-like half-cylinder that rotates from left to right to expose a longer than normal stretch of film with a very-wide scene, sometimes 360 degrees. In other models, both the lens and the film strip move to capture a very-wide panorama in one exposure. Other cameras, notably those in the APS system, have a panoramic mode that the photographer selects to photograph an ultra-wide scene, resulting in standard prints that are 3.5" by 8" in size as opposed to a normal 3.5" by 5" print. Many new digital cameras also offer a panorama mode. (In both cases, though - APS and some digital camera's panoramic mode - the camera is merely cropping the image for you, knocking off parts of the top and bottom to make the picture appear wider. You can also create a panorama from a standard format image by severely cropping it yourself.) The panorama mode of other digital cameras will walk you through the taking of a series of pictures (vertically or horizontally, or both), providing a visual aid in overlapping frames, for you to stitch together later on your computer. And, of course, wide-angle lenses can be used to compress large areas of a landscape, but do so in a non-panoramic format, sometimes distorting the image at its edges. Many zoom lenses can be adjusted to wide-angle settings for the same purpose.
As with most technical processes, there are many ways to make a panoramic photograph, each one an improvement over the other, but generally gaining more in complexity as the results get better. The end result - how flawless, realistic, sharp and properly-exposed the image is - is the determining factor. Mastering panoramic photography is not simplistic. The student who wants to become completely proficient will need to understand unusual terms (the nodal point of a lens, for example), employ specialized equipment and learn new methods of both photography and image processing applicable to panorama images. Fear not. We are not setting out in this article to have you qualify for a Panorama PhD, but rather to provide you with information that will permit you to make a basic, good-looking panorama by merging or "stitching" together two or more pictures that are segments of a larger scene - a panorama you will be proud to show family and friends.
Some landscapes seem to have been created for panoramic photography. This panorama was "stitched" together from two pictures taken overlooking Osoyoos, British Columbia.
Photography for what is known as a "stitched" or "segmented" panorama involves taking two or more photographs of a scene from the same camera position, with the camera rotating on a single axis and with each image (segment) partially over-lapping another so that they can be joined together ("stitched") on your computer using your image-processing software, resulting in a single extra-wide picture. An example is shown above. This method has been used by photographers and graphic artists for years to create dramatic, sometimes powerful panoramas up to 360 degrees and greater in width (or height - a panorama can be in vertical format, too). You can employ the same method using your digital camera, or images photographed on film that have been scanned into a computer.
START WITH A HORIZONTAL (LANDSCAPE ORIENTED) SCENE
The first step in getting ready to take a series of horizontal pictures to be made into a panorama is to make sure your camera is level with the horizon, and will remain level throughout the picture-taking process. A reasonably easy way to do this is to mount your camera on a tripod (loosely, so that your camera can be swiveled in an arc), aim it at the scene to be photographed, and then look through the viewfinder as you scan it from left to right or vice versa, across the entire area to be photographed. Watch the viewframe carefully for any inclination of the camera to have a downward or upward tendency that might cut off the top or bottom of any portion of the scene to be photographed. If tilting is noticed, carefully adjust your tripod's legs, fine-tuning them so that the tripod is as level as you can make it, and test it again. This is the time to use the level gauges on your tripod, if it has them. Try for accuracy, but don't be overly fastidious; minor corrections can be made later on your computer.
Step two involves your lens. Most important is to keep the same focal length for all of the pictures in your series. There are two schools of thought about its focal length, whether you should use a wide-angle lens or a telephoto lens, for panoramic photography. Some accomplished photographers strongly suggest using a wide-angle lens, whereas the experts in the field of panorama photography mostly seem to lean towards a modest telephoto lens or zoom lens setting - one that would be appropriate for portrait photography - in the range of 85 mm to 135 mm.
There are pros and cons to each. - A longer focal length lens requires taking more images to be stitched together, since the angle of view of a telephoto lens is smaller. More images means more detail, though, and that is a good thing.
- Wide-angle lenses or zoom lenses at their wide-angle settings will take in more of the scene per individual image, requiring less stitching later on, but the stitching process may not be as fluid since wide-angle settings can distort images, especially at their edges. The more accurately the images match up, one with another, when joining them together, the more authentic your panorama will appear.
- We suggest you experiment with both, starting with a wide-angle lens setting so that your first stitching task is less onerous, or perhaps a normal focal length setting (around 55 mm) to make stitching even easier. Once you see the final result and also try a longer lens, you will be able to better assess whether you should stick with a wide-angle or a telephoto lens for future panoramas for optimal results.
- Note: It is much easier to stitch two to three pictures together than more, so take it easy on your first go-around, and shoot a modest number of contiguous photographs.
Taking pictures from a tall building for a panorama of a cityscape will show a great deal of detail.
The orientation of your lens, whether in portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) mode (your camera rotated to shoot vertically or horizontally), can affect the quality of your panorama. Pictures taken in either mode can be stitched together. Although your composition will often determine which mode is best, generally having the camera in portrait mode will give the most satisfactory results and the tallest-possible panorama. If there are a number of tall trees or buildings in the scene, you may need to shoot with your camera in portrait mode anyway, just to fit them in.
Step three, filter usage, is one you may wish to simply overlook for your first panorama, unless it is a truly important picture, calling for top photographic skill and the best result. Sure, as with any photographs you take, you can use filters to improve them, but keep in mind that the effect of filtration must be equal across the entire range of individual images that go to make up the composite panorama - something that is not all that easy to ensure, especially on your first time out of the chute in panorama photography. One particular filter that can have a dramatic effect on emphasizing inconsistency from one image to another is the polarizer or polarizing filter. It can make each individual image look great, but produce undesirable variations at the edges of the frames that make it difficult to match them when joined together so they look natural as a single composite panorama.
OVERLAPPING YOUR PICTURES IS ESSENTIAL FOR A GOOD PANORAMA
Your sequential pictures must overlap each other to facilitate stitching them into a panorama.
How much overlap is a question that has dogged panoramic photographers, but it is safe to say that if they overlap each other by a third, you should have no problem stitching them into a fine panorama. Some argue that a 20 percent overlap (a fifth) is more than sufficient for effective stitching, and you will find other photographers who claim that 10 to 15 percent is adequate. We have even come across some who recommend a two-thirds overlap to ensure a seamless stitched image. The choice of lens, the scene itself, motion in the scene, foreground objects, filtration, experience and other factors, including even the weather and atmospheric conditions, need to be taken into account for you to make an educated choice. A special panorama head can be attached to some tripods, making it simpler to be more precise in aiming your camera and overlapping pictures in a series.
For your first panorama, we recommend erring on the conservative side, and going with a 25 to 35 percent overlap. In other words, approximately one-third of each image should be photographed in the next image in sequence. With experience using different percentages of overlap, you will be able to assess what works best for you. But, for now, let's use a generous overlap percentage that we know will give you a good first-time experience - around 30 percent. Who knows? You may decide to stick with it because it does such a good job of ensuring consistency from one picture to another.
The pictures on top above overlap by about 45%, way more than enough to guarantee a flawless panorama when merged or "stitched" together.
CLIMATIC CONDITIONS MUST BE CONSIDERED
If the weather is changing quickly (clouds moving fast across the landscape, a setting or rising sun, rain squalls or a rainbow in a segment of the scene, and so on), you must ensure that the effects of the weather appear to be the same from one picture to another. You can't have a huge cloud in one photo, for example, that doesn't appear in the same place in the next. You must be particularly alert for fast-moving clouds that may cover an element of your scene on the ground with shadow and then expose the same element to bright sunlight when you go to take an overlapping picture of it.
EXPOSURE CONSISTENCY IS ESSENTIAL
Manually over-riding your camera's exposure controls can solve the problem. Shooting in automatic exposure mode will very likely give you different exposures of the various parts of the scene, since each segment will have different amounts of shadow and highlights. You are generally well-advised to keep your exposure settings consistent from one frame to another, which you can do by choosing manual exposure mode. Some cameras allow you to lock the exposure so that it remains the same from one image to the nxt. Some areas of the scene may appear a tad underexposed and others a little overexposed, but the general impression of the finished panorama will usually be one of proper exposure.
THE POSITION OF THE SUN
Another consideration is whether to include the sun in your panorama if it appears in the scene. By including it, you will need to be careful that its brightness does not cause other areas of the image to appear too dark (underexposed) - so dark perhaps, that they are incompatible with the other pictures in the series.
If the sun is included in your viewframe, you may wish to take two exposures of the same scene, one that properly exposes the scene with the bright sun in it, and one that exposes the scene using the same exposure setting as a previous shot in the sequence, so you can digitally adjust the scenes for the best exposure when editing and stitching the pictures later on.
It is usually best to keep the sun out of your picture. Shoot with it behind you or when it is high overhead, if the scene's composition permits you to. Or, you may be able to move to a shooting position where the sun will be blocked behind a tree or a building.
BE AWARE OF THE FOREGROUND AND OBJECTS IN MOTION
The sun and the weather are not the only elements that might cause undesired variation from one image to another. The foreground is especially important. The closer you are to objects, the more the differences from picture to picture will be emphasized, making it more difficult to match up elements. If your scene contains a number of foreground objects, you may need to tighten up your overlapping, so that the edges of foreground objects line up properly and they appear to be natural in the panorama. You may wish to make it easier on yourself with your first panorama by not including near foreground objects in the pictures.
There is more to be aware of. Traffic, people on the go, animals in motion, birds flying by, airplanes and vapor trails in the sky are just some of the elements that you have to consider when taking a picture series that will become a good panorama. You may have to time your picture-taking so that these elements have either moved on or can be incorporated by shooting the next picture quickly before you overlap your shots. If you realize when shooting that something has created an inconsistency that can't be covered up when overlapping images, shoot the same scene over again when the situation has cleared up, if you can.
Shooting quickly will diminish the effects of any change in the scene in lighting or objects in motion.
When overlapping pictures, watch for moving objects such as the speedboat above, which was moving quickly enough to appear in both pictures, and therefore ends up twice in the final panorama.
OKAY. LET'S TAKE SOME PICTURES SO WE CAN PUT OUR SOFTWARE TO WORK
With your camera on a level tripod, an attractive broad scene before you and all of the foregoing considerations fresh in your mind, begin taking pictures from one end of the scene to the other. You will find it helpful when stitching them together later on if you shoot from left to right, since that is the order in which they will be displayed as thumbnails by your software. (You may find that your digital camera's panorama mode may do that automatically for you, by naming the files in their proper sequence.)
Once you have taken a series of contiguous photographs, download your pictures to an appropriate folder on your computer, then open them in your image-editing software.
If you are using software such as Adobe PhotoShop CS3 or Adobe PhotoShop Elements, you will probably be amazed at how quickly and easily PhotoShop handles the merging of the photos - that is, if you are merging two to three pictures only. Any more and you will probably discover that you have taken on a project larger than you may have anticipated. (We recommend shooting just two to three pictures in series for your first panorama). If your original images are very large files, you may encounter a memory problem that significantly slows down or prevents completion of the merge process, in which case you should downsize your image files before doing the merge. Take care to resize them so they are not too large to cause memory problems when merging, but not too small for their intended use.
In PhotoShop, select "Automate" under the File menu, then "Photomerge" from the pop-out menu. When the Photomerge window opens, select two or more image files to make up your panorama. If the files are already open, you can click on "Add open files," otherwise you can click the "Browse" button to locate and select them. Click "OK" and PhotoShop takes over and completes the merge, stitching your images into a panorama. Creating a basic panorama is as simple as that.
If you are dealing with only two or three pictures to be merged, and there are slight differences in the height of the horizon among the original pictures, you may need to crop the panorama. But, if your panorama is made up of several images (as in the example below, which combined seven pictures taken in series), you will probably need to spend some time in editing and cropping to get that just right look, especially if your camera was on auto-exposure mode.
When you stitch together several individual pictures, they will probably look like the assembly on top above. You will still need to edit and crop the merged pictures to end up with a final panorama (bottom).
You may not have PhotoShop loaded onto your computer. Your image-editing software may be another application altogether, perhaps one that came bundled with your camera when you acquired it. But, it will hopefully have the ability to merge individual pictures into a panorama. If your camera has a panorama mode, the software that came with it will be able to stitch together the panoramic images that you take. Check your software's manual or its "Help" link to learn how to stitch your panorama together in your particular image-editing application. Other popular third party applications that simplify stitching panoramas are Autopano Pro and ACDSee, to name two.
A panorama with more than two picture segments in it can stretch out fairly wide. A swath of bright color can be the element that ties it together.
Printing panoramas is not a problem. Quality precut printing paper is available in large sizes from several suppliers for you to print them on your home printer, and most photo labs handle panorama printing as a matter of routine.
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