Earlier in the days of film cameras, making a panorama photograph used to mean either buying an expensive camera or spending hours inside the dark room stitching the images together. Panoramic photos soon became the realm of professional over time and funds provided for getting such gorgeous extremely wide-angle shots. However, for taking these shots one must know how to take panoramic shots.
Now, in the digital age, creating panoramic images on your computer has become easier. There are some guidelines, which you must follow for taking panoramic shots.
If you have a Panorama Mode in Camera, Use It
- Beyond the basic model, most of the point and shoot cameras will come with a mode, which you can use for creating panoramic images. This mode will have a couple of functions. First, it will use your camera display for showing the last picture taken and the next picture, which the camera is about to take. This will help you in lining the images and then overlapping them.
- The second thing it will do is, it will not change the exposure settings from the shots, as it normally should. This will give you even lighting in all the pictures, which makes stitching in the computer much easier.
Overlap Amply
- Overlapping is one of the most important things in making panoramic images. If you make one slip with not enough overlap, then it will ruin your attempt of making a grand wide angle shot. No one will like to see a picture of Grand Canyon with a white line in middle, because you failed to overlap properly.
- Try using a 30 percent overlap each time, but even 15 percent works for most of the images. You can experiment with your camera for finding the correct spot for overlapping. If you increase the amount of overlap, then it will reduce the flaring, which will happen if you force the software to use the complete image frame. You will have to include the corners, which can show distortion depending on the kind of lens you use.
Keep It on the Level
- If you want to combine more images, then it is important that you keep your camera on one level. If you are going to shoot four or five images then you will not have to worry about anything. However, if you taking a monster shot of 40 images, it will be necessary to keep things on one level.
- For instance, imagine that your lens is like a curved piece of glass. When you hold it on level, all the parts present in the scene will come and hit the sensor and mostly at the same angle. However, if you happen to point the camera down, like at 45 degrees you will get a distant object, like mountains present in the background, which will come at a sharper angle as compared to the foreground image.
- If you want to take a single picture, then this will not be a problem. However, in panorama it will give you a fan effect, which you won’t be able to fix on the computer. This means that when you are panning your camera from left to right, the objects present in the distance will start fanning out and there will be many overlaps. They will be more distorted and curved, due to the angle in which the light will come in the camera.
Selecting Your Metering Well
- This is again one hard lesson, if you are using a DSLR or any other camera, which does not come with a nifty panorama mode, then you must set your metering mode in manual. Otherwise, you will not get good images. Another important thing is at metering, you will have to scan the entire scene and make a note of the aperture and the shutter speed of your camera.
- After you have done this, you will have to choose one setting in between or a slightly darker one for making sure that you preserve the details. With the aperture and shutter setting, you will have to shoot away.
Check the Scene for Movement
- Always remember that movement inside the scene is like a thief of what would have been a grand shot. Sometimes, blur, doubling of people, planes of cars or anything else moves is acceptable. However, if there are too many blurry spots then it will completely ruin the shot. This means that you will have to take all the images quickly, but sometimes the movement is unavoidable.
Be Careful of Super Wide Angle Lens
- Keep in mind that, a great wide-angle lens sometimes may not give a good panoramic shot. Sometimes it will be better if you let the stitching software do what it knows best. Keep making multiple passes of the similar scene, lots of overlap for creating your masterpiece.
Look Down, Look Up, Look All Around
- With the advanced software you will not be limited to just one pass from right to left for capturing your desired image, so do not be afraid for making more than one pass. You can start with the initial pass from left to right or from top to bottom and then move in another direction for getting more details and making another pass.
- Always remember the overlapping rule mentioned earlier and how it will pertain to more than one side of the shot, but remember the top to bottom overlaps as well. Make sure that you keep it tight and your image will have the added quality of extra skyline or some of the foreground features, which you have missed.
Do Not Forget Vertical Panoramas!
- People often tend to overlook the vertical shots. Remember that the same principles will apply to vertical shots as they are in horizontal shots. It can help if you turn the camera on its side or sometimes you will find that keeping your camera in a horizontal manner will work. Try experimenting with the buildings and waterfalls and then you can look for some vertical shots.
These are some of the basic guidelines that will help you in taking panoramic shots. So, get your camera and start clicking!
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