How To Take a Panoramic Photo

Panoramic Picture Using iPhone

Panoramic Picture Using Camera

Panoramic Tips

Overlap Amply

Overlapping is one of the important areas in creating a panoramic image.  Just one slip with not enough overlap can ruin an attempt at the grandest of wide angle shots.  Overlap by 30% each time or sometimes more.  Most people say 15% works just fine. Experiment with your particular camera to find the sweet spot of overlap.  Increasing the amount of overlap helps reduce “flaring” that happens when the software is forced to use all of the image frame, including the corners which may show distortion depending on your lens selection.

Stay Level

Keeping your camera level becomes more important as you combine more images.  If you’re shooting four or five images there isn’t much need to worry. But if it’s a monster 40 image shot, it becomes more and more important to keep things on the level. For a single picture, this isn’t a problem, but for a panorama it creates a fan effect which is not so easily fixed in the computer.  What this means is as you pan the camera left to right, the distant objects will fan out and may not have ample overlap. Further,
they will be more distorted and curved because
of the angle their light enters
​the camera.

Check The Scene For Movement

Movement in the scene can be a thief of what would otherwise be a grand shot.  Sometimes the blur, or doubling up of people, cars, planes or other moving
objects is acceptable. But too many blurry spots
(caused when the computer finds parts of the
overlapping sections where things don’t
​line up)can ruin the shot.   

Super Wide Angle Lenses

A great wide angle lens does not always produce great panoramic shots.  Sometimes it’s better to let the stitching software do what it does best and make multiple passes of the same scene, with ample overlap, to create your masterpiece.