Panorama Photography: Taking It All In

There’s a big, wide world out there. And if you want to capture more of it with your camera, panorama photography is a good technique to try.

If you’ve spent any amount of time playing around with your smartphone’s camera features, then you’ve probably experimented at least a little bit with panoramic frames. This technique is an ideal way to capture the full scene in front of you, and it’s particularly useful for landscape photography, nature photography, and night photography.

As with any type of photography, practice makes perfect. This is especially true for panorama shots, since you’ll need to optimize your technique in order to get clear, consistent images without any blur or camera shake. Here’s where to begin, including some helpful panorama photography ideas and tricks to kickstart your next photo project. 

Quick Links

• What Is Panorama Photography?
• Panorama Photography Equipment
• How to Take a Panorama Photo
• Panorama Photography Tricks, Tips, and Ideas

What Is Panorama Photography?

Also referred to as panoramic photography or wide format photography, panorama photography is a technique that stitches together multiple frames to create one single large photograph. Panoramic images can be horizontal or vertical and are achieved through either specialized camera settings or with the use of editing software.

There are a few notable benefits to panorama photography. For starters, a wider (or longer) composition means more detail in your frame. It’s also a way to offset less-than-ideal elements in a scene, since more features mean less attention is paid to any one spot.

Landscape Panorama Photography

Panoramas are particularly effective when you’re shooting a landscape, giving you a wider field of view and more opportunity to capture the beauty around you.

If you’re new to the technique, then landscape panorama photography is a great place to start. Find a wide open space to practice, and as you get more comfortable shooting panoramas, add in more advanced techniques like long exposure. You can also adapt the best practices you learn to other types of panoramic photography, including things like astro shoots and star trail photography.

Panorama Photography Equipment

You can shoot panoramic photos on a smartphone, but for truly professional-looking shots, you’re better off investing in more advanced gear. Fortunately, you don’t need too many pieces of equipment, and there is a wide range of options depending on your budget and preferences.

Camera

You’ll want a manual DSLR camera that allows you to set (and lock) your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. A full-frame sensor is a good additional feature and will give you an uncropped image to work with.

If you don’t have a fancy camera, don’t worry. You can take panoramic shots on any digital camera, though you will notice differences in quality.

Lens

A wide-angle telephoto zoom lens gives you the best of both worlds for panorama photography, as well as a lot more versatility in the details you can capture. Likewise, you can try out one or the other based on the composition of your image, using a zoom lens to get closer to the scene or a wide-angle lens to get more of the scene in a single frame.  

Tripod

Don’t underestimate the necessity of a sturdy tripod. Panorama photography requires minimal to no movement between frames, and that’s hard to achieve by hand. A tripod allows you to keep your camera steady and prevent any shakiness from messing up your shot. It also makes it a lot easier to take long exposures.

If you’re planning on doing some traveling with your camera, get a lightweight tripod that you can fold up and take along. And be sure it has a flexible head, which will be an asset as you rotate your camera.

Optional Equipment

Some other equipment that you might find helpful for panorama photography include:

• Lens filters: Good for low-light conditions, though usually not needed for daytime shots.
• Remote shutter release: Lets you take a series of shots without ever touching your camera.
• Pano set-up: These are additional panoramic tools that can be mounted above your tripod, and include a specialized rotator, leveling head, and nodal plate. This set-up is pretty pricey, though, and not a must-have investment for amateurs.

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How to Take a Panorama Photo

The two main things to consider when setting up for a panoramic photo are your camera settings and your composition—both of which need to be optimized if you’re going to get that perfect panoramic shot.

Panorama Camera Settings

If you’re using a smartphone to shoot a panoramic photo, you’ll just need to scroll over to your phone’s panorama feature. From there, you can take one long photo, or multiple photos that you combine using auto stitch or a stitching app. But if you’re using a manual DSLR, there are a few more steps to take.

To take a panorama photo with a DSLR, make sure you’re shooting in RAW mode, rather than JPEG. This ensures your images don’t get compressed and gives you more flexibility later on when you’re editing. Then manually focus your camera based on the furthest point in the frame (known as focusing to infinity).

Your aperture value will vary depending on the lighting conditions and the focal length of your lens. Start with an f-factor of f/8, then go higher as needed. For shutter speed, you can either choose it yourself using the brightest part of your scene as a guide, or you can shoot in bracket mode which will give you multiple exposures per shot. Finally, set your White Balance to auto and your ISO to 100 or 200.

Panoramic Composition

As mentioned above, having so much detail in a frame means that you don’t need every single element to be exceptional. However, you do still need balance and a focal point in your composition. Consider both lighting and physical elements when arranging your composition for balance, and do your best to visualize the full picture that you’re trying to capture before you start taking your shots.

Panorama Photography Tricks, Tips, and Ideas

Whether you’re using your equipment to take a single panoramic image or stitching together multiple images into one shot, there are several panorama photography ideas and tricks that can help you create something remarkable.

Overlap Your Frames

If you’re stitching together images to create your panorama, it’s important that you overlap the frames instead of trying to line them up at the seams. At least 20% of the edge of one photo should be present in the next photo to make your life (and the job of your photo editing software) a lot easier.

Change Your Perspective

We often think of panoramic photographs as being wide format, but they can also be long, so mix it up by trying out vertical shots instead of horizontal ones. It’s a great way to capture longer elements like waterfalls and the Milky Way and can also be used to vary the perspective on an otherwise standard composition.

Check the Weather

Moving elements have to be carefully factored into your technique, including weather-related elements like wind, rain, and snow. It is possible to take successful panoramas with one or more of these elements present, but it will increase the level of difficulty. If you’re new to this format, keep an eye on the weather and try to head out on a clear day with no wind.

Practice, Then Shoot

Even with a tripod, there is still some variability in your camera movement. Do a few practice runs before attempting that standout shot, figuring out exactly where to position your hands and how to move your body in order to keep everything still and capture the precise frame you’re looking for.

Take Lots of Images

As a good rule of thumb, always overshoot and take more images than you think you’ll need. That way, you’ll have more options when it comes to choosing the start and end point of your frame and how your images overlap.

Keep Notes

All cameras have their quirks. When you find that ideal shutter speed/aperture/ISO combination, write it down so that you can easily get there again next time you’re in similar conditions. You can also use notes to jot down the first and last photo number in a panoramic set to eliminate any guesswork later on when you’re stitching your image together.

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