Panoramic pictures always fascinate me. Its a remarkable gift from the digital era to the world of photography. The naked eye has a wider field of view which is hard to get even from high end cameras and lenses. This is where Panoramic photography enters the picture (pun intended). Panoramic photography, also called as wide format photography, captures a wider field of view which is otherwise not possible with a normal camera. There are panoramic cameras which serve this purpose but I’m not going to talk about them because its out of reach for most of us financially. Instead, this article is going to describe the photo stitching technique used to bring in a panoramic portrait. Its the simple process of stitching two or more photos together to give a wide perspective. Softwares make the stitching process so easy that Panoramic images have become a cake walk.
On top of such softwares that do the job for us, a lot of point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras these days come equipped with in-built panoramic capability where the user has to move the camera from left to right so that the image sensor records the image with a greater field of view. It then evaluates the entire panorama and stores into a single image. This relatively new technology is called as “sweep panorama” and is seen is some of the latest digital cameras eg., Sony W1X/B
I love taking panoramic pictures because of the details and the sense of vastness that it gives out especially when you have a breathtaking landscape. Here are few steps to take some amazing panoramic shots without great trouble.
1. Select a panorama-worthy place – Try to visualize and decide if a panoramic shot will do justice to the scene that you are trying to shoot. This step makes all the difference in the world.
2. Use a Tripod – Preferably one with a panning head. If you don’t have one, do not sweat. Couple of images below were done with a hand held camera. You can get over without using a tripod if you are taking some daytime panoramas. But a tripod becomes mandatory if you are capturing a night view. And if you want to seriously do panoramas, get a tripod even if it is just for the day shots.
3. Exposure – Make sure your exposure and focus are not altered between the shots. Manual mode is preferable. Also try to use Manual focus so that your focus does not get altered.
4. Start from your left end of the frame and move towards the right. I took a shot of my hands before the first shot and after the last shot, just to remind myself for later that these are a set of images for panorama. In the latest cameras, you can create a separate folder for doing the same.
4. Overlap – Try to overlap at least 20-30% of the area from the previous frame. This gives the stitching tools good number of points to merge.
5. Use Photoshop – Photomerge option in photoshop is simply amazing. If you don’t have PS, you can alternatively use the hugin tool.
Steps to create a panoramic image in Photoshop:
1. Open Bridge and select all the pictures that needs to be stitched.
2. Go to Tools > Photoshop > Photomerge
3. If you do not use Bridge, you can directly open Photoshop and Go to File > Automate > Photomerge
4. This opens up a window shown below. Select the options you need and click OK. I always choose auto and check Blend Images together, Vignette removal and correct geometric distortion as shown in the snapshot below.
5. Click OK and go get a cup of coffee. Photoshop will merge the pictures and give you a final panoramic shot. You can crop the unwanted areas and merge the layers to save the final image.
- Painted Hills, Oregon
NYC SKyline from top of the Rock
Seattle Skyine from Jose Fizal Park
Seattle Skyline with Mt Rainier as seen from Kerry Park
Space Needle from Kerry Park
