Taking panorama shots

I have decided to add to the hundreds of pages out there that detail how to take panorama shots.  Some of these descriptions are extremely good, while others are less so.  However, over time I have developed my own technique - which is very similar to many other techniques discussed on other sources but differs in a few slight ways.  For one thing, many of my panoramas are not landscapes.  For instance, take this real estate panorama I shot recently.

Panoramas like these require changes to the standard technique with landscapes.  In this post, I will discuss how I go about both.

There are a few essentials for taking panorama pictures.  The most important thing is you will need a tripod.  The tripod must have the ability to swivel the camera while keeping it level.  Any ball head will let you do this, but some tripods lack this feature.  In terms of the camera, it must have the ability to let you use manual settings for each shot.  Any SLR will let you do this, but many point and shoot cameras lack this feature.

The following are the steps I use to take any panorama, whether it is an interior or a panorama.

1. Set up the tripod and make sure it is level.  Most tripods have a leveling bubble somewhere on it.  If you have a ball head, make sure that is level too.  Finally, mount the camera on the tripod and make sure the camera itself is level.  The easiest way to do this is with a hot shoe leveler - a small leveler that fits where you normally place your flash.  Make sure your tripod is on a strong surface - such as concrete - and is not somewhere that will shake.  A bridge with heavy traffic is generally not a sturdy place - nor are sports bleachers.
2. You will need a remote trigger for your camera.  Most SLR manufacturers sell these - a cord that plugs into the side of your SLR and lets you trigger the shutter without touching the camera.  At this time you should also enable mirror lock on the camera.  Your goal is to get as sharp a picture as possible and when the shutter is raised to take a picture, a slight amount of vibration occurs.  To reduce this vibration significantly, mirror lock allows you to press once to open the shutter, then after a few seconds delay you press again to take the actual picture.
3. The lens you use really depends on the type of picture you want.  As a general rule, zoomed telephotos are easier for panorama shots than wide angle lenses.  However for interior shots you may be forced to use a wide angle lens - which was the case in the shot below.
4. Ideally, you should have either a panorama rail or a macro rail.  Both allow you to move the camera back and forth using a dial.  Macro rails are used for taking macro shots with tripods - where you need to make small adjustments in order to focus the shot (because macro shots are rarely taken with autofocus).  Some panorama heads are very similar to macro rails - though they typically have measurements on the rail.  Other panoramic rails let you take multi-row panoramas.  Really Right Stuff makes very good (and very expensive) panorama rails.  For macro rails, both Really Right Stuff and Kirk make very good ones.  I currently use the Kirk rail.  What you will use the rail for is adjusting for the nodal point of the lens.  This is less important with fully extended telephoto lenses, but is extremely important for wide angle lenses.  To find the nodal point of the lens, find (or make) an object in the foreground, then identify a similar sized object in the background.  As you turn the camera from side to side on the tripod, the two objects should stay relatively the same distance from each other.  If this is not the case, make adjustments using the rail until they are.  Once you have gone through this exercise, remember the point on the rail for that lens and focal length.
5. You will need to shoot in all manual settings.  Set the camera to manual mode and meter several portions of the entire panorama to obtain a shutter speed and aperture.  If your camera supports auto-ISO, turn it off and use a relatively low ISO (since you’re on a tripod anyway).  Also make sure to turn off auto-white balance.  Choose a white balance depending on the scene or use a light meter if you have one.  Make sure to shoot in RAW so you can change this if you need to.
6. Start on the left side of the scene and take the shots across it.  Overlap each shot by about a quarter.
7. Use a panorama stitcher to combine the shots.  I currently use the stitcher in Windows Live Photo Gallery - which is free.  It does a decent job, though there are better programs for a fee out there.  Photoshop also has a stitcher, though I find the Windows Live one to be better.

These are the steps I take for almost any panorama shot.  The real difference between interior and landscape shots is how much attention I pay to getting the nodal point of the lens right and whether I use a wide angle (interiors) or telephoto (landscapes) lens.  I am still learning a lot about panoramas, but I hope this info is helpful for those still trying to figure it out.

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Tags: panorama, photography, tips