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When I first thought about the idea of shooting a panoramic, I did what most other photographers probably do: I started searching for software to make the job easier. I found free software. I found paid software. Now, I only work on Macs, so free or not, it had to be mac-compatible.

While I started downloading every trial I could get my hands on, I remembered something important while I was going through the same infatuation with HDR photography. I needed to remember that alongside the software, I needed to learn the photography techniques necessary to pull off a good panoramic. There are a couple basic ones, and once you have those, the only other requirement is to find something that would actually make a good panoramic.

So what makes a good Panoramic?

First off, you can shoot a panoramic of anything you want. So, the word “good” is a relative term. Shoot a panoramic to illustrate your awesome landscaping job on a Sunday morning. Shoot a panoramic of a crowd (that gets tricky, more on that later). Shoot a panoramic of the inside of a huge lobby in a hotel. Man, it’s kind of endless. There are, however, easier panoramics to shoot than others, and that has not only to do with your choice of subject, but also your choice of software…

Your choice of a Panoramic subject

For starters, try everything. You’ll quickly get a sense of what’s good and bad by trying both. “Good” tends to mean lots of overlap, good, even light across the scene, no moving objects in the scene (stitching get whacky when you go there, but I’ve done it), and of course something that will look beautiful when assembled as 5-7 images. After that, the sky is the limit! I often avoid tricky or uneven light, lots of movement, or overly complex panoramics that will stump the software, although as you’ll read, my particular software is pretty hard to trick. My stuff is easy compared to photographers who go out and shoot the real deal.

The rules

Just like everything else in photography, there are rules, but some can be bent, and others can be broken. The following, however, are really great guidelines that will make your life easier when you do your stitching.

• Use a tripod. I say this, but I usually don’t do it. So, if you have one with you, use it. If you don’t you’ll really need good stitching software to make up for your randomness…I’ve gotten away with hand holding my camera because I have gotten comfortable with my stitching software.
• Set your white balance to something other than “AWB” (auto white balance). I shoot on Cloudy whenever I’m outside. It’s just a stylistic choice (no it doesn’t need to be cloudy to use this setting, I just like the warmness of that Kelvin temperature).
• I shoot vertically (portrait) as opposed to horizontally (landscape). You get a better, “taller” pano. Your pano will be long anyway. Focus on height by flipping your camera longways, in the portrait position. More of a preference than a rule.
• I shoot in Manual mode. I will often change my shutter speed as I pan as the light changes as your move across your panoramic subject. Do NOT change your aperture. Your pano will look whacky if you have different apertures.
• If you have a continuous focal point at the infinity distance, then you can stay in Auto Focus. If you do not, focus on the first frame of your subject, then switch to manual focus. Leave it there.
• I try to overlap pretty significantly between each shot so my software has a lot of reference. I’d say I do between 25-35% overlap between each shot. My software is happy when I do that. That makes me happy, too!

All the tips above can easily be achieved with any modern point and shoot. I’d say the key is the white balance as well as the fixed aperture. Once you’ve got all that worked out, it’s time to stitch it up!

The Search for the perfect Stitch

There is a TON of software available for doing this. Photoshop users, especially those with CS3 and above will get tons of tools without leaving Photoshop. As a software junkie, I decided to venture outside of Photoshop for my Panoramic stitching needs. Again, no rules, just preferences.

I use Autopano Pro to do my panoramics. The reason? It allows me to make mistakes, which is important, because I almost never go out planning to shoot a panoramic. It is always a spur-of-the-moment decision. That usually means I don’t have my tripod, the light is uneven, and I know my handholding might actually involve multiple rows of shots, not a simple pan across the landscape. The best thing I can say about Autopano Pro is this: while it has really precision tools to tweak your panoramic, I simply have not needed them. I load “n” number of photos into the software and let it do its thing. It finds needles in haystacks when it stitches, and does complex stitching of busy architecture, ornate trussing, churches, and lots of other patterns that are not smooth or sweeping. I’m not a panoramic photographer, but I love shooting them. That means I can spend less time fiddling with the stitch and more time posting my work to my blog, which is how I wanna roll…

Here are some of the panoramics I created using Autopano Pro. Enjoy!