How to Shoot Panos

38mm | 2.5s | f/8 | ISO400 | 4-image Pano

I've been dying to do a tutorial on Panos for a while.  I had the opportunity to take some in Tampa a few weeks ago and I thought this would be a good reason to write up a tutorial.  I originally got most of this information from a forum post by Leung on dpreview (I can't find the post, but I saved the info to a PDF).  It helped me a lot when I was just starting out, and I'll be adding some lesson's I've learned along the way.

1. Lens Selection

Leung recommends a lens with a range from 24mm - 50mm, and says to AVOID a lens lower that 24mm.  The distortions what come in at those lower focal lengths will make merging the images a pain.  I've ignored this rule on both ends, but I agree about staying above 24mm.

In my experience, changing focal length is one of the few creative tools remaining when taking panos.  Lighting a huge scene is impossible, and moving around to change composition will have a small effect.  Zooming in for a pano can be very beneficial, placing the focus on a smaller part of the scene.  It also allows you to get incredible detail and resolution in the final merged image.  Be ready to take A LOT of pictures thou.

170mm | 6s | f/4.5 | ISO 100 | 9-image HDR Pano

20mm | 8s | f/8 | ISO100 | 6-image HDR Pano

2. Tripod

This should be obvious, but it is beneficial to use a tripod while shooting a pano.  If night or low-light, it is REQUIRED.  During the day, it is possible to take a pano by hand, just ensure you follow all the rest of the steps.  And if a tripod is not available, improvise :)

55mm | 1/100s | f/11 | ISO 100 | 6-image Pano | Handheld

18mm | 25s | f/14 | ISO 100 | 5-image Pano | Camera rested on rock

3. Settings

Leung suggests the following as a starting point:

• Matrix Metering
• Aperture Priority Mode
• Shoot in RAW
• Proper White Balance
• Lowest ISO possible

The following steps help lead to the correct exposure for the scene.  First, set the desired aperture (f/8-f/11 for good detail throughout).  Next, pan across the scene while watching the camera meter.  Note the shutter speed for the brightest part of the scene (not including the sun).   Finally, set the exposure to MANUAL and use the shutter speed for the brightest part.  If the brightest part of the scene comprises only ~10%, you can try shooting at a lighter exposure.

4. Orientation

It is preferable to shoot a wide pano in Portrait orientation.  Through stitching the images together you are going to get plenty of information in the longwise direction.  Shooting in portrait gives you more information above/below the point of interest.  This makes for a final picture with a better aspect ratio for printing.


Also, there are no rules for how the images get stitched together.  Shoot a vertical pano or a matrix of images.  Just make sure that in the end you can merge the result into a rectangular picture (it seems obvious, but I've done this wrong before).

70mm | 1/250s | f/6.3 | ISO 100 | 3-image HDR Pano | Handheld

70mm | 1/200s | f/5 | ISO 100 | 15-image Pano | Handheld

5. Execution

Finally, time to start taking pictures.  Start panning across the scene, ensuring that each frame has ~40% overlap from the previous frame.  This will ensure correct merging in Photoshop later.  Keep the exposure settings, white balance, and focal length the same throughout the shoot.  

A tip from Kelby is to correct for the distortion or fisheye effect in the merged image.  Shift your feet every ~3 frames when taking a pano by hand.  I haven't noticed much difference, but I keep that tip in mind.

One thing that has burned me recently is focus.  I usually leave it on autofocus and just shoot away.  Depending on where the focal point was set in the camera, this can lead to some frames being out of focus (like focusing on the sky instead of a building).  One way to get around this is to move the focal point during each image.  The better way is to set the focus on MANUAL. It may be hard to tell, but in the pano below the right most frame was slightly blurry.

56mm | 20s | f/6.3 | ISO 100 | 3-image Pano

6. Merging

Post-process the images before you merge them.  You will be processing the RAW images and not the JPEG pano, and you can correct white balance shift among the individual frames.  Using LR or ACR, select all the images and process them exactly the same.  If you ignored the rule of setting your white balance and left it on auto (which I do all the time), you can also correct the white balance to ensure they are all the same.

Then merge the result in Photoshop, either from LR or Bridge or directly in Photoshop.  Leave the merge settings on auto.  Only change that if something doesn't merge right.

24mm | 1/30s | f/10 | ISO 100 | 3-image Pano | Camera rested on fence post