Below are a few guide lines to help with your panoramic photography.
Before setting up your tripod and camera consider what your final
composition will look like, use the rule of thirds as a compositional
aid, then start setting up your equipment.
Avoid moving subjects like people or water in your panoramic
photograph as these will make stitching together later more
Difficult.
Make sure there are interesting elements in your panoramic
image from the very start to the end of your scan.
1. Use a 24-70 mm lens ( a wide angle lens i.e. 17-40 mm will
have too much distortion).
2. Manual exposure with your shutter speed and aperture locked
in, note if shooting in the early morning or late evening i.e.
sunrise and sunset there will be a vast difference in exposure
level across the scene, if you leave the camera in Aperture
mode set to f/8.0 or f/11.0 your exposure will remain constant
throughout the complete panning cycle, your zone of focus
will also remain constant only your shutter speed will change
as your light level changes.
3. Manual white balance (daylight).
4 . Manual focus on lens and turn of image stabilization.
5. Do not move the zoom ring on your lens, use gaffer tape to secure
the zoom and focus ring to prevent movement during the panning.
6. Do not use a polarizer, as the polarizing effect will change as
you pan the camera in an arc.
7. Take about 5-10 images to grant a 120-180 degree view, overlap
the images by 25% then stitch together in Photoshop later.
8. Plan your actions before taking a photograph so the action of
photographing and panning run smoothly.
9. Use an L bracket to mount the camera to the tripod.
10. Take the photographs in Portrait orientation.
11. Use apertures of f/11 for aps-c and f/16 for full frame cameras.
12. Before taking your first photo, photograph your left hand
pointing right indicating the start of your pan, and take a
picture of your right hand pointing left to indicate the end of
the panning.
13. Attach a spirit level to the tripod and a hot shoe level to
the camera and try to position your tripod on level ground
will all help to maintain a level horizon as you pan the camera.
14. Use a remote release to activate the shutter.
15. Wait 3-6 secs between each panning motion to allow for
vibrations in camera and tripod to settle.
16. Overlap you shots by about 25-30%.
17. Stitch together in Photoshop File>Automate>Photomerge>
select auto or perspective>browse to and load up your
photographs, finally layer>flatten image, then crop.
Note: Batch process files, once back at base with your images
select all images in the sequence and batch process
the RAW files. Synchronize the files by selecting them
them pressing synchronize button in ACR, any changes
You make to one image will affect all, when your happy
save as .tiff files, then go to them merge process in
step 17.
Note - Long, smooth exposures will stitch together better in post
editing in photoshop.
ACR - Adobe Camera Raw