Panorama photography: stitching wide views without errors

Some scenes, like a full beach, a city skyline or the Plaza Grande, are wider than any lens. A panorama stitches several overlapping photos into one high-resolution image.

Shooting technique

• Shoot vertical frames for more height in the final image.
• Overlap each frame by 30 to 50 percent.
• Use manual exposure, manual white balance and manual focus so frames match.
• Keep the camera level and rotate smoothly.

Tripod or handheld

A tripod with a panning base gives the most accurate results. Handheld panoramas also work well with modern software if you rotate around your body without shifting position.

Avoid parallax

When foreground objects are close, they shift relative to the background as you rotate, causing stitching errors. Rotate around the lens’s nodal point with a special bracket, or keep foreground objects far away.

Stitching

Lightroom’s Photo Merge > Panorama works with RAW files and keeps editing flexibility. Choose spherical or cylindrical projection depending on the scene.

Moving elements

People, cars and waves can appear twice or cut in half. Shoot quickly, or wait for them to move out of the overlapping areas.