Don’t have a wide angle lens to capture the landscape before you? Why not create a panorama by shooting a series of photographs you can stitch together.
This is exactly what I did last month while vacationing in Utah. I don’t have a wide angle lens and I could only afford to rent one lens for my trip (the Tamron 18-270mm Zoom Lens) so I captured many panoramas of Bryce Canyon National Park utilizing these seven tips for creating panoramas.
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Turn off Auto-Exposure. In order to stitch together a successful panorama, the exposure needs to be consistent throughout all the images. When you have your camera set to auto-exposure, it automatically adjusts the exposure for each picture. And since there could be subtle changes in the light (like when I photographed this panorama of Bryce Canyon) its best to shoot in Manual Mode.
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Turn off Auto White Balance (AWB). The same principle applies here as it did for Auto-Exposure. Set the white balance manually for your situation so that all your photos have the same white balance setting.
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Use one exposure setting. If you can take at least a few test shots and then choose the shutter speed and aperture setting that works best for the entire range of shots. Panoramas look best when there is even light.
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Use one focal length. All of your photos should have the same point of view. On the TAMRON lens I was using, I have the option to lock the focal length of the lens. I did this so I didn’t accidentally adjust the focal length while taking my series of photographs for the panorama.
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Turn off your flash. In my situation, the flash would have been totally useless because it only has a range of 16 feet. The landscape I was photographing was definitely further away than 16 feet. Besides had the subject of my panorama been close enough to warrant the use of the flash, it probably would have left my lighting uneven from photo to photo.
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Use a tripod. Not only will using a tripod prevent camera shake (and possibly blurry photos, especially in low light situations) it can also ensure that your photographs will line up when it comes time to stitch them together. And if your shooting a landscape as I’ve done, this will keep your horizon level.
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Overlap the scenes. When shooting panoramas you will want to overlap objects in the scenes by about 20% this will assist you in aligning the photos when it comes time to stitch the post together and will avoid objects looking distorted.
This is a panorama I stitched together with Photoshop CS5 of the Kolob Canyons, part of Zion National Park.
Have you taken any panoramas lately? Have any tips to add? How about sharing your panoramas. I would love to see them so link up your Panoramas or your favorite landscape photo with the Linky Tool!