It is known that panorama photography is used when the angle of view of the lens is insufficient to display the entire scene you want. It opens up the photographer an opportunity for various experiments and the realization of creative ideas. What is panoramic photography? Let’s look into the new Nikon educational Masterclass together with the experts Vadim Malyshev, Alexey Baifa, Vlad Sokolovsky and Ivan Musinov!
Author: Daniel Korzhonov
Single-row panorama with five vertical frames, shot handheld.The foreground does not contain objects with visible geometric distortion.
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.4G
Aperture: f/10
Shutter speed: 1/160
ISO: 400
Focal length: 58mm
2. Trim control
When shooting for further assembly of the panorama it is necessary to provide some overlapping of the neighboring frames on which the “stitching” will take place. To control our panorama split, you can use tripod attachments with fixed angles that match the lens, or you can use sight lines in the viewfinder and navigate by them. It is better to shoot more frames with a wider overlap than to miss even a little and lose the whole panorama, I usually use an overlap of 30-40% of the frame width.
One-row panorama of five vertical frames, shot handheld. The trunks of fir trees are good as reference points for overlapping parts of the frame.
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4D
Aperture: f/1.4
Shutter speed: 1/100
ISO: 500
Focal length: 50 mm
3. Focus and exposure lock
When shooting a panorama it is very important to keep the technical element of the shot consistent. Equal depth of field and exposure are often the most important factors for a good panorama. Of course, you can set all of the settings including the focus point manually, but when traveling, it’s easier to use the focus and exposure lock buttons on the camera body. That way you can be sure that the plane of focus is stable over the whole panorama, and the light intensity is the same. The reference point for measuring light levels varies for each situation, most often it is the average brightness point of the planned panorama.
One-row panorama of five vertical frames, sunset shots with focus lock and manual exposure.
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter speed: 1/1250
ISO: 320
Focal length: 70mm
4. Filters
Every landscape photographer has a polarizing filter in his arsenal. However, if you are shooting a panorama with a wide enough angle, turning it in relation to the position of the sun will not give the best depth to the sky and this might not result in the best panorama impression. To even out the range of light in this instance, the sky can be darkened using a gradient filter instead of a polarizing filter.
Single-row panorama of five vertical frames, gradient filter blocks the upper part of the frame when shooting against the sun.
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4D
Aperture: f/8
Shutter speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Focal length: 50 mm
5. Lens Selection
The panorama method is most commonly used in natural landscapes, but that doesn’t mean you have to use only the genre’s traditional wide-angle lenses to create panoramas. The simplest ‘stitching’ is achieved with a lens with a focal length of around 50mm, but often a telephoto lens gives a more expressive result.
A single-row panorama of five vertical frames, using a telephoto lens with an effective focal length of over 300mm allowed me to focus on the far background, highlighting the panoramic area in it.
Camera: Nikon D90
Aperture: f/13
Shutter speed: 1/4000
ISO: 250
Focal length: 16mm
2. Vertical Panoramas
What to do if there is a beautiful rock or flowery field under your feet and interesting clouds hang over your head? With an extra wide angle lens, of course, you can take a vertical picture, but then again, the image appears narrower and the angle of view may not always be sufficient. This is where vertical panoramas come in, when you can get as close as possible to the foreground, highlighting it geometrically, while leaving the sky in the frame.
Camera: Nikon D750
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter speed: 1/4000
ISO: 320
Focal length: 16mm
3. Manual mode for panoramas
The lighting can change by several stops of exposure when the camera is rotated. And if AE Auto Exposure Meter keeps adjusting shutter speed/aperture/ISO, you get uneven brightness, which results in horrible stitching artifacts. Because of this you should not forget about auto white balance. However, if you shoot in RAW which is all I advise , you can always correct the white balance afterwards.
Camera: Nikon D90
Aperture: f/1.8
Shutter speed: 1/500
ISO: 200
Focal length: 50 mm
6. Shoot panoramas at dawn/sunset/nightfall
The whole game of colors, volumes and unaccustomed lighting is from sunset to sunrise. Pick the most interesting times to shoot, stay up as late as you can, get up as early as you can, and capture the magic moments of nature!”
Camera: Nikon D750
Aperture: f/14
Shutter speed: 1/50
ISO: 400
Focal length: 24mm
Ivan Musinov
1. Equipment
Panoramas are of course best shot with a tripod, heavy and steady. Even better is the use of a special panoramic head, which allows you to mount the camera so as to avoid the effect of parallax as it rotates. For the photographer who shoots composite cityscapes a great accessory is a rotary platform with click-stops that help you memorize different camera positions and capture the same panorama over and over.
If there is enough light in the frame and you do not have any specific tasks like stitching together composites, you can make great panoramic shots just by hand. To get the best possible stitching for these panoramas, you can do one little trick: Try to rotate the camera around the optical center of the lens when you are shooting. You can do this by holding the camera against your finger at a point that corresponds roughly to the optical center, and rotating it as if it were mounted on your finger, like on a tripod. This will have about the same effect as using a panoramic head, that is, it will minimize the need to rework those parts of the panorama where the frames aren’t quite stitched together correctly.
Five vertical frames
Camera: Nikon D600
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 1/80 – 1/200
ISO: 100
Focal length: 17 mm
2. The sky in one shot
Clouds in combination with sunlight can create unique images in the sky, stunning in their beauty and immensity. This natural state is very suitable for panoramic shots. The result is a much more impressive sky than in real life. The ultra wide angle of view that panoramic technology can provide: all the beauty of the sky can fit into a single panoramic shot.
Three horizontal frames
Camera: Nikon D300
Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter speed: 1.6
ISO: 200
Focal length: 14mm
3. Pulling the focus back
Panorama does not necessarily imply an extra wide angle. Imagine holding a 500mm zoom lens and framing a landscape that you want to shoot at 300mm. The solution is simple: just place the camera on a tripod, take a few shots, and stitch the panorama together. The picture below was taken by this very method, but the focal length is not as impressive. I forgot my widescreen at home that morning, but the Polentinx and panoramic gave me some help.
Three rows of three horizontal frames
Camera: Nikon D600
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 1/30
ISO: 100
Focal length: 50 mm
4. Mode M
I’ve been in a situation many times where I have to shoot a scene really fast, and I don’t have time to adjust all the settings. For example, in cloud cover, when the clouds move quickly across the sky, the sun lights up on different objects on the ground, and you need to catch the moment when its rays light up the scene in an important way. I don’t touch the settings in those cases, and shoot everything as is. I’d like to share my general camera settings that are good for fast panoramas, as well as simple shots: aperture priority mode, bracketing in three frames with 1 stop exposure difference, exposure metering at -0.7-1.0, ISO and aperture as appropriate. All shots of the future panorama are shot with bracketing, and then the optimal exposure is chosen. They are matched in the editor for brightness and white balance, and then stitched together.
Six vertical frames
Camera: Nikon D600
Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter speed: 1
ISO: 100
Focal length: 16mm
5. Combining techniques
When shooting cityscapes panoramic technique is often used in combination with other interesting techniques. Shooting composite images is probably the most common. This technique involves taking the same shot of a cityscape at different times of day first with a beautiful sunset sky, then with city lights and headlight trails turned on and then stitching them together to get the best out of each scene. Shooting and processing such images takes time and effort, but the result is well worth it.
City panoramas also use focus stacking and various collage techniques. Those who stand for pure and naturalness of photography deplore these tricks. But in my opinion, in cityscapes documentary precision can be neglected for the sake of beauty and atmosphere.
Composite image
Four vertical panorama shots and doubles for city highlights
Camera: Nikon D600
Aperture: f/5.6 – 7.1
Shutter speed: 1/20 – 4
ISO: 100
Focal length: 16 mm
Vlad Sokolovsky
1. Photo equipment
You can shoot a panorama with any camera with “level” and any lens from wide angle to telephoto. You must also have a dependable tripod, panoramic head, panoramic nodal bar, and leveling pad to take pictures. Leveling pad – the link between the tripod and the tripod head, facilitating the photographer’s work.
In certain cases, you can do without the panoramic head and tripod. For example, for landscapes during daylight hours, when slow shutter speeds are fast enough. But in serious photography, or shooting interiors or architecture, they are essential. One faulty image is enough to keep the whole panorama from coming together.
Three horizontal frames
Camera: Nikon D610
Aperture: f/8
Shutter speed: 1/125
ISO: 400
Focal length: 190mm
2. Interior photography
Panoramas are popular for landscape photography and to a lesser extent for interior and architecture. One of the reasons – visible distortion of geometrically flat structures, which can result in an unreliable representation of the room although part of the image can be corrected using Puppet Warp .
Looking at a panoramic view it’s often hard to tell the beginning and the end of a room. At the same time, under certain circumstances, if there is no other solution, it is possible to achieve a spectacular angle of view, if the angle of view is not greatly overused.
Ten vertical shots without bracketing, taken on a tripod, using a panoramic kit. Spherical projection
Camera: Nikon D610
Aperture: f/9
Shutter speed: 1/5
ISO: 200
Focal length: 15 mm
3. Overlapping area
Technique of shooting panoramas means two or more frames shot one after another with a slight overlap with the previous one. Any recommendations for overlap area are difficult to give, many people are guided by the 30% figure. In fact, it could be more or less overlap. Anything less increases the chance of major distortion and poor stitching. If the overlap area is greater than 30%, the number of frames increases and it increases the time for various manipulations with the source frames and assembly time. On occasion, too many shots might not balance out as well, but that could have a negative effect on the results.
Five vertical frames
Camera: Nikon D610
Aperture: f/9
Shutter speed: 1/160
ISO: 200
Focal length: 150mm
5. Vertorama
It is common practice to shoot a horizontal panorama with vertical frames, and a vertical panorama Vertorama , on the contrary, with horizontal frames. Why is it so? Firstly, we have a margin on top and bottom in case of stitching a horizontal panorama , and secondly, the portrait orientation of the camera helps avoid inconsistencies in stitching due to geometric distortions especially when shooting with wide-angle optics to a greater extent.
You may have noticed that Adobe Photoshop or any other editor when you stitch two or more frames taken with your hands or with the plank for one-row panoramas into a vertical panorama gives out a result somewhat like an hourglass. You get a peculiar picture form: the lower part of the frame looks more or less normal, but the upper part is spread apart and the center of the frame is narrowed. The solution is very simple: flip horizontal frames vertically. And stitching.
Three horizontal frames
Camera: Nikon D610
Aperture: f/8
Shutter speed: 1/160
ISO: 200
Focal length: 180mm
6. Focal length
There is no focal length limitation for panoramas. I shoot a lot of my landscapes primarily with long focal length lenses. At a long focal length optical distortions are small, therefore the overlap of the frame can be less. Even the nodal bar is not needed in this case, panoramas are glued on without any problems.
Two horizontal frames. Hands held.
My camera: a Nikon D610
Aperture: f/8Shutter speed: 1/1000
ISO: 400
Focal length: 450 mm
Can you provide any tips or suggestions for capturing perfect panorama shots using the I | MASTER NIKON camera? What are the ideal settings or techniques that can help in achieving stunning panoramic images?