Making panorama photos with any digital camera

My first instructable looks at the best way to take a panorama photo using multiple pictures taken on any digital camera. The individual photos are stitched together into a single panorama photo using image editing software on your computer.

Step 1 Panoramas and your digital camera

With the advance of digital cameras there is no need for special panorama cameras or lenses any more. It is possible to create great looking panoramas from multiple images taken with any digital camera by putting them together on a computer.

The first step is making the separate photos. Many modern digital cameras offer a panorama setting that makes this even easier. Before you set out though, check how your camera records the panorama. Do not use the inbuilt setting if it combines the pictures into a single panorama in the camera. The quality of the automatic photo stitch functions I've seen leave much to be desired and, worst of all, they do not offer the opportunity to adjust the image manually at a later stage. It can be very frustrating if you believe you've taken the greatest panorama ever only to find out that there are visible connections between the photographs.

Only use your cameras panorama function if it stores each individual photograph separate.

Ensure that you choose the panorama function that stores each separate photograph. If there is no separate option, use the camera as if it didn't have a panorama function. Because, even if your camera doesn't have a panorama function you can still create cool panoramas. You may just need to be a bit more careful when moving your camera from picture to picture.

Comments

[Zrowny]

I would just like to say that this is a very great 'ible. Honestly, I would never think to use a layer mask and blend it like you did. Nice!

[tom95]

Why dont you use autostich, it takes all your photos and makes them into the panorama, then saves it for you.
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

[ClayOgre]

Ideally, you want to to rotate your camera around the nodal point of the lens, to prevent perspective "shifts" during rotation. You can buy adapters to position the nodal point above the pivot, such as the panosaurus. You can also make such adaptors, there are several people online who have done so. The main thing is finding the nodal point.

One trick I came across involved picking a spot on the ground, and hanging a plumb bob from the tripod socket of your camera so that the tip pointed at this spot, then very carefully handholding your camera and rotating around the spot. (seems kinda awkward, but it might work)

[marijnkampf]

Do you really find it makes stitching photos together much easier? I shoot most of my panorama pictures without using a tripod. I presume you still have to manually adjust the photos for objects that come close to the camera.

[ClayOgre]

Not sure what you mean by manually adjust, but I suspect not. That's the whole idea of rotating around the nodal point, is that everything fits together as it should. Plus there is the advantage of, when using such a head, you can do "spherical" panoramas. I have since found instructables on here for both building your own panorama head, and also making quicktime "virtual tour" type video, which would require fairly precise shooting in order to work.

[manonfire285]

Not to demean your instructable, but there is a completely free and painless way to do this. I admit it isn't 100% perfect but it's pretty darn close.

ICE

[marijnkampf]

I've tried out ICE and it's a nice program. I like the capability of being able to save it's work as a PDF. However, it has the same issues as the other automated software (and you mention it yourself) it's not 100% perfect and it still requires manual touch up. Once you start adjusting the picture I find it harder to using the "random" stitches found by the software, so I rather do it manually from the start. I may start using it for my trail stitching though.

[chosenone3]

omg what did you do to the pan ? >.< Lulz Good tutorial anyways :D