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Panorama Photography - Workflow

When all equipment is ready, take photos according to following tips.

Workflow of Panorama Photography

Shoot with pano head and tripod

1. Attach the Pano Head to the Tripod to make sure the pano head can spin smoothly around the tripod axis.

2. Attach the Camera to the Pano Head: Assure the camera body and horizontal line in a right angle. Locate nodal point to keep the camera in a fixed position to avoid parallax error.

3. Calculate the rotation degree.

Note: If you are using a compact camera to capture home photos, you may just use tripod to assure the steadiness of shooting.

 

Shoot hand held

1. Calculate the rotation degree: to calculate the rotation degree when shooting each shot (360/the minimum number of shots, for example, if the minimum number of shots after calculation is 12, then the rotation degree should be 30).

Tip: If the calculation result is shooting at least 11 images, shooting 12 images is suggested to get a better stitching result.

2. Hand hold a camera, keep the camera in the same spot for every shot and proceed in a straight line. Don’t move the camera up and down between shots to follow an up and down horizon. Ideally, use a tripod.

Tip: Two ways of holding camera

  • Hold camera horizontally (two ways of holding camera), see Figure 1
    The photo obtained through this way is in landscape mode, which can be imported into Instant Pano and stitched directly. See Figure 2.

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 5
  • Hold camera vertically, see Figure 3
    The photo obtained through this way is in portrait mode, see Figure 4
Figure 3
Figure 4

This can't be imported into the program directly, but rotated (view Feagure 5) before opening and stitching it in Instant Pano.

3. On a given shot, note the alignment of nearby objects to distant objects. (These should be objects which are at the edge of the frame, so they will also be in the next frame.) Then, as you rotate the camera clockwise for the next shot, make sure that the alignment stays the same. For example, if there is a nearby rock which is right in line with a distant tree, after you rotate the camera, make sure that the rock is still in front of that tree, and not moved left or right.

Userful Tips

For the best results, take photos using the following tips:

  1. Keep the camera in the same spot for every shot. The distance between camera and floor should be kept unchanged.
  2. Make sure that there is some overlap from photo to photo. For example, if you are sweeping /from left to right, locate an object in the right side of your viewfinder on the 1st shot. Then make sure you can see that same object on the left side of your viewfinder on the 2nd shot. Continue this for each shot. Ideally, you should /have about 25%-40% of each frame overlapping the previous frame.
  3. Based on the calculated number of shots required for stitching, shooting more images than required is suggested.
  4. Shooting photos clockwise is suggested. If the photos are shot counterclockwise, please click on from toolbox to reverse the image order after importing all the shots.
  5. Lock your exposure for all shots. This will help to avoid substantial changes in lightness/darkness from frame to frame. If you can’t or don’t want to do this, and there are substantial variations in lightness from frame to frame, take your shots with more overlap (e.g., 50% overlap from shot to shot). This will minimize the amount of lightness change from any one shot to the next shot. If you can, also lock your white balance for all shots.
  6. Beware of objects which move between shots. Clouds move, trees sway in the wind, and people move around. If people and/or things are moving, take your shots as quickly as possible to minimize the amount of variation between frames.
  7. Don’t zoom in or out between frames.

>> Next: Stitch photos to panoramic image with Instant Pano

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