Your fi rst attempt at a panoramic may result in an image only a mothercould love the component images do not “stitch” together well, a bit ofwide-angle distortion may create a slightly warped look, and the sky may havesome unusual dark areas. But you will be so elated with the fi nal product,that these issues can be overlooked—that is, until you pull off a really goodone.

Here are some tips that should be helpful for any photographer, from aninformal shooter who just wants to put together a panoramic view of a vacationsite, to the very serious photographer who wants the image’s construction to betransparent and fl awless.Use a tripod. This can help keep the camera on a truehorizontal axis, allowing greater accuracy of the stitching. This also allowsthe camera to swing on a tighter axis. A bubble level or a self-leveling tripodcan be of immense help to keep the line of the horizon so that the imagedoesn’t “drop” down, which is caused by the camera not being level.

1. Don’t shoot wide angle. Th is is one of the most common errorsphotographers make. The distortion of the wide-angle lens makes for an unevenand distorted horizon line. Use a minimal lens length of 35 to 50mm.

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2. Think about shooting vertical. Th is provides more depth to the image,and it lets you shoot just a few more frames to complete the breadth of thatpanoramic image.

3. As you move the camera across the scene, be sure to allow a 15 to 25percent overlap of each image. This provides a “fudge factor” that allows thesoftware to combine the images without encountering gaps where the images arenot quite wide enough.

4. To help the stitching process, and to make sure that each image isperfect in terms of joining its neighbor, learn about the nodal point of yourparticular lens.

Here’s a fairly easy way to determine the nodal point:

Step 1 : Mount the camera on a tripod that has been leveled.

Step 2 : Looking through the camera, find something vertical in the framethat is close to the tripod (within 4 to 15 feet). Also, find a second vertical component in the background, at a greater distance than the upfrontreference point. These two ver ticals (telephone poles, fence poles, orbuildings) should be almost lined up, with very little space between.

Step 3 : As you rotate the camera, watch how the perspective on these twover tical poles changes. It will start out pretty close, and as you swing thecamera around, the distance between them will change.

Step 4 : Using a nodal point head, move the camera back and for th on therig while looking at that scene, until those two vertical poles maintain theirperspective throughout the arc of movement.

Step 5 : Lock down the rail, and you have established the nodal point forthat par ticular lens perspective. You can then star t photographing thedifferent images that will make up this panoramic image, knowing that theoverlap of images will be smoother and more consistent.

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