Using your digital camera to create panoramic images certainly is a way of expanding your photographic horizons in at least one sense of the word. There are two parts to creating striking panoramic images: the technical challenges and the creative ones. The following sections consider both to these.
Handling the technical challenges
A panoramic image is one whose longer side is usually at least twice its shorter side. Common panoramic print sizes are 3 x 6, 6 x 12, and 12 x 24. More extreme versions are also used. When you get right down to it, the only real limitation on the size of panorama shots is the imagination of the photographer.
Panoramic images can be a striking tool in the photographer’s bag of tricks. Because this format is so seldom seen, images created this way automatically leap out at the viewer. In addition, the panorama’s extreme dimensions can be perfectly suited for subjects that don’t quite fit the normal photographic frame.
The biggest technical challenge to working in panoramic format is that your camera isn’t shooting a panoramic image, although some cameras may offer a panoramic mode. This means that you’re wasting space at the top and bottom (or sides) of the image that you’re only going to crop out. Fortunately, this problem isn’t insurmountable. Ways of dealing with the issue are discussed later in this section.
Handling the creative challenges
You can pick just about any subject for a panorama, but finding subject matter that truly works with the extreme dimensions is a bit more difficult. These are good challenges though. Remember, you’re trying to stretch yourself creatively here, so finding a task that fires your imagination isn’t a bad idea.
Here are some potential subjects for panoramic shots:
1. Lighthouses:
These tall, slender structures cry for panoramic treatment. Just remember you’re creating a vertical panorama
2. City skylines: Instead of including lots of sky and foreground, turn the cityscape into a panorama.
3. Shorelines: Many images made at the shore show an empty sky forced upon the image by the tyranny of the standard photographic image dimensions. Changing to a panoramic format means the photographer can show what’s important and leave the rest out. Beach photos are a
good example of this kind of thinking.
4. Natural wonders: Sometimes the best way to show a grand sweeping vista is by shooting a panoramic image. This format helps isolate the landscape against a small sliver of sky, making the scenery stand out.
5. People events: Events such as the Indy 500 or the Punkin Chunkin contest offer large numbers of people and contraptions. If you can position your camera on an elevated vantage point, you’re in position to create an effective panoramic composition that better shows the event than the normal photographic image.
You can create a panoramic photo with a digital camera in two different ways, and the following sections explain these techniques. These methods also work with film cameras, but they’re easier with a digital camera. The exception, of course, is if you invest in a high-end film camera made specifically to takepanoramas or buy a cheap, disposable panoramic camera.
