essential skills: digital photography in available light
Introduction
Panoramic images have always been a very inspiring aspect of photography. Until now, making
these types of pictures has been restricted to a small set of lucky individuals who are fortunate
enough to own the specialized cameras needed to capture the wide images. These wide format
cameras come in a variety of designs including spinning lenses or enlarged camera backs that
capture the image over several frames of fi lm. With the onset of digital photography image-editing
software manufacturers have now started to include features that allow users with standard
cameras to create wonderful wide-angle vistas digitally. How is this so?
The new features are sometimes referred to as stitching programs, as their actual function is
to combine a series of photographs into a single picture. Whilst in the fi eld the photographer
carefully photographs the scene using several exposures making sure that each of the images
slightly overlap. When this series of photos is imported into a stitching program the edge details of
each successive image are matched and blended so that the join is not detectable. Once all the
photographs have been combined, the result is a picture that shows a scene of any angle up to a
full 360º.
This ‘multi-capture and stitch’ approach has taken the ability to create fantastic panoramic photos
from the hands of the professionals touting specialized equipment and thrust it into the hands of
any photographer with a digital camera and a stitching program. This chapter will look at the steps
involved in capturing and producing panoramic photographs.Panoramic forms
Traditionally photographers have printed their capture images and used this form as a way of
presenting their work. Panoramic imaging more so than most other photographic pursuits supports
the creation of wonderful printed photographs whilst at the same time providing the opportunity
involving the audience in a truly immersive experience. The shooting and stitching stages of the
process is pretty much the same for both outcomes but it is in the later production steps that the
panoramic image is optimized for one outcome or the other.The panorama is made by stitching
sequentially shot and overlapping
images together so that they seamlessly
form a single wide vista photo