How to Shoot Spectacular Panorama Photos (VIDEO)
Have you ever been enthralled with a spectacular panorama image and wondered if you had the necessary gear and skills to do this yourself? The answer is “yes,” and in the quick video below you’ll learn everything necessary for shooting panos to perfection.
Instructor Adrian Caleanu is a professional Canadian landscape photographer whose behind-the-scenes tutorials from awesome locations are designed to help other outdoor shooters discover the world and elevate their skills “one photo at a time.” He kicks off today’s episode with this definition, “A panorama is a wide-angle image created by stitching together multiple overlapping photos to capture a scene beyond the typical field of view possible with a single lens.
Caleanu’s subject is an expansive vista with a blanket of impressive clouds above snow-capped mountains looming in the distance. He can’t create the composition he desires in a single shot but watch the breathtaking perspective he achieves by using the panorama technique described in the next nine minutes.
The first step is securing the camera and capturing a small selection of images that are carefully merged later during post processing. Caleanu waits patiently until the soft light of Blue Hour bathes the scene, and four carefully aligned shots are all takes. His initial camera settings are f/5, 1/30, and ISO 100 while shooting in Live View mode for reasons he explains.
After shooting the first photo he pans to the right for the next frame while explaining that “when panning to the right you have to carefully overlap each subsequent shot by one third.” He then makes his second, third, and final images using the same technique. As he says, “for me it’s not a question of how many frames I want, but rather how many frames are required to capture the entire mountain range before me.”
Caleanu says he prefers to slightly underexpose his images because “it’s away easy to bring up the shadows but you can’t bring down highlights if they’re blown out and devoid of details.” He creates a second panorama by shifting his view to a nearby airport with plane moving across the runway.
You’ll agree that this technique is quite simple, as are the other tips that you’ll find on Caleanu’s instructional YouTube channel that are just waiting for you to take a look.
Be sure not to miss the tutorial we featured earlier with a Danish outdoor shooter who provides 10 straightforward tips for capturing fantastic photographs of spring flowers with simple gear.
