Panoramic photography: what you need to know? Panoramic photography (a genre of panoramic photography in photography).

Good photo hides a story that lives not only in the frame, but also outside it, and each viewer comes up with the ending of this story for himself.

Panoramas are very different in perception from “ordinary” shots. Looking at a successful panorama, the viewer is mentally transported to the photographer’s place and becomes an active participant in the picture, imperceptibly drawn into the space around him.

From the article you will learn about the equipment necessary for this type of shooting, I will also talk about programs for creating panoramas and, of course, I will talk about the problems that I encountered when creating the examples given in this article.

I hope you won’t make my mistakes and thereby save your time =)
The most logical place to start is with equipment.

Equipment for shooting panoramas.

Camera. There are no restrictions here - both a point-and-shoot camera and a DSLR will do.
You can also choose any lens for shooting panoramas, but it is better to give preference to wide-angle models. The advantage of such lenses is that there is no need to take too many pictures, the vertical coverage is greater, and as a result, the photograph will not look like a “narrow slit”. Choose a lens with a focal length of up to 80mm.
Tripod. You can, of course, do without it, but unnecessary difficulties may arise, manifested in the form of movement, but these are actually trifles - the main problems may arise when assembling the image.Using a tripod will allow you to save a lot of time on processing, if, of course, you are committed to a high-quality result.A professional approach requires the use of a panoramic head. Beginners, in principle, do not need it for the reason high price and considerable weight.
If your tripod does not come with a level, you can purchase one separately. It is installed in the flash connector.
A cable release or remote control will help you avoid this, but their presence is not at all necessary.

All necessary equipment for shooting panoramas I have listed.

Another point worth talking about before going on a photo hunt is. It is important not only in “regular” photography, but also when shooting panoramas.

To make a photograph look more vibrant and expressive, it is desirable to have a foreground.
Panoramic photography of a field, sea, lake will be boring and monotonous, because there is nothing for the eye to grab onto. Objects located in the foreground, middle and background will add volume to the image. You can use people, trees, stones, rocks and other things as such objects - the foreground can “revive” the picture and make it more expressive.

Horizontal lines in panoramic photography look quite boring - they can enliven the picture vertical lines(trees, poles, buildings).

In “ordinary” photography, we look for and “isolate” interesting things from the general whole and convey the story in one frame, leaving behind a lot of interesting things, and maybe even a whole story.

For panoramic photography, it is necessary to develop the skill of “panoramic vision” in order to learn how to beautifully convey objects in unity, so to speak, to tell why they all came together. The difficulty in developing this skill lies in the fact that the human viewing angle is approximately 45 degrees, and panoramas can include 180 and 360 degrees of the surrounding space.

The compositional balance of the image also plays an important role. The far left (the beginning of the story) and the far right (its end) fragments of the panorama should, if possible, complete it so that the viewer’s gaze does not slip beyond its boundaries. For this purpose, you can use heavy vertical lines that can limit the composition.

The horizon line can be positioned according to the rule ().

The ideal time for shooting is during normal shooting hours - half an hour after the sun rises above the horizon in the early morning, and half an hour before the sun drops below the horizon in the evening. This time is considered ideal for photographing landscapes and wildlife.

You are probably already determined to take the camera and go shoot, but the answer to the question “?” not finished yet =) there are still a few important points left.

Before you start practicing, read a little more theory - this way you will make fewer mistakes and save time.

How to shoot panoramas? Rules for shooting panoramas.

Once you have decided on the place and time, you need to proceed as follows:

Install the camera on a tripod, and use a level to check the correct installation - it should be “horizontal”, and the verticals should not go to the sides either. Rotate the camera left and right and check whether this rule is followed everywhere. You, of course, can give up on it and not carry it out, then problems may arise: when assembling a panorama, buildings and trees may be piled to the side, the horizon may “move” up or down from its “normal” position, or even Once assembled it will resemble a wavy line.
It is better to position the camera vertically (portrait orientation). Let it be required large quantity frames, but the final image will be more interesting and harmonious. When oriented horizontally, the result will be a “narrow strip”.
Camera settings. In order to decide on the settings, we need to understand what we want to achieve ideally. We need all the frames that make up the panorama to be the same in brightness, color shades, depth of field, scale - this way we will make our life as easy as possible during assembly.In order to achieve these results, it is advisable to use manual mode M, or aperture priority mode.To reduce the number of frames in a series, the shortest focal length of the lens is usually used, and it should not change throughout the frames of the series.We focus on infinity, after which autofocus can be turned off. Aperture value 8-16 (it’s better not to get carried away with maximum values to avoid diffraction).The shutter speed value can be set to the average for all frames (you can say “ average temperature in the hospital”), the disadvantage of this method is the loss of detail in bright areas and shadows.If there is bright sun, then extreme changes in brightness cannot be avoided. You can try to cope with this problem using HDR technology (shoot the same frame with different exposures and pull out details from the shadows and highlights).You can also hide from the bright sun in the shade, this way you can avoid another problem - glare.
Each frame should overlap the next by 30-50%. More overlap will smooth out differences in lighting and color.
It is better not to use filters in panoramic photography to avoid unnecessary glare and color inhomogeneity.A polarizing filter can improve the quality of an individual photo, but it can ruin a panorama - when you change the angle of the lens to the sun, the polarization changes, and as a result, the color changes, as a result the sky can get uneven “coloring” along the entire length of the panorama.
It is advisable to place it completely within the boundaries of one frame, otherwise a situation may arise when half of the object is in one fragment, but not in the second, because it has already run far away from us.
If your camera allows you to shoot in Raw, then it is better to use this opportunity - this will give greater flexibility in adjusting two adjacent fragments in terms of brightness, contrast, saturation and other parameters.

The process of assembling a panorama on a computer takes much longer than the shooting itself, and its duration directly depends on the quality of the captured fragments. The conclusion suggests itself - it is better to spend more time on shooting, making it as high quality as possible, than to correct mistakes made on a computer.

How to shoot panoramas - you now know, let's spend a little time on the assembly process.

They are usually assembled from fragments, starting from the far left. There are many programs to simplify and automate this process.

Programs for creating panoramas.

Adobe Photoshop
PTGui
Autopano Giga
Panorama Maker
Panorama Factory
PanoramaStudio Pro

This is far from full list, but I don’t think it’s necessary anymore =)
To create the panoramas shown in this article, I used Adobe program Photoshop CS6 beta version.

Once you get home from taking a photo it will be quite difficult to remember where one panorama begins and another ends, so before I start shooting a panorama I photograph one finger, after the panorama is completed I photograph two fingers - simple but effective and intuitive method.

Put photo processing on autopilot with the help of training “

Panoramic photography

Panoramic photography is photography of widely spread objects. To fit such an object in one photo, you must either shoot from a distance or use a wide-angle lens. But it is often very difficult to find a suitable and sufficiently distant shooting point from where it would be possible to cover the entire object in one shot, even with a wide-angle lens. Then panoramic photography is used.

The technique of panoramic photography is that the object is photographed in parts over several frames, turning the camera to a certain angle after each shooting. Having then made photographic prints from all the negatives, they are partially superimposed on one another and glued together.

But all this is not as simple as it might seem at first glance.

Firstly, it is necessary to be nearby worthwhile shots several overlapped each other. To do this, you need to know the image angle of the lens and not go beyond its limits when turning the camera. It is also necessary to try to avoid too much overlap of frames, since in this case the panorama will have to be stitched together from large number pictures.

Secondly, all photographs should be taken with the same exposure and, if possible, in the shortest possible time, since in changeable weather a cloud may roll in and the illumination will change sharply, and as a result, two adjacent photographs will be of unequal density, and the stitching line will be too noticeable. Therefore, you should shoot in calm weather.

Thirdly, all negatives must be manifested exactly the same way. However, this is not difficult to do.

Fourthly, if printing is done using a photo enlarger, all prints must be made to exactly the same scale.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, all prints must be made on the same photographic paper at exactly the same exposure and developed to exactly the same density.

The film plane in the camera must be vertical. When shooting handheld, it is difficult to achieve great accuracy, so the camera should be mounted on a tripod and, if possible, its position should be adjusted using a level.

Rice. 151. Perspective distortion is inevitable when shooting panoramas

With any panoramic photography, perspective distortions are inevitable due to the fact that different areas the object is photographed from different angles (Fig. 151). It is impossible to completely get rid of this drawback, but the greater the distance from which the shooting is carried out, the less the impact of this drawback is felt. Therefore, you should try to choose a shooting point away from the subject. In addition, the device should be positioned, if possible, against the middle of the object. In all cases, we must strive to fit the image of the object into two, maximum three frames.

At more frames, perspective distortions become too noticeable and as a result, an incorrect impression of nature is formed.

If it is not possible to fit the entire subject in one frame using a wide-angle lens, then such a lens should be abandoned altogether. Wide-angle lenses, as you already know, exaggerate perspective and therefore, in a panoramic shot, even on just two frames, will produce more perspective distortion than a normal lens on three frames.

In order not to make a mistake in the angle of rotation of the camera, you must use the viewfinder as accurately as possible. When turning the camera, for example, from left to right, i.e. clockwise, you need to make sure that extreme point of the object, visible in the viewfinder on the right, after turning the camera, was visible at the left edge of the viewfinder field and in no case was outside this field.

It is best to mount the finished photographs on cardboard and glue them end to end. And so that the joint lines are not noticeable, you must first put one print on top of the other, precisely align the corresponding places of the images, and then, pressing them with a ruler, cut both prints at once with a razor blade.

Sometimes it is more advantageous to cut prints not in a straight line, but along a broken line, choosing places on the prints where the cut lines are less noticeable. In this case, you only need to trim one (top) print and paste it onto the bottom one.

Panoramic photography is a very interesting and sometimes simply necessary type of photography. Taking this into account, our industry for a long time produced a special camera for panoramic photography FT-2. The design of this camera is original and very interesting. It is designed for normal perforated 35mm film and produces images with a coverage angle of 120°. The negatives are 24 x 110 mm in size, i.e., they essentially fit three full frames of conventional small-format cameras (Fig. 152).

Rice. 152. Photo taken with a panoramic camera

The Industar-50 lens with a focal length of 5 cm and a relative aperture of 1:3.5 has a constant aperture of 1:5 and is set to a constant focus so that shooting can be done from a distance of 10 miles further, but you must try to photograph so that the distance there was more distance to the main subject. The camera has special cassettes; regular cassettes from small-format cameras are not suitable for it. Each cassette is designed for a normal film load - 1.6 m, which can accommodate 12 panoramic frames. The camera's shutter is a slotted one, of a special design, located in front of the lens and gives three instant shutter speeds: 1/100, 1/200 and 1/400 s.

The viewfinder is frame. There is a level on the housing cover. There are two cassettes in the camera body: feed and take-up, the film is placed in a circle. The lens is located in a light-tight cylindrical chamber, on the outer side of which there is a shutter, and on the opposite side there is a narrow bell (Fig. 153).

Rice. 153. Schematic diagram of a panoramic camera: 1 - lens, 2 - cylindrical camera, 3 - shutter slit, 4 - bell, 5 - lens rotation axis 6 - film, 7, 8 - cassettes

At the moment of shooting, the cylindrical camera, and along with it the lens and socket, rotate under the action of a spring around a vertical axis. At the same moment, the shutter opens and light, passing through the lens and the socket, illuminates the film gradually from one end of the frame to the other.

The high sharpness of the image allows you to make significant enlargements from panoramic negatives, but usually large-format enlargers 6 x 9 cm, unfortunately, do not allow you to get the entire frame on the print. Approximately 2 cm along the length of the frame are cut off, as they extend beyond the negative frame of the enlarger. Get full frame only possible with photographic enlargers larger than 6 x 9 cm.

Rice. 154. Panoramic camera “Horizon”

In connection with this, a new panoramic camera was later released - “Horizon” (Fig. 154). main feature it is that, having a coverage angle of 120°, it produces 24 x 58 mm format negatives on 35 mm film, which can be enlarged with any 6 x 9 cm format photographic enlargers. This is achieved by the fact that the camera has a shorter focal length (and more fast) lens OF-28P, 1:2.8/28 mm.

The camera's slot shutter operates at shutter speeds from 1/20 to 1/250 s. The viewfinder in the camera is optical, removable, with a level in the field of view. The cassette is standard. One film can contain 22 panoramic frames.

With panoramic cameras, you need to shoot from a tripod, setting the camera level. Otherwise, distortions and associated distortions in the pictures are possible.

How to make your photo fit the whole city? Or how to convey all the beauty winter forest? All this is possible in such a genre as panoramic photography. The main quality inherent in panoramic photography is a large viewing angle. Depending on the shooting method, a panorama can be planar, cylindrical, cubic or spherical.

A planar panorama is projected onto a plane and can be reproduced both on photographic paper and on a computer monitor. Planar panoramas are created using special panoramic cameras that have a viewing angle of more than 120 degrees, which makes it possible to obtain elongated frames with a large coverage of the horizon. This quality is achieved due to the movable lens, which can rotate around the nodal point while simultaneously directing the light flux following the slot shutter. At the same time, panoramic cameras can use narrow film (type 135), wide (type 120), and also have a digital matrix.

In principle, panoramic photography can be obtained using a regular camera, by subsequent “stitching” of several frames, but in this case it is advisable to use a panoramic tripod head and the appropriate software.

Panorama of a thunderstorm

A cylindrical panorama, or cyclorama, is obtained by projecting onto the side of a cylinder and covers all 360 degrees. You can get a cylindrical panorama by “stitching” frames obtained from both a regular and panoramic camera.

Cubic and spherical panoramas are created by projecting the environment onto a cube or sphere.

In terms of content, panoramic photography is very multifaceted, but there are the following main types: rural and urban, natural and industrial, day and night, landscape and macro, interior and street, vertical and horizontal, parallel shift and circular. When creating a panorama, the photographer is faced with the task of not only shooting correctly, but also correctly processing the resulting result, including on a computer.

Both a panoramic camera and an unremarkable digital point-and-shoot camera can serve as a tool for obtaining a good panorama; for this purpose, they have a special panoramic mode, which makes it possible to shoot several frames, with further “stitching” in the appropriate graphic editor. One of the most popular tools for stitching panoramic elements on a computer is considered free program Panorama Tools, the disadvantage of which, however, is its complexity for an untrained user. Therefore, it is recommended to use some free shell, for example, “hugin”. Of course, you can stitch together a beautiful panorama with using PhotoShop, but this will require certain skills and time. And remember the main rule - the less effort you put in during photography, the more effort you put in during the process of assembling the panorama.

Panorama. Gluing of eight fragments.

Another accessory that is an indispensable condition in panoramic photography is a tripod; a tripod with a built-in level is especially welcome, since one of the main requirements in panoramic photography—the vertical-horizontal position of all axes—must be strictly met.

Also keep in mind that individual fragments are shot from a tripod, in portrait-oriented frames, and with at least a quarter of the frame overlapping. When taking a series of frames, all photographic parameters must be the same, automatic modes must be turned off, and do not forget to control possible changes in lighting conditions and the location of objects in the frame.

So, you decided to act, found a suitable subject and time, and prepared the appropriate equipment.

Let's look at the main stages of panoramic photography, and there are two of them - shooting individual frames and their subsequent connection (gluing, stitching, call it as you like) on a computer.

First, let's describe the process of shooting a panorama.

Your actions should look like this:

Install the camera on a tripod, taking into account the exact horizontal position of the optical axis, coinciding with the center of the frame, relative to the real or mentally constructed horizon line using the viewfinder.

You check the degree of verticality of the rotation axis of the central rotation column by turning the camera left and right, while the horizon in the viewfinder should not extend beyond the center of the frame.

Take the calculated number of frames one by one, overlapping by about half the frame. It is recommended to duplicate some frames, or even make several passes, in order to protect yourself from unexpected miscalculations.

As you can see, the technique is simple and accessible.

Island on Lake Ladoga.

As a lens for panoramic photography, it is better to use models with a focal length of 24-80 mm; shorter focal length lenses suffer from geometric distortions.

The process of assembling a panorama on a computer takes much more time than photographing itself, and the amount of time spent is influenced by how well the component fragments are made. Therefore, it is better to carefully prepare for the shooting process and produce flawless photographs than to spend two to three times more time smoothing out mistakes. In the context of the above, let's voice a few important advice how to shoot properly.

The first rule is that the built-in level on the tripod will allow you to spend less time assembling individual images into a single panorama. Do not forget to adhere to the strict vertical-horizontal arrangement of all axes. Ideally, in an assembled tripod-camera complex, all its elements should be located either vertically or horizontally, depending on their purpose. Other angles are not acceptable. The optical axis during the shooting of each fragment must be strictly horizontal.

The second rule is that you must remember that the parameters of each panorama frame should be as similar as possible, which minimizes the risk of the appearance of inconsistent fragments that differ in color, illumination, sharpness, depth, etc. To prevent this from happening, forget about automatic settings and modes, even if they show the most wonderful results. All the main details of the exposure - focus, shutter speed, aperture, for each fragment, you will have to trust yourself. More details from here.

For example, experts recommend setting the focusing distance to infinity. Choosing optimal aperture, assume that the depth of field should cover all visually active objects, most likely f8 or less will be enough. When adjusting exposure, determine the exposure of the brightest and darkest fragments, and during the shooting process, use the average exposure.

Panoramic photography is a type of photography with high angle scene coverage. It is used when standard viewing angles of lenses are insufficient to display the entire required scene.

With the help of panoramic techniques, we get the opportunity to “catch” more space in the frame than when using a standard set of photographic equipment. Photographers have been concerned about panoramic photography for a long time. And if earlier the efforts of photographic equipment designers, professional photographers and amateurs were aimed at hardware solutions, now software solutions seem more promising.

Required stage width several times more than is possible with the existing set of equipment. The viewing angle is sorely lacking, the photograph does not convey the scale of what is happening, neither the equipment nor the truck crane is visible. The arrows indicate the required and available stage coverage width:

How to be? Glue up the panorama! We take a moderately wide-angle lens, in this case we used a zoom lens at 28 mm. Using a reference book or empirically, we find the nodal point. This is not an entirely correct definition; in fact, we need the so-called “no parallax point”; I don’t know an adequate definition for this term in Russian. In the case of working with equidistant objects and in the absence of objects in the foreground, you don’t have to worry too much about the accuracy of calculating the point. If you shoot a panorama with elements at a distance of 1-2-5 meters from the camera, accuracy is already needed, and an error of 10-20 mm will be critical - due to the manifestation of parallax, the panorama will not stick together, artifacts will be noticeable.

Trying to rotate the camera around magic point G (crossed out) parallax-free point, take a series of frames. In our case, one row of photographs is not enough for full vertical coverage; we will take two or three rows. Photos for a future panorama should be taken with an overlap of 20-30% relative to neighboring frames, preferably more. This must be done quickly - the crane boom moves, the slinger is not going to freeze either:

Then we’ll entrust the matter to the program. Note that by 2010, more than a dozen software packages for stitching panoramas had appeared, but not one of them could think for the photographer. And it’s not necessary, we think it’s not bad ourselves. My friend PTgui will set the control points, and I will set the projection, dimensions and perspective myself:

The process of gluing a multi-row panorama from individual files with a resolution of 10 megapixels (when connecting the smartblend plugin) is very resource-intensive, a computer based on a dual-core 3 GHz processor takes a couple of minutes. Photographers who own five-year-old cars can safely go to lunch; while the program is working on the panorama, you will also have time to drink coffee and smoke. As a result of witchcraft, a picture is obtained that is unattainable by other means and methods of photography. The task is completed - the photo now shows the entire site:

Panoramic photography, among other undeniable conveniences, gives the photographer freedom to manipulate perspective. Let's consider this possibility using the example of a panorama of the Sovetskaya Hotel. We will choose the sidewalk on Rizhsky Prospekt as the shooting point. From this point, working with a camera even with a wide-angle lens, we will be able to photograph only a small, about 10-20%, area of the facade. In a computer panorama of 12 frames, we can observe the entire building.

The first panorama has a linear perspective (this definition is not entirely correct from the point of view general theory perspective, but for ease of understanding it will do). The facade looks smooth, the walls do not fall, the lines are straight and parallel. This is how our eye (or rather, the brain - we will understand how the eye sees from the following illustration) perceives the building from some distance. But since we are standing almost side by side, the distance to the central part of the facade is two to three times less than to the left and right edges! Computer modeling of perspective during panoramic photography allows one to bypass this seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

However, you have to pay for everything. In this case, the geometry of objects in the foreground. This is what we observe in the example of parked cars - the cars on the left and right are approaching the length of limousines. If such a metamorphosis is not critical, a linear representation of perspective is quite appropriate and justified. We remember that our task has no solutions at all in the plane of traditional photography. What else can you do?

You can also specify a cylindrical representation. Our eye actually sees this way; this is exactly the image that is projected onto the retina. All the rest of the “data post-processing” occurs in the brain - the building still seems straight to us. The facade of the hotel was bent, but the proportions of the objects (we look at the cars) became correct, close to reality. In addition, there is also a spherical projection. This is an attempt to represent the entire sphere (360x180 degrees) on a plane. But we will talk about it when we deal with the technology for creating virtual spherical panoramas. To create panoramas for regular viewing and printing, the photographer only needs to understand the first two varieties.

Which projection is correct? There can be no clear answer; both are correct. The point is in the particular perception of the plot by the viewer. I would simply compare the two options and choose the most comfortable picture. Even with incorrect geometry, your photo can acquire an interesting “special effect” :)

Panoramic techniques are often used when photographing interiors. There is no alternative to them when it is necessary to show a wide room, provided that the photographer simply has nowhere to go. The use of special lenses cannot be a full-fledged replacement - a geometry-compensated wide-angle will give a characteristic stretch at the edges of the frame, and a classic fisheye gives a picture curved towards the center, which not everyone will like. Example: photographing the operating room of a medical center, a single-row computer panorama of four frames.

The use of panoramas in photographing cottage interiors. The relatively small bathroom space turned out to be impossible to show using traditional methods. A computer panorama allows you to see everything around. Somewhat free handling of the geometry of space cannot be called a drawback - such pictures look much more interesting than those produced by a classic wide-angle lens.

A panorama does not have to look like a panorama, i.e. A wide-format photograph with a large width-to-height ratio. A photograph can also have the usual aspect ratios - 2:3, 3:4. In this case, the picture has a large coverage not only in width, but also in the height of the scene. Example: computer panorama of the "Broken Ring" memorial complex on the square. Victory. Only a multi-row panorama allows you to cover the entire space at the bottom of the bowl.

Single-row panorama of four vertical frames. There is no way to move further - the cottage is surrounded by trees that will fall into the frame (this is noticeable by the shadows in the snow). The distance to the building is much less than the width of its facade. This is not visible in the resulting image; there is a feeling of spaciousness.

One of the uses of panoramic photography- creation of high and ultra-high resolution panoramas. The panoramic technique makes it possible to surpass the most advanced film equipment in this parameter. The resulting panorama resolution is 70-80% of the sum of the resolutions of the source files. My personal record is about 400 megapixels. (panorama of the Neva banks from the English Embankment), there is practically no limit here. And although such a task is rare in practice (8-15 megapixels is enough for most cases), photographers should not neglect such a simple and elegant solution. Printed in 1.5 x 8 m format, the city panorama with a resolution of up to several millimeters looks, believe me, incomparable.

The resolution of the panoramic image of the Blagoveshchensky Bridge is more than 100 megapixels. A huge advantage if you need to print a multi-meter banner.

On a separate page there are additional examples of high-resolution panoramas, shooting parameters are described, and source files are posted.

Of course, panoramic techniques can and should be used when photographing architecture. The amazingly beautiful facades of St. Petersburg buildings are often simply impossible to photograph - you can’t go further than the wall of the building opposite, even if you want to. Now photographers have reliable solution Problems

The building of the St. Petersburg Suvorov Military School (Vorontsov Palace). Single-row panorama of seven frames:

The main building of the State Russian Museum ( Mikhailovsky Palace). Single-row panorama of eight frames, manual selection of control points:

Winter Palace, view from Palace Square. The only way to show the entire building is to use panoramic technologies:

Panorama of St. Isaac's Square, 8 separate frames, automatic stitching, perspective correction:

Postcard view, f/s for a magazine illustration - panorama of the winter Neva. Stitching of four horizontal images:

This is not to say that panoramas are the solution to all the problems of photographers and their clients. But the fact that new technology significantly expands the capabilities of professionals and amateurs, one can safely say. And most importantly, here you will find the widest field for experimentation. And experience will come over the years :)

Show an entire city in one photo? Or see all the beauty of the winter landscape? All this is possible with panoramic photography.

Panoramic photography is a photograph with a wide viewing angle. There are three types of panoramic photography: planar, cylindrical And cubic(in some cases also called spherical).

Since there are not so many truly serious photographers, panoramic film cameras are not in great demand, and therefore are produced in small quantities. However, they are probably the most convenient cameras with which you can take high-quality panoramic photographs. Photography is called panoramic because the viewing angle covered is large. Since ancient times, more specifically, since the emergence of the concept of panoramic photography, there have been debates about precise definition panoramic photography, and still no specifics. However, in professional circles they believe that panoramic photography should have a horizontal to vertical ratio of at least 2:1.

Planar panorama- is projected onto a plane and can be reproduced on paper or a monitor. Such a panorama is usually obtained using panoramic cameras with a viewing angle of more than 120°, which allows you to obtain elongated frames with a wide coverage angle. Such a wide angle is achieved due to a movable lens, which rotates around its nodal point, directing the light flux following the slot shutter. Panoramic cameras can use narrow (type 135), wide (type 120) film, or have a digital matrix. You can also get a planar panorama by “stitching” frames from a regular camera, although in this case it is advisable to use a special panoramic tripod head and appropriate software.

A cylindrical panorama is obtained only by stitching, since the panorama’s coverage is 360°, which today is impossible to cover with a single camera. A spherical panorama occurs when a round projection is made on the face of a cube, which gives the observer the impression of viewing the surface of the ball from the inside. Today it is really difficult to find high-quality panoramic photographs on the Internet. Perhaps the reason for this is, firstly, the fact that it is difficult for amateurs to achieve such effects due to ignorance of the professional aspects of the field, and secondly, the price of panoramic cameras, which are much different from ordinary semi-professional digital cameras. Two manufacturers are considered to be the leaders in the panoramic camera market: Hasselblad XPan and Horizon.

Cylindrical panorama(cyclorama) - for any person a comfortable viewing angle is 90 degrees. This is the normal angle of perception of visual information. A cylindrical panorama covers all 360 degrees, which can be confusing and disorienting. That is, you are used to perceiving the image at your own 90 degrees, but here in front of you is a whole panorama, which is woven from a dozen pictures familiar to your eye.

Spherical (cubic) the panorama is obtained by projecting the environment onto the edge of the cube (the viewer has the feeling that he is looking at the surface of the sphere from the inside).

There are many types of panoramic photography: urban and rural, natural and industrial, macro and landscape, street and interior, night and day, vertical and horizontal, circular and parallel shift... A high-quality panoramic photo will not only help to show full picture terrain, but will also convey all the beauty and delight of the photographer. To get a good panorama, you can use either a special panoramic camera or a regular digital point-and-shoot camera.

In ordinary digital cameras, by panoramic mode we mean shooting several frames and then stitching them together in the appropriate program. One of the most powerful programs for stitching panoramas is the free “Panorama Tools” that supports all popular operating systems, but it is very difficult to use, so it is recommended to use one of the available free shells, for example, “hugin”. Although it is possible to create a beautiful panorama using PhotoShop, it will take more time. Remember: the less effort you put in while shooting, the more effort you will need when assembling the panorama.

If you decide to shoot panoramic photo, then you cannot do without a tripod; it is better if it has a built-in level, since the key point when shooting a panorama is the strict vertical-horizontal position of all axes.

Please note that fragments are shot from a tripod, in portrait-oriented frames and with at least a quarter of the frame overlap. When photographing a series of fragments, all shooting parameters must match; automatic modes are not allowed. When shooting fragments, it is necessary to predict possible changes in lighting conditions and the position of objects in the frame.