Shooting panoramic images can be an impressive type of photography and, when done well, it’s possible to create really stunning images. Today we’ll be explaining the basic concept of panoramic photography, as well as providing an amazing collection of 40 horizontal and vertical panoramas, ranging from landscapes to living rooms!
What Is a Panoramic Photo?
A panoramic photo is simply any image which has two or more shots stitched together to make it appear as one large photograph. Creating a panorama is very useful if you don’t own super wide lenses, as often you can achieve a similar effect.
Panoramic images don’t just have to be horizontal, you can also merge images vertically. Many try to capture a full 360° angle of their surroundings, and some examples of these are shown in the pictures below.
How To Shoot a Panoramic Image
There is a great guide on how to create a panoramic image over at PSDtuts+, and we also have our own video tutorial on the topic.
I spent a whole summer shooting panoramic images, and here are my top five tips for those just getting started:
- Don’t use a flash -The flash changes every picture and leads to problems when merging the images later.
- Try shooting in portrait – When shooting a landscape panorama, shooting in portrait gives greater height to the resulting image.
- Upgrade your RAM – Stitching images together is an intensive process, and ensuring you have a fast computer with plenty of memory is important.
- Use a wide angle lens – This way, it requires fewer pictures to do a full 360° panorama
- Use a tripod – Unless you have a very steady hand, and a good eye for the horizon, a tripod makes the process far easier.
What is a Quicktime VR?
A quick time VR uses panoramic images to create a virtual “sphere” for the user to move around. It’s a way to interact with a panorama in real-time, allowing you to revolve around the images, zoom in, and experience the location.
These are commonly used for product or location demonstrations, and you can find a good example over at the Quicktime site. It’s a technique to consider experimenting with when you have a completed panoramic image!
40 Inspiring Examples
Here are a selection of really amazing panoramic photos. Click the image for a full, un-cropped original view!
Click above for the Virtual Reality Panoramic
Share Your Examples
Do you have a particularly awesome photograph you’d like to share? Please feel free to leave a link in the comments. I’d love to see a few examples of images from our readers!
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By Peter Sawyer
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A lot of these are just, well, okay, nothing new really.
Yeh. Some of them are a tad… plain.
However some of them (the waterfall one) for example, inspire me to find out how the heck they stitched that together without problems occurring with the water not matching up.
I’ve done some of my own also:
HDR Sky: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nyllo/4071605896/sizes/l/
Shopping Trolley: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nyllo/3569162673/sizes/l/
Flower: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nyllo/3573551497/sizes/l/
Viaduct: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nyllo/3560163621/sizes/l/
Enjoy!
I have experimented a bit with that technique, you can have a look at the url provided hereafter and in other folders throughout the site.
I’m with CP… some good examples, but plenty of turkeys. These folks will spend how much time retouching but can’t be bothered to straighten horizons? Pass.
AWESOME!
Wow, many of these are wonderful!
Also, thanks for posting a how-to!
Here is one I took in Sedona, AZ in 2008
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3487/4013454906_5bea1c054a_o.jpg
Pretty cool stuff, how many photos did you have to stich for that?
I noticed that you have some ‘tiny planets’ in the blog. Here’s one that I did:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/1100418/tiny-planet-back-yard-of-paxton-ma-home
Yeah, personally I love seeing the planets as well.
I think it really brings some of the images to life.
Here are a couple of my favorites that I have made so far:
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q197/coriantomr/stanleypano.jpg
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q197/coriantomr/beautifulweeds.jpg
Nice … Like it
I have tried some using tripod. HDR would look cool, will try it soon.
HDR is really cool, but I would think that your best bet is to just tone-map them.
Matching up HDR images is just crazy though can be done. Good luck and hope to see your results.
True… its easier to tone map a pseudo-hdr out of a single raw file than to match multiple exposures and align then… I’ve tried and failed (photoshop failed actually)
I love them all … Nice collection.
I wanted to try out few using Tripod.
OOOooooo!
gigapan is a also great website to explore these panoramic views
Gigapan is amazing but it I couldn’t get an image from it very easily! So I missed it out.
But yes I would recommend checking it out to all those who enjoyed this article!
Fantastic panoramic series of I’m a fan of them and I have some here’s a sample:)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rs_camaleon/4108089454/
Here are my panoramas:
http://www.nehalpatel.com/photos/tags/Panorama/page/1/
Whoops…. can’t embed code.
My first attempt:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjaminchertoff/3734380650/sizes/l/
I can get pretty good results without using the tripod (http://bighugelabs.com/onblack.php?id=4061933188&size=large)
hey! you doing great!
i just wanna know how make the quicktime VR happen…..using AS3.0?or some software?
There are a few internet programs out there which can make them…. but these are often very featureless.
Personally I find flash better than quicktime due to more people having it installed and would recommend these. Though some of them are not cheap.
http://www.flashvr.de/index.htm
http://www.vrtoolbox.com/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoToolsNG/
http://www.autopano.net/ (one of the best for stiching IMO)
http://www.pano2qtvr.com/ (widowns)
http://www.panoshow.com/panocube.htm (windows)
http://www.clickheredesign.com.au/ (mac)
But there are plenty more out there which can do a better job I am sure.
Google “quicktime VR” or “Flash VR” for more info.
thanks for your information….very useful…..谢谢，新年快乐！
..here we go:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2676/4102462841_09446fefc8_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3130/3125892346_30dca9227a_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3372/3177821722_55756d8d97_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3473/3907211729_991b6e378c_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3003/2767214751_befe944228_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3079/2620767522_ee1a29ea8f_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2418/2089105879_d899117f49_o.jpg
Wow. Those are some fantastic shots! I really like the train and the mountain photos.
nice.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktamf5anHr1qa7vxjo1_r1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1258656554&Signature=S%2Fpqx3X85ffh3jelBMrEaHnQ0Co%3D
Here’s one of mine from a while back… Haven’t really done any panos since then.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianauer/445623471/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikereys/3055914080/sizes/l/in/set-72157609301338615/
One from the Salt Lakes in Chile
If you want some inspiration for stitching, try Brussels photographer gbatistini’s flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gbatistini/
I work for roundus.com. We’ve made an uploader for Panoramic images. Please feel free to post your panoramas to view them in Virtual Tour format! There are tutorials on the site as well!
Thanks,
–timbo
p.s. Our sister company is roundscapes.com – some of our higher end work is on there.
I really like the first one and the one with the lighthouse.
Some of these are excellent!
Here are a few of mine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisg991/3263096631/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisg991/3263936784/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisg991/3306988075/sizes/l/
Great examples! I like the vertical orientation idea!
here are two from me:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmatasic/3524273621/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmatasic/3914841739/
beautiful pcitures, I love the mountain top ones.
here is my page with my panoramas – http://www.fishup.ru/albums/p/gid/199961/lid/60
some images are great and others just average. good for inspiration though!