Help:Creating panorama images

Panorama images can be a real asset when it comes to illustrating a travel destination and showing its beauty in full size. Although not every Wikivoyager owns a high end or professional camera or lens, modern technology allows to create panorama images with the help of almost any digital camera. This article wants to provide an overview of the different ways to create panoramas and what to take into consideration.

=Panorama formats= There is no standard aspect ratio or format when it comes to panorama images. It is commonly agreed that they cover a wider field of view than what is normally visible by the human eye. Aspect ratios as from 2:1 up to 10:1 and more are considered panoramic views. Some also consider pictures in standard formats as panorama images if they cover a wider area than the one the photographer could normally have caught from the position where the picture was taken.

=Techniques= One should distinguish between two techniques for creating panoramic images. The first way is to use panoramic cameras with special film (some also consider certain images taken with a wide angle lens or a fish eye to be panoramic), the second is called "segmented panorama" and consists of a certain number of partially overlapping images which are stitched together with the help of stitching software.

How to shoot

 * Overlapping: always make sure that the images overlap 30 to 50%. It is however not necessary for all images to have the same overlap, it is OK if an image overlaps 50% with the one on the right and 32% with the one on the left. It is not a bad idea neither to cover a little bit wider area than what you want to see in the end result since stitching often leads to rounded edges and cropping will lead to a slightly smaller panorama image. If you are not sure that a shot is OK, take the picture again, it is better to have more images that actually needed than having a blurred, over-/underexposed image in the middle of your panorama.
 * Tripod: the use of a tripod yields better results than free-hand shooting. If you use a tripod, try to set it up level. If you don't have a tripod at hand, keep the following hints in mind:
 * Stand in one spot and turn around without leaving that spot.
 * Hold the camera close to your body, don't shoot with outstretched arms. This will stabilize your shots and keep the camera as close as possible to the axis of rotation.
 * Avoid swaying back/forth/right left between shots
 * Flash: avoid using the flash when taking pictures for panoramas because shadows of the same objects will differ according to the shooting angle which may lead to multiple shadows in the panoramic image. When using a wide angle lens, the flash might not cover the whole captured area and the lens might even cast a shadow.
 * White balance + exposure:

Stitching software

 * Hugin — open source, available for Windows, Mac and Linux
 * Microsoft Image Composite Editor — free for non-commercial use, available for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows
 * AutoStitch — commercial with free demo, available for Windows and iPhone
 * Dermandar — free, online

Tutorials
Panoramic_photography