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Hack 19 Get the Big Picture with a Panorama
They say two heads are better than one. When it comes to showing the "big picture,"
many heads ? er, shots ? are definitely bigger than one.
Many people are frustrated by their inability to capture the majesty of awesome natural
monuments such as the Grand Canyon. I've heard this phrase a dozen times: "This picture
doesn't really do it justice. It looked so fantastic when I was there."
Bad photography isn't the culprit here; inadequate coverage is.
Let me ask you this: if you went to the Grand Canyon and had to look at it through a
toilet-paper tube, how impressive would you think it was? Probably not much. The same thing
happens when you try to capture the magnificence of a vast location with single shots on your
point and shoot. This doesn't mean that you have to go out and buy a camera with a superwide
lens. Instead, put the magic of digital photography to work for you.
Almost every digital camera available today is capable of creating breathtaking panoramas by
stitching together a series of shots into one gigantic, seamless scene. Back in the days of
film, you probably played around with this technique by taping together snapshots to make a
bigger picture. One of my favorite artists, David Hockney, put a creative spin on this
technique with works such as "The Brooklyn Bridge Nov 28 th 1982" and "Pearblossom Hwy."
Hockney's works are usually referred to as photographic collages . But the concept is similar
to our exploration here ? taking a bunch of small images and combining them to make a big
picture.
Unlike Hockney's work, however, our panoramas are very linear, moving from left to right. If
your camera has a Panorama mode, use it; it helps you capture the images in a way that's
easier for your computer to deal with later. That's the process. You shoot 3 to 12 pictures,
moving from left to right, then upload them to your computer where they can be stitched
together as a sweeping vista.
Let's start with the shooting technique. You'll get the best results if you use a tripod, and
you'll have even better luck if you have a bubble level to go with it. That way, you can align
your camera to keep a straight horizon line through the entire picture-taking sequence. If
your tripod doesn't have a built-in level, go to the camera store to buy one that attaches to
your camera's hot shoe.
See Figure 8-19 if you want to know if your camera has a hot shoe or
not. It's a bracket, typically about the size of a postage stamp,
primarily designed to accommodate an external flash.
Look for a location with the sun to your back. Most panoramas cover about 180°. You want
the lighting as even as possible on that scene so that you don't have abrupt shifts in the
color of the sky, which makes it more difficult to stitch together the scene and end up with
continuous tones.
Once you have your camera mounted and aligned, swing through the scene and follow the
horizon line to make sure it stays level.
Don't compose the shot in such a way that the horizon line splits the
frame in half. Either move the horizon line down to the lower third of the
composition, making a big-sky shot, or move it to the upper third of the
frame, creating a rich landscape.
If your camera has a Panorama mode, enable it. Otherwise, just make sure you overlap one
third of the frame as you move from shot to shot. This will give your computer lots of
information to stitch the scenes together.
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