Panorama Tips

[nwhc]

Hi Guys

Have just been playing around with some pano's my question is what is the best way to minimize the distortion that arises the "arc"

Any tips would be great.
thanks in advance

[Briancd]

I don't think you can eliminate it but shooting in portrait aspect will allow you to retain much more of the image. The downside is you need to take more exposures to get the same horizontal area in the shot.

Hope my explanation is clear.

[ricktas]

As Brian says, I use portrait aspect for all my shots that are going to become pano's. That way you have more vertical image, so you can correct distortion and then crop, and retain a good result.

[roburg]

One thing to try is to use a 'normal' focal length like 35-50mm. That and using portrait aspect as suggested earlier can help.

[purephotos]

I agree with roburg, go with a slightly longer lens such as a 50-75mm as there is less barreling in the image, if any at all. The portrait shot idea is a new one to me, but I can see how it would work, I might try it sometime.

-R

[The_Camera_Poser]

CS3 has a setting in int's panoramic photomerging function that minimizes it- it's really handy.

[AndrewE]

I would have to agree with all the comments above, but as with everything rules are there to be broken :)

Was shooting an event at the MCG last year, went out into the stands for a break and shot the pano below -

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7193/mcg2zu8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/mcg2zu8.jpg/1/w1200.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img403/mcg2zu8.jpg/1/)

Was taken on the fly, hand held with my 14mm lens and comprised of 7 shots taken in landscape orientation.

Not too sure if the curvature of the ground helps eliminate distortion but I was happy with the result.

[purephotos]

That's a really good shot there. I really have to try this "panorama" thing:p

-R