Panoramas are fun to shoot because I love the reaction from people who see the final printed image. Panoramic images can be printed large since they are a composite of several photos. A large letter box crop can be very stunning.

Capturing a spectacular panoramas is all about set-up and post processing. Follow the steps below for your own beautiful high resolution photo that can be printed to a large attention-getting size.

Locate a safe and unobstructed position for your camera
Stand at that position, look left of your subject, and then rotate your head to the right. Visualize the entire scene. Identify start and stop points of your panorama.
Set-up your tripod and level it (horizontal). This is a very important step.
Attach your camera to the tripod head in portrait orientation. You might think landscape orientation would be the better choice, but even though it will require more shots to span your scene, the additional room top to bottom will come in handy during post processing.
Adjust your camera to plumb (vertical) using a bubble level
Point your camera to any part of your scene and adjust the elevation angle until you get the subject composed nicely top to bottom. Using Liveview, rotate the camera through all azimuth angles to confirm your top to bottom composition is good for the entire scene.
As you rotate your camera through the various azimuth angles, make an occasional check of the bubble level for plumb. If plumb changes as you rotate your camera, it means you did not do a good job getting your tripod level.
With your camera on aperture priority, lowest ISO, and set at say ƒ/11, take an exposure reading. Repeat this for various left to right (azimuth) positions. Chances are that your shutter speed readings will not be the same for all positions, but they will likely be close.
Switch your camera to manual mode and set it at ƒ/11 and your average to slowest shutter speed from the previous step.
Rotate your camera to the left-hand side of your scene. Make sure your starting point is well within your frame.
Capture the image to verify composition and exposure are what you expect. A remote shutter release is highly recommended.
Rotate your camera right to a position where you overlap your previous photo by approximately one-third
Capture that photo and continue this process until you reach your stopping point. I highly recommend you leave ample room before your starting point and after your stopping point for achieving the best composition possible when post processing.
Replay the images just taken and again check for your desired composition and exposure. Also, replay your images with histogram turned on. If you have any photos with cropped shadows or highlights, re-shoot the entire scene with a different shutter speed. Remember to use as much of the tonal range as possible, i.e., don’t be afraid to push your histogram to the right.

In addition to the above steps, it is very important to shoot in RAW format, and as much as you’d like to use a polarizer – don’t. Remember that you are rotating through a large azimuth angle. The polarizing effect will vary because of the changing angle to the sun.

Another recommendation is to begin your pano series by placing your hand in the frame for the first shot. This will help you locate your component photos when post processing.

Finally, don’t dilly-dally between shots. There’s no need to rush, but clouds do move, and you want to avoid them from being discontinuous.

I’ve included a panorama example below from Zion National Park. It’s one of my favorites. All seven component photos (RAW format) were captured with a manual exposure setting of ƒ/11 at 1/125 sec with ISO 100. You see that each was taken in portrait orientation with an approximate one-third overlap. I have identified my starting and stopping points on the figure. If I were to guess, I would say the azimuth angle from start to stop was approximately 90 degrees.

Having captured your component photos as above, your next step will be to merge them into one image. Lightroom makes this an absolute easy process, and we will explore this in a future installment of XXIVmm.com Techniques.

After merging, your result will be a RAW file which you will post process as any other image. Here is my final result.

Although you cannot tell from this photo, there is a huge amount of detail. The TIFF file size is about 500MB created at 300 pixels per inch.

If you are interested in taking your panorama skills to a higher level, you can take multiple rows of photos. See below. The post-processing software, Lightroom, can handle both the vertical and horizontal overlapping edges. Just remember to follow the above steps.

Although I may have given an impression otherwise, the photos do not always need to be taken left-to-right. They can be taken in any order, but I highly recommend you establish your own procedure and stick with it.