Panoramic photography
Panoramic photography is a genre of photography or technique that involves creating images with exceptionally wide fields. This is almost always a photograph that will be in landscape mode. A panoramic photography therefore appears in a very elongated format.
The height/width ratio should therefore be approximately 1/3. However, some photographers consider that from the 1/2 ratio it is a panoramic photograph.
Summary
Concept of field of vision and viewing angle
Independently of the aspect ratio of a photo, the angle of field encompassed by the photograph must also be taken into account. This angle of view will depend on the lens you use on your camera.
The angle of view of a lens is measured in degrees. If it can be given horizontally and vertically, most manufacturers have gotten into the habit of giving it for the diagonal of the frame. This is the case with Nikon which gives the diagonal angle of view for its lenses.
Each focal length therefore corresponds to an angle of field :
for a lens of 20mm (format 24 x 36) angle of field 94°
with a lens of 35mm (format 24 x 36) angle of field 63°
with a lens of 50mm (format 24 x 36) angle of field 46°
The field of view also varies with the distance between the camera and the subject. So the further you move away from the subject, the more the field of vision increases.
Table of fields of vision according to the focal length of the lens
| Objectif Focal of the lens |
Angle de champ (diagonal) Angle of view (diagonal) |
|---|
| 14 mm | 114° |
| 18 mm | 100° |
| 20 mm | 94° |
| 24 mm | 83°50' |
| 28 mm | 75° |
| 35 mm | 63°20' |
| 50 mm | 46°40' |
| 85 mm | 28°30' |
| 105 mm | 24° |
| 135 mm | 18° |
| 200 mm | 12°10' |
| 300 mm | 8°15' |
| 400 mm | 6°10' |
| 500 mm | 5° |
| 600 mm | 4°10' |
How to get a panoramic photography
However, a panoramic photograph can be obtained in several ways:
However, digital photography has greatly facilitated the production of panoramic photography.
1 - By cropping a photograph
This very simple solution, however, has several disadvantages:
2 - By using a specific camera
This method was mainly used with film cameras. However, two types of film cameras were used for this type of panoramic photography:
Elongated format devices
Rotating plate devices
Some digital cameras offer a built-in panoramic photography function. The software embedded in these digital devices (compacts, smartphones, or others) sometimes makes it possible to assemble several images in a few seconds to produce a panoramic photograph.
3 - By assembling several photos
Creating a panorama by stitching consists of taking several photos with common overlapping areas, and then stitching them together using software. However, producing a panorama by assembling several photos involves a minimum of rules or constraints to achieve a satisfactory result.
Panoramic photography by assembling several photos
Creating a panorama by assembling several photos involves a certain number of rules or constraints :
Camera setting : :
The choice of focal length :
In full format (24 x 36 mm), a focal length of 35mm or 50mm is a wise choice. A shorter focal length such as 24mm can be used if you don't have enough perspective, but be careful of the distortion of your panorama during assembly.
Basic settings for your camera :
Rules during shooting :
Taking photos must be done with some precautions and respect some points:
Why a better definition
Example : you used a 24 x 36 camera with 45 million pixels (8,256 × 5,504) for your shots..
Same width panorama
Same report panorama
How to determine the number of photos needed for your panorama :
You will need to divide the angle of view of your panorama by the angle of view of the lens used, minus the overlapping areas.
Example :
- Using a full-frame sensor 24 x 36 mm ,
- Camera in vertical position,
- Focale of lens 35 mm, the vertical field angle in this case is 38°.
If you want to photograph a scene that is 180°, respecting an overlap zone of 30%, we will have to take 180° / (38° x 70%) = 7 pictures.
In practice, it will sometimes be difficult to determine the angle of view of the scene you want to encompass in your panorama.
Rotating the camera while shooting
The rotation of the device can be done freehand or on a stand. Rotation on a stand will be preferable especially if you plan a panorama composed of a large number of photos. It will be much easier to control the rotation by maintaining a perfectly horizontal plane (with a head equipped with a spirit level), as well as the overlap between the different shots to compose your panorama.
Finally, another important element in panoramic photography, the rotation of the camera must be carried out around the nodal point. This element is very important in order to avoid any assembly fault (or impossibility of assembly) of your panorama by the software you will use.
To put it simply and without wanting to go into an optics course, the nodal point (but we should rather use the term entrance pupil) is the point of convergence of the beams of light in your lens, it is located in the plane of the lens diaphragm. The axis of rotation of your camera should therefore be located not under the body, but under this nodal point of the optics. This axis of rotation will therefore be located just vertically from this nodal point in the extension of the axis of rotation of your panoramic head. You will therefore understand why it can be difficult to perform a correct rotation freehand.
Software for stitching Panoramic photography
There are many software programs for stitching panoramas. I have listed a certain number of them, however some are old or not up to date with the current version of the OS of our computers.
Panorama stitching software
Some are software dedicated exclusively to this function such as:
Some are image processing software including a “Panorama” function:
Panorama assembly test
Personally I use Capture One Pro to manage my photo library, and Affinity Photo for various jobs, so I tested the panorama function of each of these two software.
Projection methods
Before moving on to assembling our panorama, you should know that there are several projection methods:
The photographer Hervé Sentucq uses exclusively the "Panini" projection in his panoramas of more than 100° horizontal field.
See his site : https://www.panoram-art.com/
Elements of our panorama
We will see below how to create a panorama with these two software programs. This panorama will be composed of 6 photos taken in portrait mode with a Nikon Z9 in DX mode, either photos each with a definition of 5,392 x 3,592 pixels. Focal length used 24 mm or 35mm in DX equivalence. The coverage during shooting is estimated at around 20%.
In theory we should have a panorama with the following dimensions:
Stitching a Panoramic photography with Capture One Pro
The operation :
First operation, select from the CO photo library the photos that will make up our panorama, in this case 6 photos in portrait mode. We can directly use NEF (Nikon Raw) format files already processed in CO.
Select the “Assemble in Panorama” option in the “Image” Menu - The following window appears:
The software offers us 4 projection modes (Spherical - Cylindrical - Perspective - Panini) for assembly as well as an assembly size. At the bottom left appear the 6 thumbnails of the photos in our panorama. All that remains is to validate "Assemble", if everything seems correct to us.
The software offers us 4 projection modes (Spherical - Cylindrical - Perspective - Panini) for assembly as well as an assembly size. At the bottom left appear the 6 thumbnails of the photos in our panorama. All that remains is to validate "Assemble", if everything seems correct to us.
After confirming "Assemble" our panorama appears. Capture One creates a file for our panorama in dng format in the photo library.
All that remains is to crop the panorama. Assembling a panorama with Capture One Pro is therefore relatively simple.
The results :
We thus have our final panorama. In the Metadata Info section, with the cylindrical method of Capture One, this panorama has a dimension of 17,539 pixels x 5,805 pixels, either a ratio of 3.00.
In the case of the panorama created with the Spherical method of Capture One, in the Metadata Info section, we can see that this panorama has a dimension of 17,539 pixels x 5,122 pixels, or a ratio of 3.40.
We therefore see that depending on the method used, the result is different. The width of the slideshow in both methods is strictly identical (17,539 pixels), but the height is different (5,805 pixels cylindrical method, and 5,122 pixels spherical method.
Stitching a Panoramic photography with Affinity photo
To create a panorama with Affinity Photo, in the application menu you choose "File" then "New panorama".
Then you select "Addition", and you select from your disk the photos to compose your panorama.
Once the photos have been selected, you validate "Assemble the panorama", here we have no choice on the method used.
Then, all you have to do is crop your panorama correctly.
We thus have our final panorama. In the Metadata Info section, we can see that this panorama has a dimension of 17,338 pixels x 5,029 pixels, either a ratio of 3.45. The procedure for creating a panorama in Affinity Photo is very simple and can be too basic (no choice of projection mode in particular).
Comparison of our two panoramas
(1) These two panoramas, however, have a flaw. In fact, we see with both software that the horizon line presents a curvature at the level of each photo. This is probably due to the fact that the photos making up this panorama were taken hand-held, and that the rotation relative to the nodal point is not good, and (or) is not on a perfectly horizontal plane.
Another difference is the final dimension of the panorama, even though we used the same photos:
The panorama produced with the Capture One (Spherical method) is similar to that produced with Affinity Photo which does not offer a choice of method. (report of 3,40 and 3,45)
In all three cases, the width of the panorama is slightly less than our initial calculation (17,960 pixels). The problem probably comes from the fact that the photographs being taken freehand, the recovery rate is not precisely known, and can vary from one photo to another.
Concerning the height 5,392 pixels in our initial calculation, it is lower than the cylindrical method of Capture One, but higher than the other two cases.
Conclusion
In conclusion to this article on panoramic photography, we can see:
Personally, I prefer working with Capture One Pro, for two reasons:
There are certainly other panorama stitching software, but the aim of my article was not to list them all.
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