{"id":29322,"date":"2017-02-07T17:32:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T22:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adorama.com\/alc\/?p=29322"},"modified":"2018-10-02T00:56:45","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T04:56:45","slug":"how-to-shoot-perfect-panoramas-and-terrific-timelapses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adorama.com\/alc\/how-to-shoot-perfect-panoramas-and-terrific-timelapses\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Shoot Perfect Panoramas and Timelapses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Digital camera technology has made it easy for the average photographer to shoot a panorama<\/a>. A simple technique involves taking a series of photos that you’ll stitch together afterward using a photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop<\/a>, or one of several other software programs<\/a> designed for photo stitching. (Microsoft\u2019s Image Composite Editor is an excellent option, and it\u2019s available as a free download here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Preparing to take photos for panorama takes a little practice to get right, but can be learned fairly quickly. But there are significant disadvantages to taking these photos handheld or even with a tripod \u2013 more on that in a second \u2013 and that\u2019s why we\u2019re going to cover some pretty sweet technology that makes this technique foolproof and easy. As a bonus, these gadgets all let you get into another genre of photography \u2013 time-lapse photography<\/a>, an area that many photographers find intimidating.<\/p>\n

So why can\u2019t you just take panoramas by hand? Well, you can. But here are some of the problems I\u2019ve had over the years \u2013 see if these resonate with you. If you\u2019ve tried taking a panorama with a series of shots to stitch together, have you ever come back to your computer, plugged the pictures into Photoshop and found that you somehow didn\u2019t cover a sliver of the shot, and now the whole photo is gone? Or, you didn\u2019t overlap enough, and the computer can\u2019t stitch them? Or you overlapped too much, and photoshop is redlining your computer\u2019s memory trying to put it all together? Or you took too long between shots, something moved, and now some poor fellow in the scene has two heads! And, most challenging of all, it\u2019s really hard to take a 360-degree view and still make sure you covered everything in max detail and resolution.<\/p>\n

Time-lapses are really hard to do manually. You can, of course, but it\u2019s likely that your video will be jittery, that the lapses between shots won\u2019t be even, and that you\u2019ll miss shots. If your time-lapse is any significant length, then you\u2019d have the problem of how to deal with bathroom and lunch breaks. You can use an intervalometer<\/a>, but that won\u2019t help if you want any motion in your final time-lapse. The systems we\u2019ll discuss solve all these problems, and more.<\/p>\n

Adorama<\/a> asked me to look at three very different systems, and the manufacturers were kind enough to lend me some review units. I\u2019ll be up front with you guys \u2013 these are some very sophisticated systems, and this article, if it were a full review of all three, would be pages long. Instead, I\u2019m going to focus on four things:<\/p>\n