PHOTO MECHANIC

Easy tricks for better panoramas

Not all scenes can be captured in just one photo. Stunning vistas like the view from God’s Window or a sky full of fluffy clouds over the Makgadikgadi Pans look best as panoramas, and to create these you’ll need to stitch a few photos together. A good panorama doesn’t happen behind the computer, however. It starts with taking the right photos at the right settings and then stitching them together. Here are 10 easy steps to make the perfect panorama, from choosing the right lens to putting them together. I use Adobe Lightroom, one of the best processing software programs available on the market.

STEP 1: Swop your long zoom lens for a shorter one. Something like your 18-55mm kit lens or a 24-70 mm is perfect.

STEP 2: Switch over to Manual Mode (M) on your camera and aim for the most neutral part of the scene. In other words, if the left-hand side of the scene is in bright sunlight and the right-hand side is in deep shade, aim somewhere in the middle.

STEP 3: Switch over from continuous shooting (like a machine gun) to single shooting (like a pistol) and choose an aperture value of f/10 and an ISO value of 400. Then change the shutter speed value until that specific area looks as nice as possible when you take a photo. The whole sequence of photos will now be photographed with these settings.

STEP 4: Turn your camera vertically, aim at the far left of the scene that you want to capture and take a photo of your left hand pointing right. Once downloaded, this acts as a starting point for the sequence of shots and reminds you in which direction you moved the camera.

STEP 5: Now take a series of vertical photos that overlap each other by about 20%. Make sure that the horizon (if there is one) is the same distance from the bottom in each photo.

STEP 6: After you’ve taken the last shot, take a photo of your left hand pointing left (I usually use my thumb) and then take a second series of shots in the opposite direction. The more sequences you take, the better your chances of getting it right.

STEP 7: Download the photos onto your computer and open them in Adobe Lightroom.

STEP 8: Without editing them, select all the photos in what looks like your best sequence (remember not to include the ones of your pointing hands in the beginning and the end). Now click on “Photo” in the main toolbar at the top, then “Photo Merge” and “Panorama” in the dropdown menus.

STEP 9: Lightroom will now generate a preview of your stitched panorama shot. Select “Auto Crop”, play around with the different projections on the right and then click “Merge” once you’re happy. If you didn’t overlap the photos enough, you won’t be able to merge them.

STEP 10: The combined panorama photo (which is saved as a .dng file) can now be edited just like a RAW file in the Develop Module.

Improve your wildlife photography skills by downloading Villiers’s wildlife photography app, Learn by Example – Wildlife Photography, in the Appstore or Google Play Store. Available on smart phones and tablets.