Benefits of panorama landscape photography

What are the benefits of creating a panorama landscape image versus a “straight” shot? There are a couple biggies I’ll share with you in this article.

Size

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Go big or go home!” Well, creating a panorama image makes it possible to create images with lots of pixels to make large prints. This is true even for small format cameras. If you are traveling and don’t wish lug all your pro gear a point and shoot can be employed to enjoy large prints without a lot of hassle.

As I use Micro Four Thirds gear, my sensor is half the size of Full Frame so I use this concept. Here’s an example. A single image is around 5100 pixels x 3800 pixels which will easily print to 13 x 18 inches at 300 PPI. If I were to crop in for a panoramic view there would be a loss of even more pixels. The same scene captured as a panorama in six overlapped images processes out to 10,500 pixels x 5000 pixels. These dimensions allow for a print that is 17 x 35 inches at 300 PPI which can easily be printed larger as well.

A single image doesn’t show the scene well. And it would not print large being a little over 5000 pixels.

Shape

Especially in the landscape genre, the panoramic format many times can tell a better story of your scene. In this case, I could have used a super wide angle lens and cropped in to a panoramic view. Since I’d be starting with a 20 MP image, the resulting file would be panoramic but difficult to print large.

This panorama captures the scene more to my liking. Although it’s a bit more work a file like this can be printed 35 or more inches.

Best capture practices

Here are the RAW image before stitching. I use a fairly deep overlap of around 50 percent for my panorama captures.

The best way to capture a horizontal panorama is to turn the camera on it’s vertical position. You can easily get away with about a 30% overlap in your captures. I tend to use a 50 percent overlap, especially when it’s a place or situation that probably won’t be replicated. If possible rotate the camera around the light entry point. Using the light entry point will combat parallax. This will help your software in stitching the images with better accuracy and less distortion. Here’s a link to how to find the light entry point on your camera and lens combination.

Great travels to you!

Yours in Creative Photography,

Bob

• Posted on October 15, 2024