| I love panoramas. There's something very appealing | | | | anything else.DIY Panoramas |
| about their shape. It's probably because we see the | | | | The idea behind taking panoramas with SLR cameras |
| world more in these dimensions than the near square | | | | is that the camera is rotated around its nodal point |
| format of standard film/sensor frames. It might also | | | | during each successive exposure. What's the Nodal |
| explain the upsurge in the popularity of widescreen | | | | Point? It's the point inside your camera where the light |
| TVs!Panoramas have a reputation of being hard to | | | | rays converge and flip over. It's different for different |
| take. There are dedicated panorama cameras | | | | focal lengths (on zoom lenses) and for different prime |
| available but unless you've got at least a thousand | | | | lenses (fixed focal length lenses like a standard 50mm |
| dollars to spare, you probably can't afford one! But you | | | | lens). It's important to rotate about this point to eliminate |
| can take panoramas with any kind of camera.All a | | | | image mismatches due to changes in parallax. Parallax |
| panorama is, is a sequence of images where you turn | | | | is the apparent shift of an object against a background |
| slightly for each different frame. In the old days, before | | | | due to a change in observer position.Just to be clear, |
| PCs and the likes of Photoshop were around, you'd | | | | the Nodal Point is not the same as the film/sensor |
| take your prints (there wasn't much point in shooting | | | | plane. Generally, for most SLR cameras and lenses, |
| panoramas on slide film, for obvious reasons), lay them | | | | the Nodal Point is located somewhere towards the |
| out on a table and position them over each other | | | | center of the lens barrel and lies in front of the image |
| where they overlapped. A bit of sticky tape held them | | | | sensor plane.The Problem With Parallax |
| together. [As a side note, this technique was used by | | | | Parallax is easily demonstrated by a simple |
| NASA to build up mosaic pictures of the planets and | | | | experiment. Hold up your finger about 1 foot in front of |
| satellites their spaceprobes visited, up till the late '70s | | | | your face and alternately open and close your left and |
| early 80s when computers were introduced to make | | | | right eyes. You'll notice that your finger shifts left and |
| the process less laborious].Now that PCs and image | | | | right with respect to the background depending on |
| manipulation packages are easy to come by, | | | | which eye is open. Try another experiment: With your |
| high-quality panoramas can now be created by | | | | finger still raised, close one eye and turn your head |
| anyone. If you're shooting slide or negative film, you will | | | | from side to side. Notice how your finger moves with |
| need to have your images scanned before you do | | | | respect to the background. |