What can I do to improve my panoramas [closed]

Question

I'm currently experimenting with mountain/countryside panoramas, using a Sigma 105mm f/2.5 DG macro HSM lens adapted to my EOS-M5. Here's my set of basic rules for making a set of photos to be stitched together:

• Fully manual exposure (ISO, Aperture, Exposure time)
• As small an aperture as is practical
• Autofocus turned off, and focus fixed for the whole set
• As far as possible, focus on something at the hyperfocal distance
• Image stabilisation off
• Remote control for the shutter
• Carefully levelled tripod with appropriate head (I use a Manfrotto 3-way geared head)
• Shoot in portrait orientation (long axis vertical)
• 50% - 66% overlap between adjacent frames
• Current stitching software: MS Image Composite Editor

Now, my questions are:

1. What am I missing, if anything?
2. What am I doing wrong, if anything?
3. Beyond the general arguments between RAW anf JPEG, are there any specific considerations for one or the other in relation to panoramas?

Answer 1

What am I missing, if anything?

• Shooting RAW, or locking in a non-Auto white balance to avoid color shifting between frames.
• Bracketing in HDR situations
• Rotating around the no-parallax point in yaw (and in pitch, if doing multiple rows), to avoid seaming issues in the stitch (but only if there are nearby subjects of interest)
• A specialized panorama head can help with tracking coverage as well as shooting multiple rows (not to mention zenith & nadir shots for 360x180s).
• A fisheye lens can be awesome fun if you want to shoot 360x180s.
• More concern about the post-processing end of things. Panoramas tend to require some more specific tools that are beyond the scope of MS ICE or Adobe's Photomerge tools. Particularly if you like to remap panoramas.
• Leveling needs to be done in pitch as well as roll. Three-axis hotshoe bubble levels can be fun for this if handholding, or if your camera may not be level while the bubble level on the tripod legs/head says the base/head is level (more typical with a ballhead; with a geared head, it should be ok).

What am I doing wrong, if anything?

• Turning off IS doesn't really matter if the lens's IS generation is new enough to recognize tripod use.
• If you are doing mostly landscape panoramas with far-away subjects in good light, you can likely get away with handholding and don't need a tripod. Just shoot more coverage if you think you'll need to crop for correcting a slanted/bowed horizon. Tripod use is only if you need to do long exposure or to rotate around the NPP or track coverage with a panohead.
• You can shoot multiple rows as well as just turning the camera into portrait for more vertical coverage.
• Overlap only needs to be about 33% for a good stitch, unless there are no discernible features. 50% might be overkill. But obviously, if you're shooting multiple rows, the overlap needs to be both vertical and horizontal.
• Don't use ICE if you need to fix things like stitching errors, ghost/clones, or horizon bowing: Hugin (free) or PTGui (commercial) might be better choices.
• Shoot enough coverage in time as well as space, to avoid ghosts and clones.

Beyond the general arguments between RAW and JPEG, are there any specific considerations for one or the other in relation to panoramas?

Yes. White balance can shift, just like exposure between frames, so you want to shoot RAW or set the white balance for JPEG to a non-Auto setting, so at least the white balance remains constant or can be reset to be constant between frames.

See also:

• What are the best techniques to take 360° panoramas?
• How can I edit equirectangular images?
• How are "Little Planet" photos created?

Answer 2

If you want perfect panoramas, you need to rotate the camera around the "no parallax point" of the lens (usually called "nodal point" by photographers, even though physicists would disagree). This way, front objects won't seem to move when you rotate the camera, and stitching will be easier.

When shooting hand-held, the trick is that you should turn around your camera. When using a tripod, the rotation axis of the tripod may be a good approximation of the nodal point, but you can do better with specific equipment like a nodal slide. There are many tutorials showing how to use them on the web (search "find nodal point camera" or "no parallax point" to find many of them). Here's a good and concise one:

https://youtu.be/1jAhwFLimM0