Teaching the teacher

One of the students in my afternoon photo class asked if we could cover panoramic pictures this week in class.  I had no idea how to actually make one but I was pretty sure that I could figure it out so I said yes.  This is my favorite kind of learning.  When I'm forced to figure out how to do something, I find that I am much more productive than when I read about something and try to apply it theoretically.  So this class is not only good for the kids, it's also good for me!  Here's what I've learned and what I am going to try to teach them:

Panoramic photography is a type of photography that uses a special technique to stitch multiple images from the same camera together into a single, wide (or tall) photograph.

Things to remember: 

• You can take 2 pictures side by side horizontally or 4 pictures vertically (preferred because it will yield higher resolution) for quick and easy panoramas.
• It's important to make sure that the exposures are consistent.
  
• Also make sure that everything is properly focused.
• A scene that is far away from you will be easier to stitch into a panorama.
  

Start by pointing your camera at your starting point on the left and take the first picture. Then move the camera, making sure to keep it level, so that you are overlapping your new image with the first one by approximately 50%. Take the second picture. If you are using 4 vertical pictures, then repeat this process until you get to the end point. Please make sure that the images overlap enough for post-processing software to be able to stitch them later.  For the panorama below, I used 2 horizontal pictures side by side.
 

I haven't included post processing instructions here because each program is a little different.  They are usually pretty simple and use terms like merge or stitch together.  Please check your post processing software for more details.