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GUIDE - PREPARING

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Choosing A Subject

After picking a lens (If you haven't already go here), the next thing to do is go looking for a suitable subject. The hard truth is that you're looking for something that doesn't move, at least too much. Taking 30 shots of a subject is going to take you at least 15 seconds and so anything moving too much is going to be out of the question. People make a great subject, but they're gonna have to hold still for a little while at least.

 

The next issue is size, although not as strict. This is due to you needing to get pretty close to your subject and so it will rule out very large subjects purely because that will require you to focus further away than is ideal for a Bokeh Pano. It helps to think a usable distance range for this technique and I'd recommend 2-5m as a rough guide here. Although larger apertures & longer focal lengths allow you to push that distance a little. If you go much over 5m the effect will drop off sharply however. 

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Visualing The Frame

With a longer lens on your camera it can be difficult to visualise the wider scene that you're ultimately trying to capture. Here's a list of other things you can use for this (with some pros and cons).

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Should I Use A Tripod?

If we're talking about a normal tripod head (non-panoramic) then no, you should definitely not use one! This is because a 'standard' tripod head rotates the camera/lens in all the wrong axis, so you're much better off guessing the rotation. 

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If we're talking about a panoramic head then this is very different story. Using one of these will assure perfect rotation. This will avoid parallax errors (with static objects) and increase your chances of a reliable, artefacts free stitch. So, do you need one of these? No. Do I recommend one? No, not really and this is why - I like to travel light so I don't like carrying around the extra weight. I also don't like dealing with the extra time it takes to set up a tripod and panoramic head and then move it around. I find guessing the rotation point of the camera/lens is almost always good enough. Any stitching errors I get are easy enough to fix in Photoshop. However, if you're willing to use one then you should absolutely go for it, it will improve your panoramas!

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I've tried all of these different options at some point, but ultimately chose a rangefinder viewfinder. I initially bought a cheap 35mm Voigtlander one off of ebay, but that wasn't really wide enough. Then one day saw a good deal on a used model in a Leica dealer and thought that the 24mm angle would suit my panoramas better.

 

The size and convenience of these are great, but another nice bonus is that they can fit into the camera's flash hot-shoe and this way you don't need to carry an extra item. 

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Another camera, with a wider angle lens​

  • Can take wider images

  • More to carry

  • Fiddly while holding main camera

A phone

  • You'll likely have it with you

  • Can take wider images

  • Field of view may not wide enough

  • Fiddly while holding main camera

A viewfinder

  • Nice and small

  • Fits on your camera

  • Can be expensive

  • Doesn't take photos

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If you really want to use a tripod with a panoramic head and don't mind the carrying the extra weight, then go for it. It will minimise parallax errors. If you have a tree blowing in the wind or a person in your scene then a panoramic head will be largely superfluous.

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