Panoramas

Even though a traditional landscape can be shot in two format orientations - horizontal or vertical depending on which suits the composition of the scene the best - sometimes neither quite seems right for the subject. Even shooting horizontal with a wide lens, you may not get all the vital elements in the frame. And if you do, then you may end up with some wasted space within the composition, which distracts from the main focal points and the overall composition is let down. There is a third format however to consider and one that is not often used, but is very natural to the way we view the world. I'm talking of course about the panoramic.

This format is very useful for landscape photography, as it quite easily captures the essence of a place with a single shot. It is such a wide, striking format that it draws the viewer in, making them feel as though they are actually there in the picture.

The traditional way of shooting this format was with a specialist .lm camera such as the Fuji GX617 or the more compact Hasselblad XPan, and anyone who has owned or used either of these cameras will know that this panoramic format is one that you easily fall in love with. It is partly due to the success of the Hasselblad camera that the format gained greater popularity. For many years, I worked with the Fuji model and used it to hone my skills in composing successful panoramics. The image quality it produced was staggering and you could easily produce massive images from a scanned file.

With the advancement of digital photography and, more important, stitching software like the Photomerge feature in Photoshop, there is now a second way to shoot panoramics rather than with film. And although the techniques are different in how you produce the final image, the art of composing a panoramic stays the same. One of the main advantages of using digital for shooting panoramics, is the range of lenses that you can now shoot the panoramic with. My Fuji model only came with three lenses, but now, with a digital SLR you can use the full range on lenses that you may own to compose your shots. Digital has also made full 360° panoramics simple, as well as advanced techniques such as multi-row panoramas. It's certainly cheaper to shoot a panoramic digitally, with the film and scanning costs involved, but although the actual technique of shooting this format is more involved than with a film camera, the process is quite simple and now gives everyone with a digital camera the opportunity to try this exciting format.

Main image: Corpach, Scotland - Only use the panoramic format where it works with the scene in front of you. With experience, you learn when it will work or not.