Pano..shoot horizontal or vertical

This may be a stupid question, but is there a benefit of shooting one way or the other (horizontal or vertical) if I want to make a horizontal pano? The number of pics is obviously smaller if I shoot horizontally, and therefore the file should be smaller, right? Then there is compression to consider, that the BG seems closer if I shoot vertically because I can use a longer focal lenght.

Which way do you shoot and why?

I would say that it would depend on your scene and which way will give you the best version of the final view that you are looking for.

Using horizontal you could accomplish the final pic in less shots, but using vertical would likely cause you to have to zoom a little more, thus capturing more detail at high resolution in the final picture.

Thank you for the quick response.

I'm so un-technical, if that's a word, that's why I had to ask. Your explanation makes perfect sense

Others may have other opinions. That just seems the most logical to me, but I'm still a noob

One advantage to shooting in portrait (vertical) orientation:

You will have more foreground and sky in each frame allowing you more flexibility in cropping and can avoid having the horizon run right through the middle of the final pano.

What Flying Photog said...vertical for more flexibility/wiggle room when cropping. You may need to take several more shots to cover the scene, but so what...its not like we're burning film

Stupid question, but I assume you have to convert from RAW before doing the stitching? And if so, does that mean you'd have to most of your exposure adjustments etc separately in each RAW image rather than on the final stitched image?

I have only done one so far but I did the majority of mine before converting and only minimal touch ups after. I just made sure that any adjustments were made the same in each picture

blackcap wrote in post #7364005
Stupid question, but I assume you have to convert from RAW before doing the stitching? And if so, does that mean you'd have to most of your exposure adjustments etc separately in each RAW image rather than on the final stitched image?

If you're shooting in manual and you're not dealing with a glaring sun, etc, you shouldn't have to do too much exposure adjustment. I've used CS3 to stitch and it will process the raw and stitch or you can adjust all separately, save as jpeg then stitch.

Whew, I finished 5 panos yesterday. It's a slow process, but wow, the outcome is something

I will definitely shoot vertical from now on, in addition to what FlyingPhotog said about the flexibility fro cropping I also noticed that since I zoomed in more, there was less lens distortion.

Something else popped up: in my very first set the sky didn't match up perfectly (what a pain, lots of work blending, erasing layers, etc). I can't really explain why, since I used the same technique as in the following sets, where there were no problems at all. The camera was in full manual mode, including WB. Does the angle of the sun in relation to the scene have anything to do with it? The first set was shot early in the morning with the sun coming from the side, the others later in the morning with the sun more behind me.

Depends on the lens

As you are already panning the camera for multiple shots, it makes more sense to do so in portrait orientation to get the most coverage and less edge distortion.

http://www.peachpit.co​m …es/article.aspx​?p=1025307

dazzlebea wrote in post #7366989
Something else popped up: in my very first set the sky didn't match up perfectly (what a pain, lots of work blending, erasing layers, etc). I can't really explain why, since I used the same technique as in the following sets, where there were no problems at all. The camera was in full manual mode, including WB. Does the angle of the sun in relation to the scene have anything to do with it? The first set was shot early in the morning with the sun coming from the side, the others later in the morning with the sun more behind me.

Were you using a polarizer? They can drastically alter and gradate the brightness of the sky (often too much) within a single shot, let alone through a series covering 45º (or more) of view. I think the effect is also strongest with more oblique side lighting. Consider as well that even to the naked eye the sky within a single point of view (or frame) will show more gradation in value the closer it is to the sun, but of course that still doesn't explain why the shots didn't match up...

Thanks Mark! I did remember to take off the CP. Last minute, but I did And I also used sunny WB, so that wasn't it either. Ah well, that's what PS is for, it just took a lot of patience.