How to plan a panorama

How many frames, at what overlap, and the one thing that decides whether they stitch at all.

A panorama is several overlapping frames merged into one wider image. Planning it means knowing how many frames the arc needs before you start turning.

Step-by-step

1. Enter your focal length and sensor.
2. Enter the arc you want to cover.
3. Set the overlap, 30% as a default.
4. Read the frame count, and the grid if you need several rows.

Overlap

Stitching software needs common detail between adjacent frames. Around 30% is the usual recommendation; go to 40–50% for wide lenses, which distort more towards the frame edges, and for scenes with little texture like plain sky or snow.

Too little overlap is the commonest cause of a failed stitch, and the failure only becomes apparent at home.

Shoot portrait for a landscape panorama

Counter-intuitive but right. Turning the camera portrait gives more height in the finished strip, which matters because stitching and levelling always cost some at the top and bottom. It needs more frames, and it is worth it.

The pivot point

This is the thing that decides whether frames stitch cleanly. Rotating around the tripod screw moves the lens sideways as you turn, so near and far objects shift relative to one another between frames — parallax, which no software can fully correct.

The fix is to rotate around the lens's no-parallax point, which is what a panoramic head does. For distant scenery it hardly matters; with anything close in the foreground it matters enormously.

Manual everything

Fix exposure, focus and white balance before starting. Automatic settings varying between frames produce visible bands across the finished image that are very difficult to remove.

Frequently asked questions

How much overlap do I need?

About 30% normally, and 40–50% with wide lenses or featureless scenes such as sky and snow. Insufficient overlap is the usual reason a stitch fails.

Should I shoot portrait or landscape?

Portrait for a horizontal panorama. It costs more frames but leaves far more usable height after stitching and levelling.

What is parallax and does it matter?

It is the relative shift between near and far objects when the lens moves sideways as you rotate. It is negligible for distant scenery and severe with close foreground, where it prevents a clean stitch entirely.