Panoramas: A How To

What is more striking than a panorama? You are hiking through the forest, walk around a corner. There it is, a vista that is so striking you must take it home. There are a few different options. The first being wide-angle photography. In wide angle photography a special lens is used. This lens will allow you to capture far more of a scene than a traditional lens. Of course a wide angle lens may still not be able to capture the entire scene, you may also not have a wide angle lens. After all, lenses are pretty damn expensive. There is an easy answer though. With a little bit of planning and some Photoshop magic that entire striking scene can be yours.
The first step in taking a great panoramic shot is to understand how photoshop stitches images together. The program looks for overlap to merge photos together seamlessly. When setting up your shot you may want to use a tripod depending on shooting conditions. You will now focus your camera on one region of the area you want to capture. Take various test shots to assure the image is how you like it. Once everything is set, point your lens to the far right or left of your final desired image. This will be your starting position. Images will be taken from your starting position to your end position. Make sure that you overlap the edges of each photograph and do not change any settings or refocus in between these shots.

When shooting, try to stay as level as possible. Continue shooting from one side to the other, overlapping each image. 

After finishing taking photos, import them onto a computer and open photoshop. In photoshop CS5 you will open "file," "automate" and then "photomerge." A photomerge window will pop up. Make sure that the layout is set to automatic. Then choose "browse" and select all of the images that need to be brought together. Make sure the "blend images together" box is checked and select "okay." Photoshop will now take some time to bring the images together. 

The resulting image will be a mixture of all previous images merged. There may be some lines that appear, but these should disappear after saving. Of course, the edges will almost certainly be rough. Simply crop out anything undesired. In the end you should have a beautiful panoramic shot. One captured with even the simplest lens with minimal effort.