Panoramic with T3i?

[lunathea]

Hey guys! This afternoon I'm heading up to a spot where there's a ski hill with an excellent view. I would like to do a panoramic to capture the range of everything but I'm not quite sure how to go about it. Can I do multiple exposures, blend and then stitch? Or should I just stick with my gnd and see how that goes? Thanks all!

~Ali

[OsmosisStudios]

You have a tripod? If so, then you shouldnt have a problem setting up the pano, taking 2-3 shots for bracketing, and make the pano.

[dlambert]

If you want to create a pano w/ multiple shots, you should definitely bring a tripod. There are special mounts that can be used to rotate your camera around the focal node of your lens, but for most landscapes, a regular tripod head should be fine. If you have a pan / tilt head, that'll work better than a ballhead, and make sure your camera is level when you start panning.

Put your camera in full-manual mode (exposure & focus), because you don't want the camera to re-meter as you move across the landscape. Overlap your photos by 1/3 or more to allow the stitching software to align your shots properly. Then bring the shots home and stitch them together. Photoshop / PS-E can do this, or try Hugin, which I've used with pretty good results (and it's free).

[kcoppock]

If this helps, I actually wrote a blog post detailing my method for doing this sort of thing with Microsoft Image Composite Editor. You can always pull the multiple exposures into Photoshop afterward, but this ICE trick will get the three exposures identically sized and aligned, provided you're shooting bracketed from a tripod:

Creating an HDR Panorama Using Microsoft ICE

I'll be glad to clarify if you have any questions about the process.