Assembling Panoramic Photos: A Designer's Notebook

5.2. Stage 2

5.2.1. Taking the pictures

I began this series of photographs of Paris by making a lot of tests. Most were purely technical: I was trying to get a perfect image, without any visible seams. But once I had mastered the technique, I realized I had overlooked something vital. A beautiful photograph—whether panoramic or not—is born of one third technique and two-thirds creativity.

In the beginning, framing the photographs gave me the most problems, but the real challenge was the overall composition. Unlike taking a picture in a studio, you can't just move buildings around. And unlike a landscape photograph, you can't simply shoot what's in front of you since you also have to pay attention to what's behind you. The secret—the real key to this kind of photography—is choosing the best place to put your tripod. In practice, a large fountain 20 yards from the camera will be tiny in the final image. Likewise, a bridge 30 yards away will almost be invisible. You have to consider anything beyond a ten-yard perimeter as essentially insignificant, although it will have some effect on the overall composition.

The main difficulty is accurately visualizing how the picture will turn out. Forget any guidelines you may have learned in "classic" photography, and don't rely on appearances, which are often misleading. For example, don't set up within five yards of a streetlight or a tree: it will wind up filling a quarter of the panorama. In general, once you've positioned the tripod, you ...