[DJ1234]

So, I was playing around in photoshop the other day stitching some photos together. I was really pleased with the results, with the exception of one thing. The photo collage turned out to be 36" by 7ish." So extremely wide and very height deprived. I don't have other pictures to add more information to it. They were a series of shots taken from the same spot at different angles to make a panoramic picture, and I didn't think to take another series showing the top and bottom info. I thought of adding a black strip around it to add more dimension with some writing underneath it (think those cliche inspirational posters). When I got through I thought, wow, this looks just like a cliche inspirational poster . So anyway, I thought I'd bring my plight to you. Any suggestions for 1) how to plan better 2) how to deal with the problem once you have it and 3) what defines a good aspect ration ( I hope I'm using the term right but when I say aspect ration I mean how tall the picture is compared to how wide).

Thanks,

[Toad]

When you start stitching, you throw the rule book out as far as aspect ratios. One thing that I have seen work really well is setting up a little movie that allows people to move back and forth along the width of the stitch while the height remains a constant viewable size.

[shuttertalk]

Hey DJ, interesting problem - and I agree with Toad with regards to the rules.

When doing a panorama that I know I'm going to be stitching, I usually try to capture more vertical area, either by doing a 2nd row or just using portrait orientation on the camera.

Also, I know the whole thing in its entirety seems very spectacular, but making a hard decision of doing very ruthless cropping can help give your panorama greater impact and more visual focus. If it's all "essential" then consider maybe splitting the image into 2 or 3 parts.

[DJ1234]

So, Toad, I'm not sure if I'm understanding you right. Are you talking about making a movie and then turning that into a stitched composition or making a composition and then displaying it as a movie?

[DJ1234]

Thanks for the suggestion admin. I agree with what you're saying, but could you expand a little bit more on determining what the "optimal" visual focus is? Or maybe reference me something I could read or look at to see some examples? Thanks again everyone for your help.

[shuttertalk]

Hey DJ,

I think Toad is talking about displaying the panorama as a movie - or you can use some software to make it into an interactive image where users can pan and zoom within it.

With regards to visual focus - I was just trying to say that you just need to frame or compose your image so that it still has a strong visual appeal to it, just like you would with a normal photograph. Just because it's a panorama doesn't make it automatically interesting - especially after the novelty wears off.

Just been reading and apparently the "golden" ratio for panos is 2.51 to 1, and most seem to say that the max you would really want to go to is 3:1 or 4:1.

Anyway, there's a wealth of info here - just happened to stumble across it.
http://www.panoguide.com/howto/

Hope that helps...

[Toad]

That's right. Shuttertalk has it exactly right.

[DJ1234]

Thanks, that was what I was looking for.