Do This to Get Perfect Panoramas

Have you ever wondered why some panoramas won't stitch? The problem is often parallax, and in this video, Emil von Maltitz shows an effective way to avoid it.

When I started with photography, one of the first things I wanted to do was photograph multi-row panoramas. I was fascinated by the immersive results I could get, especially when photographing architecture. I bought a Nodal Ninja and for a time had fun creating extremely distorted 180° or even 360° views.

Ultimately, I found the setup too cumbersome, and unless I specifically planned to photograph a panorama, I didn't bring the Nodal Ninja. Eventually, I sold it as it's not required for single-row panoramas. Those were the types of panoramas I photographed most of the time as I focused more and more on landscape photography.

If you capture a panorama that doesn't include near-foreground elements, you'll be fine without any special equipment. You can even shoot handheld if the light is sufficient. Once on a tripod, you'll want to level the tripod base, though. Maltitz shows an inexpensive way to do this that is much quicker than trying to level the tripod by individually adapting the extension of its legs.

A level tripod is the most essential part of the process. But it doesn't solve the parallax problem of complex panoramas containing close-up elements. It's why Maltitz suggests using a nodal rail. Those are available in different sizes, are relatively lightweight, and don't cost a fortune - like this one by Sunwayfoto.

If you already use an L-Bracket for your photography, it rounds off the setup, which, as Maltitz explains, is sufficient for single-row panoramas. And it's lightweight enough to always keep in the camera bag.