How to create panorama photos

How to create a panorama image 

1. Select the scene you want by noticing the starting and ending points.
2. Pick a spot to stand or setup a fixed tripod (nice but not necessary).
3. Set the mode of your camera to "automatic" and point the camera at the left most point you wish to capture and take a shot.
4. Without changing anything else, and standing at the same spot, pan your camera to the right approx. 30 degrees and take a second shot.
5. This will insure an overlap area in the two photos. Repeat this until all the shots are taken to encompass your full scene.
6. Download all the images to your computer.
7. Open the panorama software program i.e. Canon PhotoStitch.
8. Select all the images in your group of shots from left to right.
9. Select the "Merge" option and let the program automatically stitch the photo.
10. If the result is not acceptable, you may need to manually align each segment so that the seam becomes unnoticeable.
11. Save the output to a file. You can do some enhancement such as additional cropping and sharpening and auto contrast/color by using Google Picasa (a free, easy to use, photo editing software from Google).
12. You have done it. It is that simple.

A few examples... 

Here is a simple 2 panel panorama of my house.

jackclee100

• NYC Skyscape from 3 overlaping panels.
  
  jackclee100

Some common mistakes... 

• Make sure you have enough overlap between two images.
• Don't wait too long between the shots. Especially outdoors when the lighting and sky can change from minute to minute.
• Keep the camera level and parallel to the ground.
• Don't take too many panels or the result image will be too narrow on the screen.
• Disable the auto focus (set manual focus) may work better when the scene contains depth of field.
• Disable the auto flash feature.