Panoramic Photography Most photographs, even those taken with a wide-angle lens, show just a sliver of the overall scene. To take in the entire scene you have to spin around in a 360-degree circle, looking from a single point in space out to a surrounding environment. The first panoramas, taken in the 1840s, were made by taking a series of daguerreotype images that could then be framed or hung side-by-side An early panorama of Chicago before the fire Note: The daguerreotype is an early type of photograph, in which the image is exposed directly onto a mirror-polished surface of silver.

Panoramic Photography By the late twentieth century, motorized cameras were being made specifically for panoramic photography. In one type, the lens swung while the film remained stationary. In another type, the camera rotated on a special tripod to "paint" the image on a moving sheet of film. One of the most famous of such cameras, the Kodak Cirkut camera was patented in 1904. It used large format film, ranging in width from 5" to 16" could produce 360-degree photographs measuring up to 20 feet long.

    Panorama of Edo (now Tokyo), 1865 or 1866. Five albumen prints joined to form a panorama. View of the destruction brought about by the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906

One-Shot Panoramic Camera One-shot cameras use mirrors to capture 360 degree images in one frame. Software is then used to "flatten" the captured donut-shaped image into a familiar panorama.

Panoramas with Regular Digital Cameras Although panoramic photographs have been taken in sections and pasted together for years, it was the development of computer software that made seem-less panoramas possible with a regular camera.

Panoramas with Regular Digital Cameras To create a seamless panorama with a regular film or digital camera, you begin by capturing a series of images around a single point of rotation, the optical center of the lens. Later, you stitch these views together with software. Individual, but overlapping pictures are captured around a point of rotation.

Panoramic Photography Image from Burning Man There are a few important tips in getting good panoramic images. Wide angle lenses require fewer pictures to cover the same view but make things appear smaller and more distant. The camera must be absolutely level as you rotate it. The images must be taken at specific increments and overlap by just the right amount; 25% on each side.