Panorama Mania

This is by no means an exhaustive list of panorama stitching software packages.

It is instead, a list of software that I tried at one time or another, or have come in contact with by the recommendation of others.

The notes come from the publisher's websites and the prices are current as of January of 2008.

Some releases are free, some commercial. Some of them work on multiple platforms others don't, so buyer beware.

Consult the websites for availability...

Frank Lopes

When I started this blog I made the point, and still stands, ultimately you need nothing but a camera to start shooting panoramas.

Sure there are several items that you will find almost indispensable as you gain more and more experience, but in reality it is the camera that is the TRULY indispensable item.

Then there is the other extreme: the photographer that needs countless brackets, supports, adapters, leveling bases, tripod heads etc, all at the same time, to shoot...

Frank Lopes

First of all a disclaimer:

I'm horrible at cropping. Most of the time, the notion of volumes and spaces, balance or rule of thirds, is beyond me.

I have a hard time visualizing by looking at a photo, how I could improve the image just by appropriately cropping it.

Some people have "it" and some don't. I don't

So what I do is experiment until I arrive at a point that pleases me.
It is an enjoyable learning process that has thought...

Frank Lopes

In part one, I explained that many panorama photos never align regardless how careful you were shooting the sequence.

It happened to me many times and after some research, I found that those pictures were not aligning because I wasn't pivoting the camera on its lens nodal point.

So, if the answer is to pivot the camera on the nodal point, the answer is simple, correct?

Well not quite...

The first problem is that, in reality, there are two nodal...

Frank Lopes

Unless you are a photography geek, you probably don't recognize the name of Herbert Keppler.

For more than 50 years (since 1950 to be exact...), he thought and inspired tens of thousands of budding photographers.

A writer, editor, publisher, journalist, teacher, photographer and industry guiding light, his columns in Popular Photography and Modern Photography, were famous for his wit, clarity, knowledge and foresight.

After a very short illness, Herbert Keppler...

Frank Lopes