I’ve posted before about how you can take panoramic photos these days without one of those fancy panoramic cameras. Given the resolution of cameras these days, you can just take a slice from an ordinary photo of the horizon or something equally appropriate for panoramic photos, make sure it’s lined up straight, and crop. One principle some people forget is to use the rule of thirds – it’s tempting to align the horizon halfway up the photo. But your photo will turn out better if you either make the sky 1/3 or 2/3 of the total. Similarly, if there is an irregular feature such as a tree, or a hill, or an animal, you’ll want to alight this with the edge of the left third or the right third.
Should the sky be 1/3 or 2/3? It depends what part of your shot is more compelling – in the case of a cloudless sky, maybe it’s better to show more of the ground, whereas in the case of a sunset might be more interesting to show more sky. Here are some examples. Imagine the panoramic shot stretched out, rather than limited by the width of this blog template…
