Capture eye-catching panoramas just about anywhere

#459 // This week's photography news & updates / High-resolution panoramas, no fancy gear required

David Coleman

May 02, 2024

Before we get to more panoramas like this one, a few photography news and deals updates.

New, Fun & Interesting

[This newsletter contains some affiliate links.]

New Firmware Updates:

Nikon Zf. It’s a relatively minor release, but it does add a new feature: slow-motion recording. It also fixes a display issue that I’d found frustrating. You can find v.1.10 here.
Fujifilm X-T5, X-H2, X-H2S, X-S20, and X100VI. The updates vary by model, but include a new Reala Ace film simulation, improvements to autofocus tracking, and enhanced features for connecting cameras with the FUJIFILM XApp. You can find details for each specific model here.
Nikon Z8. It’s mostly a bug fix update, but a couple of them are bugs I’ve personally experienced related to the viewfinder display. You can get v.2.01 from Nikon’s website.

Some Stunning Photojournalism

I’m loving these photos taken during a US Navy submarine exercise in the Arctic by photojournalist Kenny Holston. (via the New York Times (paywalled))

World Pinhole Photography Day

Hands up if you knew that there’s such a thing as World Pinhole Photography Day. I didn’t!

The latest was celebrated this past weekend (it’s on the last Sunday in April). You can find some of the lensless photos taken this year here.

And you can find guides for making pinhole cameras from all sorts of things, even breakfast cereal boxes, here. I’m tempted to do it as a fun project with the kids!

Flickr Turns 20

Flickr is now 20 years old! (via This Week in Photography). Back in the day, it was *the* place to share photos. But it has lost ground to social media like Facebook and then Instagram.

Photography Deals

Nikon is running some big savings on many of their cameras and lenses. Examples include $800 off the Nikon D850 (body only), $500 off the Nikon Z6 II, and many more details across their mirrorless and DSLR camera and lens ranges. You can find the deals here.
GoPro is running Trade Up deal where you can get $50 off the latest HERO12 Black if you trade in any old camera. It doesn't have to be a GoPro or even working, so it’s a good opportunity to get rid of some of that old clutter that’s gathering dust for a fun new action cam. Ends May 16. Get the deal here.

Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC. Stitched panorama / Photo by David Coleman.

Panoramas Don’t Have to be Complicated

[This is a condensed version of a new post on my website. You can find the full version here.]

Stitched panoramas can provide a very different view. And they can provide massive resolution. But they don’t have to be complicated to shoot.

I think there's a bit of a misconception out there that shooting panoramas requires fancy equipment such as panorama heads and heavy-duty tripods.

Sure, you can certainly use fancy equipment. And there can definitely be benefits to using it. Crucially, you can get more precise alignment, which in turn speeds up the workflow and reduces the risk of glitches.

But you don't have to use it, and by shooting fast and light, you'll be able to panoramize (ed. note: yes, I know that's not a word) many more scenes than you otherwise would be able to.

The Expanded Opportunities of On-the-Fly Panorama Shooting

A tripod and panorama tripod head can be limiting. Limiting on where you can go. And limiting on when and where you can shoot.

You can have much more freedom without them. Basically, anywhere you can take your camera becomes fair game.

I took this panorama nearly 20 years ago while in Melbourne, Australia. It’s of the historic building of the State Library of Victoria on Swanston Street. There was nothing planned about this shot, and I wasn’t even there specifically for photography. At the time I took it, the high ISO required for the handheld aspect (using a Nikon D200) degraded the quality to such an extent that I never did anything with it. It’s only recently that I rescued it from the reject pile by going back and reprocessing the original images through **DxO PureRAW 4** and restitching it through **PTGui Pro**. While there are still issues that would prevent me from selling this image or making a large print (some camera shake in one of the frames on the right side), at small sizes, it still makes for a fun shot for social media (or here!). Stitched panorama / Photo by David Coleman.

I'm not suggesting that this is a better way. It's simply not an either/or kind of situation. All I'm suggesting is that you can still shoot fun and interesting panoramas even without fancy panorama gear.

Some Examples

Here are a few practical examples. I'm mostly focusing here on examples where it simply wasn't an option to use a tripod and panorama head. In fact, all of the panoramas on this page were shot hand-held.

This was one of those times when support gear just wasn’t an option. We’d kayaked quite a distance from our base ship and come ashore. I had a DSLR with me (which is a whole other topic when kayaking), but no tripods or other supports. Cuverville Island, Antarctica. Stitched panorama / Photo by David Coleman.

This was an instance where tripods weren’t allowed. And, in fact, you weren’t even allowed into the room—just viewing it from the roped-off doorway. Strahov Library, Prague. Stitched panorama / Photo by David Coleman.

For this shot, I was standing ankle-deep in the water. Surfers Paradise, Australia. Stitched panorama / Photo by David Coleman.

Here’s an example of a vertical panorama that I shot handheld. It gives a different look to a single-shot view with a wide-angle lens. New York, New York. Stitched panorama / Photo by David Coleman.

Good luck getting a tripod into a professional sports stadium without a press pass. This is just a fun capture at the old Yankee Stadium when I was there to catch a game many years ago. New York, New York. Stitched panorama / Photo by David Coleman.

This is the only example I’ve included here of a multi-row panorama. But yes, they’re still very much possible with hand-held shots. There is a high risk of alignment issues, especially when the scene includes so many lines, such as here, but it can certainly be done. Stitched panorama / Photo by David Coleman.

For the original post, which also includes more examples and details on my method for shooting and stitching them, check out the post on my website.