Rongnongno Loc: FL

Depending on the conditions the camera orientation you shoot with has limitations.

Using a fixed prime lens such as a 14 mm shooting horizontally does not make much sense, even if you are going for a 360 panorama. Using the vertical orientation means that you will get more of the foreground and the sky. It will give you more freedom to adjust and crop the image.

Using a 50mm (or anything higher) offers a different challenge. (Quite honestly the first thing you need is a tripod.) This lens captures a smaller area of a panorama and using the vertical orientation appears to be the best solution since you capture more. This is not correct. If you are really serious you need to shoot three rows of images (hence the tripod recommendation). This will give you a better panorama. It will take longer to create due to the number of images but the result will be more accurate.

So when do we shoot vertical then? Simple, when we shoot hand held. The vertical format will allow - regardless of lens choice - to capture a scene w/o too much loss due to the unsteady camera holding and rotating.

Wanda Krack Loc: Tennessee, USA

Thanks for the advice.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

I shoot all panoramas vertical, regardless of the lens or how may rows seem needed for the scene, for the very reason you state - you get more at the top and bottom.

kskarma Loc: Topeka, KS

A bit more "free" advice.... First of all, shooting in vertical..or 'portrait' mode, will always give you more image area to work with...also be sure you have plenty of 'overlap' for safety. Panoramic software will handle overlaps fine, but gaps just can't be processed..(duh!).

If you have grid lines activated in your viewfinder, it's usually possible to use those to help orient the frames and keep things on the level.

Finally, I try to shoot two series of pano frames, just to have a back-up set of images in case of any 'issues'.