Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

There is much good advice in the comments above.

The first thing is that there is no reason not to capture both raw and fine JPEG. You cannot process something that hasn't been captured.

Do use manual exposure for shutter speed and aperture and ISO. You don't want any variance in a pano sequence. Once you have the focus lock it (manual focus) for each sequential shot.

You might consider repeating the sequence of shots with different shutter speeds, effectively manually bracketing the exposures so you get several sets of images at different exposures.

You only have this one opportinity to capture the images, so overkill would be a good plan, and practice first.

Once you have captured the images post processing and format decisions - jpeg, 16bit tiff, colorspace - can all happen later, as Gene51 pointed out.

This seems like an ambitious project, so preparation will be important.

Good luck

Silverman Loc: Michigan

[quote=dino21]I have a silly but important question to me I hope you can help me with. I have a Nikon D7200 that I am taking with me to a very special spot to take a panoramic shot that I intend to have enlarged to a very large size. Should I have the settings on the camera to take a RAW and a fine jpeg photo or is that even the settings I need to be messing with. This is a rare opportunity for me to take this photo and I want to make sure it is enlargeable.[/quote

F.Y.I., I almost sure that the Nikon D7200 is a "Crop Sensor" Camera, meaning you must multiply the length of you lens by 1.5 to have the actual F.O.V. for ex. ( a 50mm lens x 1.5 = 75mm F.O.V.)
There are better Lens for capturing "Panoramic Landscapes". ( Wide Angle, 35mm, 28mm, 24mm.)
Also you will what a small aperture, 5.6 or even higher for Landscapes. Depending on your light, maybe a higher ISO, and lower Shutter speed. (Balanced Exposure.)
The possible Higher ISO may create more "Noise", especially in "Enlarged" Photographs. (Balance Exposure.)
Shoot in "Manual Mode".
And a sturdy tripod too.

lsimpkins Loc: SE Pennsylvania

Amen to that. I read a couple of the OP's responses to people trying to help and saw someone who chose not to listen to sage advice even as to how to formulate a question that might lead to specific answers.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Tell your printer what you have and ask them what they need. Save the file as a TIFF with a goal to size the file dimensions to their requirements. You may have to search around for a custom printer to make what you want.

Bultaco Loc: Aiken, SC

If I were you I'd go out with your camera and lens and find what works for you. Try different settings, tripod, handheld only you can determine which is best.

BillFeffer Loc: Adolphus, KY

Definitely shoot RAW and it is best to use manual exposure mode and a fixed (not auto) white balance. Also, make sure you have enough overlaps

bcrawf

You should ask the one who will make the print what they can best use for doing it. Be prepared to get back from them some questions they will want you to answer.

Tex-s

I'll second (or third) a few critical recommendations.
1)RAW has the most flexibility in processing. You can convert later.
2)tripod
3)manual mode will prevent you from having to adjust exposures to color match at the stitching points
4)practice. Go shoot a simulated panorama set and see the process of stitching, adjusting, cropping, converting.

The more you know the post-process, the better you are likely to capture the image set in camera. Good luck.

tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana

Shoot vertical - that's essential - with a 20-25% overlap.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I agree with vertical, but overlap 1/3. That's probably the habit I got into using the software I use.
--Bob

Tim Hoover

dino21
Please don't be offended, but your question implies that you know very little about digital photography. I have neither the time nor the inclination to give a complete answer to your question, but here are some salient points that you can use to start.

1) If it's an important photo, always shoot RAW.
2) The number of pixels you need depends on how large you intend to print, how far away the viewer will be and the amount of important detail in the image. Your question really cannot be answered without this information. For most practical purposes 24 Mb is plenty for even very large prints.
3) You state that you are planning to shoot a panorama. That typically means you are going to shoot multiple images and stitch them together. If so, whatever program you use for the stitching will be able to save the output to whatever format you need. The only way to increase the number of pixels is to stitch more images together.
4) You say you know how to shoot RAW but don't know how to save to JPEG. How is this possible? What application do you use to view your RAW images? Whatever it is, it will certainly have a way to save in other formats.
5) You should contact the printer and ask what they require before you process your image.
6) Before sending to the printer and spending a lot of money, I suggest you print a smaller version so you can fine tune your processing.
7) Ignore the replies that tell you what lens to use. The lens choice is a function of what image you are trying to create. Panoramas can be made with any lens.
8) A tripod is useful but usually not critical. If a tripod is not needed for any individual image, then, with good technique, it is not needed or the panorama. (Though it's always better to have one if possible)

Hope this helps.

Tim

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

The really sad thing about this post is what the poster said about the people who responded, even those, it would seem, who might actually know what they are doing, he/she was upset with the tone of the response and I think rightly so in this case. Some people on this site, even though they are knowledgable, seem to have lost their patience with posters (and, yes, some posts would better be left unsaid). My advice to all is if you think the question is stupid, just move on, don't post anything; there is no need to make people feel as if they are stupid, photography is difficult enough to learn without people being negative in their response. I think we've all "got" who the supposed "kings" of the site are and there is no need to push the point by sounding superior in your responses. Either answer nicely or simply don't answer at all, it's that easy.

Tim Hoover

Ooops. I imagine that this post is directed at me. I just reread what I wrote and realize that I never finished my original thought.
What I meant to say was - Your original post implies that you know very little about digital photography. I suggest you do some research and learn the relevant issues.

I stand by that (amended reply). I tried to give dino21 some helpful information, but there is only so much a person can do for someone who doesn't seem to have a grasp on even the most basic principles.

Tim

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

I did not mean anyone in particular when I wrote what I did, just people in general when they answer (and I certainly did not mean you specifically). People get very "short" with the inexperienced and I do understand why, it can be maddening at times; however, there is simply no reason to answer if you (meaning anyone) cannot be helpful and at least polite in the reply.

ppage Loc: Pittsburg, (San Francisco area)

I read through the answers and I haven't seen anyone remind you that doing a pano will net you a very large file because the final file grows incrementally larger with each shot you add to your pano. You have a 24 MP camera and if you take a 5 to 10 shot pano, the stiched file will be a total of all those shots, (less some overhead), so you could end up with a raw file of anywhere of at least 50MB to 100MB which in itself will make a giant print. You are already on the road to a giant print by doing a pano so you have that covered. Shoot RAW + Jpg so you cover all your bases. Raw gives you a lot more editing room to bring up shadows and recover highlights so that is a no-brainer. Done. Now on to image quality and exposure. If your scene has any dynamic range, do bracketed shots. Set up the camera for three bracketed shots at -1,1, and +1 ev or go to 2 if you want. Take the pano with 5-10 bracketed shots on a tripod, (So you stay as level as possible through the pano sweep), vertical, panning no more than 25% for each shot. Work with your raw files only. Merge all the bracketed shots into 5-10 hdr shots. Edit one HDR to taste for exposure and any other attributes you want. Sync your settings across all the hdr files. While they are still selected, level the exposure across all of them using the lightroom feature build just for that. Then merge your 5 to 10 HDR shots into the Pano. What you should end up with is a very large file that you can continue to make editing adjustments to and crop as needed. Then you export that as a jpg or tiff at full size and at 300 dpi and you should have a giant jpg or tiff any printer would love that is packed with pixels.