Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia
A panorama is a very wide angle picture. Usually broader than tall.
| Mt Cook National Park: Large file Giant panorama |
Sydney: Darling Harbour |
| Dunedin Railway Station | Sydney: Bounty |
| Arthur's Pass: Big panorama | Australia: Chamber's Pillar |
| Kauri Tree: Vertical panorama | Scotland: Pittenweem |
| Waterfall | Italy: Venice |
| Stereoscopic Panorama: Wanaka | Malaysia: Melaka |
| Africa: Cheeta | |
Panorama pictures make good desk-tops.
Your icons placed above and below the panorama make a tidy computer screen.
Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia A panorama is a very wide angle picture. Usually broader than tall. |
If the top and bottom of a photograph are cut off, the picture has the shape of a panorama.
Even a telephoto lens can
cover a wide subject, if the camera is a long way off. The advantage of a
telephoto panorama is lack of "perspective distortion"
Purists claim a panorama photograph must be wide angle and should have extreme
perspective.
Some camera clubs rule a panorama can only be a landscape or seascape. This
may even apply if the picture was taken with a panorama camera! (e.g. the interior of the
Dunedin Railway Station would not qualify).
A wide picture without perspective
"distortion", not deemed a panorama, is a "panel
picture".
The so-called distortion of panoramas is the way the world is mapped onto a flat
surface from the camera position.
A wide angle view looks "funny" because humans
cannot see wide-angle, except with optical aid.
Pittenweem panorama shows a slightly curved horizon line.
A panorama running along the horizon avoids severe distortion
The Dunedin Railway station panorama makes walls look curved.
But you can see the entrance and exit from the booking hall, all on one picture.
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Apart from the telephoto panoramas, all pictures on this page show swing lens distortion,
but it only becomes obvious with architectural subjects.
Who can tell if a landscape is "distorted"?
If the middle of the panorama runs along the horizon,
distortion is minor.
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Scenes which include curved structures disguise the "distortion" and look rather good.
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The buildings in St Mark's square, Venice are straight and this panorama is confusing.
.
Distortion is disguised by curvature of the ship's bow.
Giant Panorama
Two swing lens panoramas joined together gives twice as much "panorama
distortion" but a landscape disguises it.
7 Vertical Panorama
A vertical panorama is less common than horizontal and does not fit too well on a computer screen.
The example here, taken with a rotating lens camera, spans 120 degrees.
It shows distortion, but then it has to if both the ceiling and the floor are to show up on one picture.
