The panorama primer

[wmmk]

I'd like to make panoramas, and have done a lot of MR searches, have found no basic guides for n00bs who want to shoot panoramas. I'll soon be buying PSE, so I'd like to be able to use that. In terms of hardware, is there anything besides a camera and probably a tripod that I'll need? What are the steps of shooting panoramic? Thanks!

 

[cube]

You probably want a bubble level to put on your hot shoe.

 

[wmmk]

You probably want a bubble level to put on your hot shoe.

hmm...
what exactly is the purpose of this?

 

[CrackedButter]

I just recently completed a project using a simple Fuji F10 compact camera and for another set of pictures, I used a Fuji S7000. Not fantastic cameras compared to todays crop but this is what I produced:

http://homepage.mac.com/crackedbutter/PhotoAlbum61.html

I stitched them together using DoubleTake. Which took a lot of the effort out of the final process, Photoshop isn't up it to. http://echoone.com/doubletake/

Those images have varying amount of smaller 6 megapixel images. Some only have 3 while the more complex ones have up to 8.

I also used a tripod but not for all of them, this was for artist reasons thats why some are obviously stitched together. I shot with 2 different cameras again for artist reasons but they are all of the same resolution.

 

[cube]

hmm...
what exactly is the purpose of this?

To ensure that the camera is horizontal. How are you going to fix this in PP if you are not taking photos with a flat horizon?