The pieces of the compositional puzzle need to fall into place both horizontally and vertically. The key to a successful 360 is where you stand. Composing for 360s can be challenging because everything is included. Normally when composing a photo, we decide what to include and what to exclude. This ring mount-style panohead works really well when shooting panos on a carbon fiber pole, too! When framing the shot, what are some things to keep in mind or to look out for? The R1 is small, light, and easy to calibrate. The Nodal Ninja R1 panohead is great for this technique. This method doesn’t require a zenith shot, and you can just patch the tripod area in Photoshop. If you don’t mind a little bit less resolution, you can use an 8mm fisheye on a crop sensor or 12mm fisheye on full-frame and shoot 4 shots around with the camera at 5 degrees up. On a crop sensor camera you would use a 10mm fisheye for this same shooting sequence. Using a full-frame camera in the portrait position with a 15mm fisheye lens, you’ll need 6 shots around, 1 up (called the zenith), and at least 1 down (called the nadir) to make a full sphere. While these panning clamp and ballhead options are great for occasional panoramas, using a leveling base in conjunction with a click stop rotator will save you a lot of time for higher volume 360 work. Yet a third option is using an inverted ballhead design like the Acratech GP or Arca Swiss p0. Another way to level the axis of rotation is to use a panning clamp on top of your ballhead, such as the RRS PCL-1, Benro PC-0, or Sunwayfoto DDH-02. This can be done with a leveling base such as the Nodal Ninja EZ II, Acratech, Really Right Stuff, and various others. In addition to a calibrated panohead, it’s a good idea to keep the camera level as you rotate around to take your shots. ![]() I use a cookie cooling rack for calibration. ![]() I recommend using the grid method for finding the optimum settings on your panohead. This allows special panorama software to merge your images together into a full 360-degree sphere. A panohead keeps the point where light enters the lens, called the no-parallax point, consistent between shots. The Nodal Ninja RS-1 or Nodal Ninja 4 are great starter packages.Ĭalibrating your equipment is important to make sure everything stitches together nicely. Panoheads for shooting 360s are available from manufacturers including Nodal Ninja, Really Right Stuff, 360 Precision, Bushman, and more. I’m currently using a Canon EOS 6D with the Canon 8-15mm fisheye, which is a very sharp and versatile lens. I shoot 360 panoramas with a mix of equipment from Nodal Ninja and Really Right Stuff.
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