Avoiding Parallax in Panoramas
This lesson demonstrates how to avoid a common problem that happens when attempting to stitch multiple images into a panorama. This issue only applies to shooting situations that include objects that are close to the camera lens. In those cases, panning the camera will cause parallax issues where near and far objects shift in position relative to each other, which will produce unacceptable results. The solution is to pan your camera by pivoting it around the optical center of the lens (also known as the the no-parallax point) by shifting the camera’s position on a tripod using an accessory that’s known as a nodal slide. You can acquire a nodal slide for less than $20 and it will fit in most camera bags without decreasing the capacity of the bag much at all.
I failed to mention in the video that the no parallax point changes when you zoom a lens, so be sure to frame up the scene before going through the technique shown in this lesson and don’t zoom the lens afterward.
Some people refer to the no parallax point of a lens are being the nodal point. To the best of my knowledge that’s not true since lens have two nodal points, but I’m not an expert in lens terminology, so I’ll just put this hear for those who have heard that term related to shooting panoramas.
Note: There are not downloadable practice images for this lesson.