Before we dive into the apps, there’s some useful tips you should know before embarking on capturing an amazing panoramic photo.
Tip one
Steady your camera: In order to make sure all the shots are lined up correctly and you don’t end up with disjoined sections of the photograph, it’s best to steady your cameraphone on something. This can be a wall, a post or a tripod if you’ve got one.
Tip two
Find a quite, still subject: If, for example, you try to take a panoramic photo of a busy highway, the constant movement of vehicles will make for an odd finished panorama. You’ll end up with cars seemingly vanishing into the nothingness – which might look cool, but probably not.
Tip three
Take your time: Don’t rush the photo. Once you’ve captured the first image, move slowly into the second position, and the third and so on… Rushed images will look blurry and misaligned.
Tip four
Ignore all the rules – as I always do. I never steady myself and I never take my time. I haven’t got time for that. Thankfully, these panoramic apps automatically align your shot in the post-production process. And if that doesn’t work? Just give it another try.
Creative Studio for Nokia Lumia smartphones – FREE
This Nokia-created app offers more than just panoramic images, but we’ll concentrate on just that for the purpose of this article.
Inside the app, and once you’ve selected the Panorama option, your camera viewfinder will spring into life. Along the bottom of the screen you’ll see four small windows with nothing inside them, for now, but these will fill with still images once you start taking your panoramic photo.
With this panoramic app you’ll be required to scan from left to right, so you’ll need take that into consideration before taking your first image.
Find your landscape, and point your cameraphone at it. Once you’ve pressed the camera capture key your first image is captured in the first box at the bottom. You’ll see a prompt on your screen asking you to move the camera to your right where you’ll be prompted to go up or down to keep the image level. When the next image is in position, your phone will automatically capture it, taking four images in all.
Do this a few times and your image is ready for saving to your phone or sharing on Facebook, Flickr or Twitter.
Here’s one I made earlier: click through for the larger image
Creative Studio is available for the Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 900
Nokia Panorama for MeeGo and Nokia Belle – FREE
This is another Nokia-created app and is dedicated solely to taking panoramic photos. As such, upon launching this app you’ll jump straight into the viewfinder.
Line up your shot and press the camera key to capture your first in a long line of still images – with this app you can take up to ten images to make up an extra-wide panorama. This is perfect when you want to capture the entire horizon, rather than just part of it.
One great feature of Nokia Panorama is that you’re not just limited to scanning to the right, you can also pan left if you wish, even half way through the panorama.
Sharing of the image is possible once it’s been saved and by going into your phone gallery and uploading it to Facebook and Twitter. Or via Bluetooth or email. Whatever you prefer.
Here’s another one I made earlier: click through for the larger image
Nokia Panorama is available from the Nokia Store for the Nokia N9, Nokia N8, Nokia 701 and various other Nokia Belle handsets.
Have you taken any panoramic photos recently? Feel free to share them with us, below.
image credit: Marco Fedele, Kevin Dooley
