Make Mine a Pano

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We talked about cropping for effect a while back. This post is about another form of cropping;  cropping to make the image a Pano.

I’m not aware of any mathematical formula for what constitutes a Pano. The most common idea of a Panoramic image is the stitching together of several images to make a wide image.

Since the thumbnails for the gallery are all the same size you won’t see the pano effect until you view the gallery. And for a reason I’ve yet to figure out the viewing plugin I’m using sometimes splits galleries. This time it split the last two images off from the rest. You will need to click the next to last to view these two which are image and newsletter header.

A single image that is cropped to a 16×9 aspect ration rather than the typical 4×3 ratio is considered a Pano.  But if it isn’t exactly 16×9 it is still a pano crop.

Why would I want a Pano ?

There are a couple of places where I use pano images all the time.

1. As a Header image at the top of a website/blog
2. As the masthead of a newsletter
3. To create a sense of width and depth

The photo of cameras at the top of this site is cropped down from a single image to create the header.  I don’t want to take up a lot of the screen with an image so reader’s don’t have to scroll down to get to the words.  But I like images on websites and in posts.  A pano works well in this situation providing me the image appeal while not taking up a lot of screen real estate.

The same holds true of newsletters.  Once a month I generate a newsletter from selected blog posts from our Tucson Real Estate blog.  Each month I chose a new photo for the top of the newsletter.  Sometimes it is an event during that month.  Other times it about a season or time of the year.

Thinking Pano while setting up a shot

Panos are always in my head when setting up a shot.  Most of the time we are all thinking about the subject in the photo, or the framing of that subject.  Our thought process is usually tied to everything we see in the viewfinder.  Add pano to your mind’s eye when looking around for a shot.  I’m always taking photos that get the question “What are you shooting that for?”  Most of the time there is something in the viewfinder I want to use for a pano.  The entire scene won’t work. It often brings that question above.  But once cropped to a pano it is the perfect image for where I need it.

When shooting for a newsletter top, I often put the main subject to one side or the other and leave room for text on a dark background either to the right or left.

In the gallery to the right you can see some of the ways you can use a pano crop to make the image say what you want.

Tags: 16x9 aspect ratio, crop to pano, newsletter header, pano