There has been a couple of large group shots that I have done where I thought it might be possible to shoot several shots and stitch them together.

I realize all of the usual setup for pano's would need to be done, tripod, manual everything, constant focal length, 25% overlap. Is there anything special for people shots?

Should I pose the folks in an arc and put the camera in the middle and swing the arc popping off pics?

Or would lining them up in a straight line and walking the camera down a parallel line work better? Would they then look at the camera or at some other centered object?

I havn't seen hardly any pono's of people on the internet, but I'm pretty new at this also, wondering if this is worth the time to try or if anyone has had any luck with this.

Wow that is a tough assignment. It is going to be really tough to stitch the shots because of the movement of your subjects between shots. I can only address the technical part of your question: The arc would keep more people in focus from the center point, but you would have a perspective problem. Walking the camera down a straight line could work but you'd have to make sure you didn't move in or away from the group. Please post the results and talk about how you did it.

Thanks for the response.

I have not actually tryed this, my intent was to see if others had allready tryed.

Your point about people movement is a good one. I'm doubting if this will work.

However...my daughter went with her HS junior class last year to DC, she brought back a poster, about a 10x30 pic, of the whole class lined up on 3 steps in front of a monument. She said the photographer took several shots, asked them to hold still. In looking at the print, either they has some special panorama camera, or they stitched the pics together. This is what raised my curiosity.

Have a wedding coming up in a couple of weeks. I will try this on one of the smaller group shots where I can take a couple of extra shots.

Let us know how it works out.

Aloha Mark!

I wonder if your daughter's class photog in DC shot sections to stitch together a pano...I rather doubt it! I've done quite a few large group portraits posed on steps or posing bleacher type stairs. Of course the photographer will ask the kids to "hold still", and take a few to several exposures! From there the best will be picked and cropped and printed.

With a large group and only 3 or 4 steps to pose on, it's going to be a panoramic image...unless you want to include a whole lot of foreground and sky...or whatever is the background.... So, with enough resolution, you can crop the group panoramicly and enlarge to see the faces well. I'd bet that's what he did...

SPC II