So what do you need to start with photo stitching? Well it is a good idea to start with the right camera with stitch assistance. If you have a base model camera then chances are that your camera does not have the ability to assist you with this in the first place. If your camera does have the stitch assist setting for photo stitching then you are better placed for this. Now what you will get with the photo stitching setting on your camera is only the ability assist you to take the images that will later be joined together with your photo stitching software on your computer. So start by turning this setting on. Then take your first image. Then after the first image has been taken it will move to the side of the view finder so that a small part of the edge of it is still visible. This small part of the first image is then made about 50% opaque. This then gives you the ability to better line up the next image. Depending on how you have set your camera this will be either left or right or if your camera allows either top or bottom. Then each successive image moves and is made opaque in the same way. When you have completed the panorama you may have to press some button on your camera to signify this so the assistance image can be reset.
If your camera does not have stitch assist then it will be a little more difficult to take the images required for later stitching. If you want to go about this then it is a good idea to start with the camera on a tripod. This will make it a lot easier to make the images line up in the horizontal plane. Then when taking your images use a land mark in the panorama to assist with lining up the successive images. You want to try and overlap the images about a quarter to an eighth of your view finder. This is required for later stitching. Further to this you should lock in some exposure settings on your camera so that each image has the exact same exposure. If you leave it on the auto setting then there is the possibility for each of the images to have a different exposure and this will make it more difficult to later stitch the images together.
Now for the stitching. If your camera has photo stitch assist then chances are that your camera came with the software to be able to stitch them together. It is then a simple case of downloading your images to your computer then selecting these images in the software package then pressing the go button. If the stitch has not worked to your satisfaction then you will have the ability to adjust things to improve the quality of the final image. If you do not have the proper software for this then it is possible to get photo stitching software
from the internet or you may simply use something like photoshop to arrange and adjust your images accordingly. A little fisheye filter and blurring the edges of the joins is really all that needs to happen.Photo stitching is all well and good but is a little clunky and quite frankly old technology. Take a look at the Sony DSC-TX7 for example. With this camera you have the ability to take a wide panorama photo that does not require any further processing and no stitching is required. This is called i-sweep technology and is the most simple method available. Simply turn the setting on, press the button and sweep the camera across the panorama that you want to capture. Simple.
Send in your panoramas for all to see and good luck with your photography.