What is a vertical panorama (vertorama)?
Learn more about the vertical panorama — also known as a “vertorama” — and stretch your skills to new heights with this unique style of photography.
The best photographers make their audience see the world in a different way. If you dream of showcasing the grand scale of Redwood trees or capturing the grandeur of the Sistine Chapel in one photo, there’s a great way to get your viewers to look up: a vertorama. Let’s explore how to incorporate this technique into your own photography.
Look up with vertical panoramas.
With a vertorama, you want to create an image that climbs. Just as the traditional panorama sweeps your viewer’s gaze horizontally from left to right, a good vertical panorama will draw their gaze from bottom to top. To create this effect, you’ll take multiple photos at varying heights and stitch them together in the editing process. Here’s how:
- Decide on your composition. The total vertical height of your scene will determine how many frames you’ll need to capture in order to recreate what the eye sees. The taller your scene, the more frames you’ll need.
- Set up your tripod. This will help keep your photos on the same vertical plane — just make sure your tripod can pan low and high enough to capture the entire scene.
- Get the right exposure. Manually expose for the best lighting and then leave it at that setting. If you’re working with extremes of light and shadows, you may need to bracket your photos.
- Overlap your shots. As you begin shooting, aim for around 30-50% overlap in your shots. This will help decrease any perspective distortion in the final result.
- Stitch them together. Once you’ve got your shots, use photo-editing software to stitch the photos together into one seamless photo.
It may take a few practice runs to get comfortable with creating vertoramas, but the dramatic result is well worth the time and effort.
Then, when you’re ready, discover more tips for taking your photography to the next level.
Explore what more you can do with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to capture and edit epic vertoramas.