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Panorama shot planner
How many frames a panorama needs for your lens, sensor, orientation, overlap and sweep, and how many degrees to turn between each one.
All tools- Total frames
- 1414 per row × 1 row
- Angle of view per frame
- 37.8° × 54.4°Wide × tall
- Turn between frames
- 25.7°At most 26.5° for 30% overlap; the even spread gives 32%
- Frames per row
- 14Full circle, no repeated frame
- Tilt between rows
- —A single row covers the height
How it works
The method behind the numbers.
A panorama is a row of overlapping frames that a stitching program joins. The planner works out how wide each frame sees, how far to turn between frames, and how many frames cover the sweep you want.
angle of view = 2 × atan(d ÷ 2f)
step = angle of view × (1 − overlap)
frames (360°) = ⌈360 ÷ step⌉
frames (less) = 1 + ⌈(coverage − angle of view) ÷ step⌉d is the sensor side along the sweep (the long side in landscape) and f the focal length. A full circle closes on itself, so it needs no extra frame. A shorter sweep needs the first frame too, which is the 1 in the second formula. The turn shown is the step spread evenly over whole frames, so the real overlap is at least what you asked for.
- Around 25 to 30% overlap is a common starting point for stitching. Go higher for wide lenses, which distort at the edges, and for scenes with little detail.
- Shooting vertical frames (portrait) gives more height for the same width of sweep, at the cost of more frames.
- Angle of view assumes focus at infinity. Rotate around the lens's entrance pupil (often loosely called the nodal point) to keep parallax down in scenes with foreground objects. A tripod head with a rail helps.
- Lock exposure, white balance and focus so every frame matches, and shoot raw if you can.
- Extra rows tilt the camera up or down by the vertical turn, which also stretches the stitched result at the poles. Treat rows as a rough count for a large, curved image.