User Manual

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Chapter 12: Taking Great Pictures
Microsoft Digital Image Standard User’s Manual
Panoramic Mode
For landscapes, large groups of people, and other long horizontal shots, a
camera’s panoramic mode helps you compose the picture without too much
sky or ground in the photo. Panoramic shots have a different aspect ratio
than
standard shots, meaning the width of the frame is proportionally much greater
than in a picture with a standard aspect ratio.
Some panoramic cameras take pictures with an aspect ratio of 4:11 (four units
tall by 11 units wide), compared to the aspect ratio of 3:4 for standard shots
on most digital cameras. As with the shape of a movie theater screen versus a
television screen, the wider frame gives you some new creative territory when
composing your photo.
Switching your camera to panoramic mode gives you new compositional possibilities.
True panoramic cameras use a wide-angle lens to let you capture more width
of the scene by staying in the same position. Many cameras, including digital
cameras and APS cameras, offer a panoramic mode without a wide-angle lens.
Instead, the panoramic effect is achieved by simply cropping off the top and
bottom of the frame. This type of panoramic shot does give you a wider aspect
ratio, but not a wider angle. On some digital cameras, using the panoramic
mode means that each photo has fewer pixels (since the top and bottom are
cropped), so each panoramic shot takes up less space on your storage media.