Using Panoramas for Wildlife Photography

If you use a prime lens for wildlife photography, the biggest problem is that you can’t zoom out to get the entire animal in the frame when you’re too close. But is there a solution to this problem that doesn’t involve using a different lens? One possibility is to use panoramas!

Panoramas?

You probably think I’m joking. Indeed, most of the time, animals are deft and wily creatures whose main objective is to prevent wildlife photographers from getting good shots. But other times, some animals will stand very still.

Perhaps that’s due to their keen instinct to remain unnoticed in the presence of a fierce predator. Or maybe they’re advanced Zen meditators. But whatever the reason, animals aren’t always moving around.

Let’s say you’re in such a situation with a relatively still animal, and you have the perfect composition in mind. Unfortunately, you can’t zoom out because you have a prime lens. Moreover, you can’t move backward, because chances are, you’re going to scare it away. During such times, you might be able to get a two or even three-shot panorama of an animal.

The idea is to first envision your composition, and plan in your head whether you’ll do a horizontal or vertical panorama. Move your camera to the starting position and wait until the animal is sitting very still. Herons, owls, and larger birds might be a good start. Wary mammals often stop for several seconds, too.

Then, take your first shot, and quickly move to take the second, hoping the animal doesn’t move. If you have a tripod head like a video fluid head or gimbal head, or you have a panoramic base on your ballhead, it’s even easier. If the animal is just sitting there for a while, I’d recommend executing the whole procedure a few times in case you get some movement.

An even better option, if it is possible, is to take one photo in the middle of the panorama that includes the entire animal. The composition of this photo will feel very cramped, but you can take additional photos on either side, and then combine them into a panorama with a more comfortable composition. With this approach, you could even make a panorama of a bird in flight! Although the first photo would need to have 100% of the bird in the frame.

Most of the time, two or three photos should be enough to get a sufficiently wider composition. With three photos, you easily can mimic a focal length that is 0.67x wider than your current focal length (such as using a 300mm lens to match the composition of a 200mm lens). When there is a chance of movement, I stick to no more than two photos of the subject, plus however many surrounding photos it takes to get the right composition.

In terms of post-processing, the idea is to merge your panorama first and then edit it second. Lots of software like Lightroom has panorama merging built in, although I use Darktable, which does not. So, I first make the panorama into a TIFF file separately, and then edit it next.

Using my 20-megapixel Nikon D500, I typically get 30-35 megapixel files with just two shots. Naturally, if you use a higher-resolution sensor, you will get even more resolution. That said, I do not recommend this technique as a way to increase detail. That can be a nice side effect if everything goes right, but mostly, it is a last-ditch way to salvage a wildlife photo if your subject gets too close.

Finally, I would like to point out that some animals have parts that move more than others. For example, some perched birds only move their heads while keeping the rest of their bodies quite still. In that case, it can be easy to make the panorama as long as you pay attention to which parts are moving. Include all the moving parts in one photo, and all the stationary parts can be captured in separate images.

Conclusion

I didn’t think making panoramas would work as a bird photographer until I tried it. In certain cases where I didn’t have the option to move back, it’s actually worked for me way more often than I expected, so it’s not just some theoretical technique. With the right species, I believe most people can get it to work at least half the time.

I’ve only just started to explore the idea, but I think it would be great to experiment with three or four shot panoramas too, just for fun. What do you think? I suggest giving it a try if you shoot with a prime lens and get stuck too close to your subject. Panoramas are not just for landscape photographers!