But especially when you're doing multi-row panoramas with long exposure times, preparation is key, and so is execution time.
I often do multi-row HDR panos. With brackets of 3 exposures each, the time for a single frame can quickly add up to 45s or more. In a 3 row, 5 column pano that adds up to a total exposure time of 11.25 minutes - net. This doesn't include the time between frames needed to pan to the next column (or worse, next row and 1st column), making sure you get enough overlap, align everything and finally tighten the tripod head knobs/clamps again.
Depending on the season, the usable blue hour may be as short as 15 minutes. That mean's you essentially get one shot at this.
So any gear that allows you to do that reliably and quickly, for example a panoramic rotator head with indexed degree stops [1], helps immensly with getting good results.
This is an example of a 2x5 "pano" with a 3x exposure bracket (20s, 6s, 2s) I took:
With 20s as the longest exposure, the chance of a car or bus driving right through my shot was huge, so I had to retake many of the frames, some even several times.
[1] For example the Nodal Ninja RD16-II Advanced Panoramic Rotator
But especially when you're doing multi-row panoramas with long exposure times, preparation is key, and so is execution time.
I often do multi-row HDR panos. With brackets of 3 exposures each, the time for a single frame can quickly add up to 45s or more. In a 3 row, 5 column pano that adds up to a total exposure time of 11.25 minutes - net. This doesn't include the time between frames needed to pan to the next column (or worse, next row and 1st column), making sure you get enough overlap, align everything and finally tighten the tripod head knobs/clamps again.
Depending on the season, the usable blue hour may be as short as 15 minutes. That mean's you essentially get one shot at this.
So any gear that allows you to do that reliably and quickly, for example a panoramic rotator head with indexed degree stops [1], helps immensly with getting good results.
This is an example of a 2x5 "pano" with a 3x exposure bracket (20s, 6s, 2s) I took:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Federal_Palace_of_Sw... (Warning: Full res image is huge)
With 20s as the longest exposure, the chance of a car or bus driving right through my shot was huge, so I had to retake many of the frames, some even several times.
[1] For example the Nodal Ninja RD16-II Advanced Panoramic Rotator