A vertical panorama for a wider angle

Saturday 31 January 2026, 20:02 by Nando Harmsen | 1,978 views | 2 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

When we think of a panorama, we always think of a photo that is much wider than it is tall. But did you know you can also make vertical panoramas? This is especially useful when you do not have enough wide-angle coverage and you have an interesting foreground.

Take a camera and make a number of photos from left to right, with about 30% overlap between them. Software can easily merge these into a wide panorama.

Hold the camera vertically and you also get a less narrow panorama. I have made a whole course about this on Photofacts Academy, which is linked below this article. You can see the promotional video below.

It is also possible to make vertical panoramas. After all, what works in width also works in height. The idea is not to photograph 180 degrees or more, unless you want to. It is simply a way to get a little more wide-angle coverage than you have available.

A portrait-oriented photo is perfect in landscape photography for getting a foreground very prominently in the frame. As you have more image area vertically, you can separate the foreground, middle ground and background more effectively.

A vertical panorama gives you plenty of room for the foreground, middle ground and background. Even if you do not have much wide-angle coverage available.
In many cases, you need plenty of wide-angle coverage to make full use of the desired effect. But even then, it may not be enough. A vertical panorama can solve that perfectly.

How to do it

The way of working is actually quite straightforward. Hold the camera in a horizontal position and make a series of photos from bottom to top. You can do this handheld or use a panorama setup on a tripod.

All the individual images, each taken at 24mm on full-frame. Photographed handheld with aperture priority.
Make sure you include a little more in the frame than you want in the final result. You need room for cropping, more than you might expect at first. Especially when shooting handheld.

This series can then be merged in Lightroom or other software that supports panorama stitching. You will probably notice that there is a lot of distortion. That then needs to be corrected.

The result after panorama stitching in Lightroom
For vertical panoramas, consider using a little more overlap than you normally would. It gives you more correction options. A programme such as Photoshop, or something similar, also offers extra options for correcting unwanted distortion.

When should you use it?

I mentioned it at the beginning of the article. You use this when you do not have enough wide-angle coverage to frame the foreground, middle ground and background as you want. It gives you more wide-angle coverage when you do not have enough.

The final result
I have already had a lot of fun with this on holidays, when travelling light with just a 24-105mm lens. Or when using a drone that does not support vertical shooting.

The best thing of all is that you also get some extra resolution. If you need it. Let me know in a comment below whether you have ever made vertical panoramas and how you did it. I look forward to hearing about your experiences.

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About the author

Nando Harmsen has been photographing for more than 40 years. He specialises in wedding photography and landscape photography. Nando also gives talks, workshops, masterclasses and photo trips, and regularly reviews new and interesting equipment.

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2 comments

Paul wrote on Tuesday 3 February 2026 at 12:56 | reply
I once stitched several photos together both horizontally and vertically, it works pretty well. Only: when the photos are taken with a wide-angle lens, the sides don't line up as nicely.
Translated from Dutch.

Nando wrote on Tuesday 3 February 2026 at 13:15 | reply
In that case you didn't use enough overlap, or the right software. For multi-row panoramas or 360/180-degree panoramas, PTGui is the best.
I recorded an entire course about panoramas, including multi-row.
Translated from Dutch.

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