I fancy myself a decent amateur photographer. Whether anyone other that my wife and parents feel that way is another story. This past weekend I took what I consider the best shot I've ever taken. It was a panorama--most photographers just say "pano." That's it at the top of this entry. It's better bigger. Feel free to click for a better look. The American Heritage Dictionary says a panorama is "An unbroken view of an entire surrounding area." In my case, it's an unbroken view of Lower Manhattan, the East River and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. It took 11 photos to get that shot and it was simple to do. I used a Canon ESO 450D with a Sigma 30mm F1.4 lens, but any point and shoot camera can handle it.

Taking panos is very easy--honest. There are a few guidelines that will make your panos even better. To take my nighttime shot I used a tripod. It was a cheap tripod someone gave me years ago. You're not going to get a low light, long shutter photo without it, but if you're in daylight a tripod is nothing more than an option. Don't let its absence stop you or even slow you down.

Though most panos are shot landscape style they don't have to be. You can shoot horizontally or vertically. You can even shoot a multilayered pano that's both! If one plane will dominate, turn your camera to the other. What I mean is, if your finished product will be wide shoot your shots with the camera held vertically. If your pano is up and down then shoot with the camera in the landscape position or horizontal. By doing this your finished photo is less of a thin strip.

You'll want to be as "manual" as your camera will allow. If you can manually focus, do it. Find whatever will be your subject and use that for your focus point. Some cameras allow you to half press your shutter to get that focus, then switch to manual to keep it. If you can set the shutter and aperture manually do that too. If you have to choose between shutter priority and aperture priority pick aperture priority. A changing aperture (the size of the opening that lets light hit your sensor) changes your depth of field. You don't want that. Everything should look the same in each component shot. If you can only shoot in "AUTO," do it anyway! It will still work.

If you camera has a zoom lens set it anywhere that suits you. Using your camera at its widest zoom might produce some spatial distortion, but that won't necessarily be a bad thing.

It's time to shoot. Steady yourself and align your camera with the horizon. Shoot a photo and turn a little. Leave yourself plenty of overlap between shots. Shoot again. Turn. Shoot again. Lather. Rinse. Lather. Remember to stay aligned with the horizon. As you turn the objects in your field of view will be closer or farther. If you're manually focused some shots might even be a bit out-of-focus. Don't compensate! It's fine.

Once you're back in front of the computer download Autostitch (PC only--sorry). This "free demo" version is full featured, not crippleware.

"Autostitch™ is the world's first fully automatic 2D image stitcher. Capable of stitching full view panoramas without any user input whatsoever, Autostitch is a great new technology for panoramic photography, VR and visualisation applications. This is the first solution to stitch any panorama completely automatically, whether 1D (horizontal) or 2D (horizontal and vertical).

Autostitch is incredibly simple to use! Just select a set of photos, and Autostitch does the rest: digital photos in, panoramas out."

Good grief that's all true. It could not be easier. There are poorly documented options to tweak the finished product, but you'll be probably be happy initially without touching them. Other than a little sharpening mine is basically what Autostitch delivered.

You absolutely, positively will be amazed by what you can do. I'd sure like to hear about your results in the comments.