If you want to impress your friends and family, try shooting some panoramas. Panos are composites from multiple photos showing a wider field of view than a normal lens would provide. Because you're using multiple shots panos often have astounding detail. A pano shot of 100 megapixels or more is not that hard to achieve and you (Yeah, you) can do it with virtually any camera and free software!

Panoramas will be much easier if you're not shooting in "AUTO." Admittedly the purpose of this series is to get you to explore the other modes in your camera, but it's a really big deal here. You want your snaps to match shot-to-shot in depth of field and exposure. "AUTO" won't let you do that. You need to be in "MANUAL" or an aperture priority mode where your f-stop setting won't change between clicks.

Decide what you're going to capture and then methodically snap away. Overlap your shots by 20-30%. If you're wondering whether you've overlapped enough, overlap more! There's no such thing as too much overlap, but you're screwed if there's too little. Don't be scared to shoot multiple levels so you capture all the action up-and-down as well as left-and-right.

Because panoramas are usually wider than tall shoot with your camera held vertically. This isn't critical, just helpful.

Once you've got your shots, software does the rest! I have never had any problems with the available freeware. Hugin is a monster of a program with loads of adjustments. It can be intimidating. Here are some samples to convince you otherwise, but I'll understand if you're gun shy. PC and Mac versions are available.

Microsoft also has an excellent pano producer. It is faster than Hugin and much simpler to use. I'm not sure I've ever said that about a Microsoft product before! It's the Image Composite Editor (ICE) from Microsoft Research, meaning you shouldn't expect any hand holding. It will also create Deep Zoom imagery (Silverlight install necessary) allowing your pano to be viewed a various levels of zoom and resolution with maximum speed. Here's a sample I did last week in Las Vegas. It is composed of 37 shots and weighs in at over 135 megapixels!

There is also Autostitch, the program that got me started and still does a great job. You will find its technology inside a number of commercial solutions.

Photographers have always taken wide panoramas, but it's so much easier now. This is a great place to let your creativity run wild. Try it next time you've got your camera out.