How to take panoramas with your iPhone

May 22, 2014

Panorama mode on the iPhone Camera lets you capture much wider, much higher megapixel photos than are otherwise possible with the built in iSight lens. By taking a video-like stream of successive frames, the iPhone can literally match and stitch together a single photo greater than the sum of its parts. First introduced with iOS 6 and the iPhone 4, the current version can even make use of Apple's powerful image signal processor (ISP) to dynamically expose the entire image and make it look great from light to dark. Here's how it works!

The difference between wide angle and panorama

There's a fine line between what separates a photograph taken with a wide angle lens and a panoramic photograph. We're not going to get into the nitty-gritty details, so for the sake of simplicity, we'll say that a panoramic photo is one that has a wider field of view than the human eye, is at least twice as long as it is tall, and was created by using software (in our case, apps) to stitch together multiple images.

You've probably seen panorama's displayed and showcased at various places -- they're long and skinny and commonly have cityscapes, landscapes, and sports stadiums as their subject.

How to take a panoramic photo with your iPhone

Launch the Camera app on your iPhone — note that the iPhone 4s and newer support panorama mode.
Swipe to the left to change modes. You'll need to do this two times to switch from normal camera mode to panorama mode.
The iPhone defaults to portrait mode from panoramas so make sure you are holding your iPhone that way and not in landscape mode.
By default, panoramas always start on the left and want you to pan to the right. You can change this by tapping the arrow to change directions.
Tap the capture button to start taking a panoramic photo.
Keep your feet firmly planted and make sure the arrow stays on the line as you're panning from left to right — or right to left if you've changed directions.
Once you're done taking your pano, simply tap the capture button again.

The Camera app doesn't currently support full 360º panoramas. You can take up to a 240º panorama in one shot, so keep that in mind. You obviously don't have to use the entire 240º if you don't want to.

How to take a vertical panorama with your iPhone

While the Camera app technically is meant to take panoramas horizontally, sometimes rules are meant to be broken. If you ever come across a time where you want to get a photo of a particularly tall building, being a little creative with panos can help you capture a perfectly unique photo.

Launch the Camera app on your iPhone — note that the iPhone 4s and newer support panorama mode.
Swipe to the left to change modes. You'll need to do this two times to switch from normal camera mode to panorama mode.
Once you're in panorama mode, hold your iPhone in landscape mode instead.
Tap the capture button to start taking a panorama.
This time instead of panning left to right, pan up and down instead.
Hit the capture button again when you're done.