Step 1

Pick a spot that's approximately equidistant from every point in your photo; the less you have to zoom in and zoom out, the better. While you can take photographs by simply holding your camera in your hands, you'll find that a 360-degree panorama will be more consistent if you use a tripod to take the pictures.

 
 

Step 2

Check your lighting. If you're shooting outside, pick a lightly overcast day; that way, you'll get even, consistent lighting across the entire photo. On a sunny day, take the pictures between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. so that the sun is overhead and won't cast unsightly shadows. If you're taking pictures indoors, make sure there's plenty of light throughout the whole room, with few shadow areas. If the light in the room isn't evenly dispersed, use flash to fill in the shadows to preserve a consistent exposure.
 
 

Step 3

Frame the first shot in the LCD. Try to avoid setting up a shot that requires you zoom in or out to the far end of the range. You'll get some lens distortion at those extremes, which will make it difficult to accurately stitch the shots together, and that will look odd. Also, use the LCD rather than the optical viewfinder, because the LCD shows a more accurate preview of the photo. If your camera has an electronic viewfinder instead of an optical one, it should give you an accurate view.

 
 

Step 4

Shoot the first frame, then rotate the camera so that the first and second frames overlap by 30 to 50 percent. Many cameras have a special panorama mode that displays guidelines on the LCD for overlapping the shots. We also suggest using a level--if it's not built into your tripod, you can find a cheap plastic one in a hardware store--to ensure consistency in the shooting angle as you rotate the tripod head.

 
 

Step 5

Continue to rotate the camera clockwise in approximately 25-degree increments, overlapping each photo as before. If you don't overlap your pictures, you'll have lines, distortion, or missing portions. After each rotation, use the level to make sure the camera is horizontal.

 
 

Step 6

Once you've shot all of the images, download them to your PC and save them in a single directory. If necessary, preview them all and delete (or move) any shots that don't belong in the panorama you want to create. Launch your panorama software and follow its instructions.