"Framing" a Pano

A question that is almost never asked, and much more rarely discussed, is how to "frame" a 360x180 panoramic photo. (Naturally, if you have less than a full sphere, you *do* have to make framing decisions on what to keep in the shot and what to exclude, but that's not the quandary here.) I've been thinking about this lately in the context of improving my photographic skills.

A little background first: I'm a 3D artist and retoucher, and nothing even close to a professional photographer. Therefore, my thoughts on the subject are going to be a little different from most, but we each come from somewhere, right? In any case, because I am definitely not a "pro shooter" I struggle with things like composition and lighting in my "framed" regular photos (and, boy, do I use my Photoshop skills afterwards), but lighting, and the "quality" of light, are almost the same in a 360x180 pano as they are in a single frame photo. It is the composition of the shot, or the "framing," that I'm wondering about now.

So, how does a person "frame" a spherical or nearly spherical photo when you are shooting it?

After the shooting, stitching, etc. there are always limits to pan & tilt in many viewers, and there is also the decision not to use certain "not too exciting" panos once they are finished. But what considerations should be in the photographers mind when standing there with the camera, getting ready to click a few times for a nice spherical pano? I've tossed out many panos that at the time I thought would be marvelous, but once I stitch them and preview them, they are uninteresting, or downright confusing to look at!

My limited ideas for improving the on-site pano composition (and I'm really posting this for feedback) are:

- Look all around, not just at the horizon
(Obvious, right? Well, because our eyes sometimes the horizon is really interesting, but the pano might be better once a cloud passes, or if some trees were up above, or if the nadir is on top of an interesting rock or centerpoint.)

- Walk around the location and think about how feel when standing in each spot
(Maybe getting a little esoteric, but the idea of most spherical panos is to communicate a sense of "being there" or the feeling you get from that vantage point. Do you want to look around while standing there, or do you look around because you have your panohead out?)

- Don't just accept your tripod or eye-height as the best "location" for the camera height.
(Some of the most interesting panos I've seen are from ground level, inside small spaces, or from poles (the current trend). Yes, a standard person walking around that location might never "see" things from that height, but it might be interesting to imagine the world as seen by a bird, worm, or casserole.)

- Shoot and run only when you are in danger in that location... otherwise, take your time.
(I'm guilty of doing this all to often because I'm excited about shooting the pano. Maybe it's all too new still (after 4 years)! But to adequately do the first three things, wouldn't that take some time? And what about watching the lighting of the location and catching some interesting shadows, or even catching some people in the pano?)

- If you shoot indoors all the time, pack up and go outside. If you mainly take landscape panos, set up your gear in the kitchen (or parking garage, or closet, or refrigerator). If you spend forever tweaking colors, try black and white or infrared.
(Yes, this is a long one, but basically just try to change your situation when shooting the pano so that you *must* think of new ways to see the location. I do this all the time when retouching - just flipping an image 180 degrees forces me to look creatively at the image I'm working on. It helps immensely in catching things that may have become "automatic" for you.

Well, those are my thoughts on *improving* the composition of a 360x180 pano, but of course, it is a matter of personal taste and lots of practice. What I think looks great might be horrid to someone else, and someplace that I consider "too boring to shoot a pano of" might be a totally unique experience for someone else. I've just been trying to think of ways to really *consider* the composition of my panoramas while I'm shooting them. I can see the work of seasoned professional panographers, and their work is impeccable and inspiring, even if technically identical to my own. Composition really must play a part in my reaction to their work!

Please leave comments and thoughts! Thanks.