Producing Panoramic Images Using Anamorphic Lenses

Hat Tip: PetaPixel


So what is an anamorphic lens?

It's a lens designed to "squeeze" an image horizontally.  The image is then stretched when processed.  The result is a panoramic image with an aspect ratio that varies greatly from the aspect ratio of the film or sensor used by the camera.  (The camera may have a 3:2 or 4:3 ratio.  The image may have ratio ranging from 4:1 to 9:1 depending on the anamorphic lens used.)

Basically, the lens takes this:

And turns it into this:

This approach has advantages to the alternatives typically used to create panoramic images.

The first advantage is that the images use the entire vertical capacity of the camera.  To put this into perspective I've taken the above image (created using my camera's panoramic feature) and a normal image and placed them in front of a black background.

Using a camera's panoramic mode results in images with a lower resolution.  The panoramic image is 4832x1280 (6.2 megapixels).  The normal image is 4320x3240  (14 megapixels).  That makes the resolution for the non-panoramic image more than 4 times that of the panoramic version.

(The same goes for film cameras that offer a panoramic feature.  If you look at the  negative they look a great deal like the above panoramic image.)

The same panoramic image produced using an anamorphic lens would be 3240 pixels tall.  The original image would be 4320 wide.  Correcting the "squeezing" caused by the lens would require stretching the image horizontally to over 12,000 pixels wide.  The end image would have a 40 megapixel resolution.


You can produce full height panoramic images without using an anamorphic lens, but that requires taking several overlapping images with the camera being repositioned in between images.  The images are then stitched together using software.

This requires more time and effort than simply taking a single image and using image editing software to stretch it horizontally.



The main drawback with using anamorphic lenses is that are primarily designed for use with video cameras. 

This limits the number of lenses available and means that an adapter is necessary to use the lens with a DSLR.  The lenses are about the same price as a good camera lens.  A photographer that only wants to produce an occasional full height panoramic image is probably better served just taking multiple images and using software to stitch them together.


The tutorial and related information on the PetaPixel blog appear originally  on Photographer Sam Hurd's website.  Check the article out for examples of images actual taken with an anamorphic lens and some related videos.