Pano Trick for Keeping More with Less Cropping

I learned this trick from my dear friend, French photographer Serge Ramelli, and what it lets you do is keep more of your pano by not having to crop as much. Now, you can buy specialized panoramic heads that are designed to help with this, but for some reason they are among the most-expensive camera accessories out there. For a good one (not a killer one, just a good one), you’re talking $600+ and for a really good one, well over $1,000 (don’t shoot the messenger), which is why Serge’s trick is so awesome because it works so well, and it’s free. (Note: To do this, you have to hand-hold your pano—it doesn’t really work if you’re on a tripod.) Here’s what you do: You hold up your thumb like you’re giving a “thumbs-up” and you place it directly below the center of the lens, touching the bottom of it (like your thumb is acting like a tripod), and then you take your pano segments by simply rotating the top of your camera with your other hand. Take a shot, rotate it a bit, take another shot, rotate it, and so on. The result is a pano where you have to crop away very little. It works like a charm (thanks, Serge!).