The trouble with panoramas

 Sometimes, photographic endeavours take a wrong turn, and you end up with terrible-looking photographs only fit to grace the pages of a 'worst mistakes' magazine.

There are two methods used by digital cameras to stitch together photographs to create panoramas. The first, shown below, is effectively filming the scene before stitching together the picture. This technique is common in smartphones, although some compact cameras use this method as well.

I took this picture on Epinal Way on the 4th of May 2018, and it's not hard to see what's wrong with the picture. The two cars on the near two lanes seem to have been smooshed into stumpy little lumps , while the van on the far side of the road appears to have been transformed into a super-long limo!

The other method that digital cameras use is to take actual separate pictures before stitching them together. I can't remember this technique being used on any of the default camera apps on any smartphones I've used. However, there's still room for error.

I took this picture on High Street just five days shy of two years before the first photo, and it's not hard to see what's wrong with this one either. The road surface on the right-hand side seems yellower than the left, the lines of the bus stop are misaligned, and, worst of all, the blue car on the other side of the road seems to have lost its rear end!