The Terrifying World of Mobile Panoramas

This particular photography blog is going to be much more casual than others, so don't try to look for composition or any deep meaning behind these photos. You'll most likely hurt your brain if you try.

Early in high school, me and my friends discovered that the 'Panorama' feature on our phones gave some... very interesting results when taken the right (or I guess, wrong) way.

 

Our buddy Oscar, sporting a very flat, non-existent chin.

Here's a simple example of what I'm talking about. No, this wasn't from a botched surgery or anything. This was from setting my phone's camera to 'Panorama' mode and moving the camera upward. As I was doing so, Oscar here moved his head slightly down, against the direction the camera was going, cutting off his chin in the process. Once we realized the comedic potential of this feature, we took full advantage of it.

 

My friend Gavin, with a bit of a squished face.

This is a more extreme example of this technique. Gavin moved his head further down than Oscar, causing his entire head to be affected. It even created a strange side-effect where he looked noticeably older with sunken eyes and baggy skin.

Benno, looking more deformed than ever.

However, sometimes the Panorama feature can accidentally create some disturbing results. I'm not quite sure what created this effect, but it made poor Benno here look like he had suffered some horrible accident, with his eyes missing and skin more wrinkled than a grape.

 

A group of friends showing a variety of results in one photo.

Oftentimes the best results come from the subject not moving against the direction of the camera, but instead with the camera. Here, the student in the middle stood up once the camera moved up to his head, making it appear really stretched out. The other two, however, didn't do this, causing them to have entirely different results.

 

Cade, looking a bit cross-eyed.

Sometimes the Panorama feature only gives a very subtle effect which actually makes the photo even funnier. This was another Panorama where I moved the camera upward, and Cade must've slightly moved his eyes during that time, as they appear ever-so-slightly cross-eyed. Sometimes less is more.

Oscar again, but much, much taller this time. [left]

Spider-Oscar [right]

My personal favorite photos are when the subject looks mostly normal, aside from one freakish defining characteristic entirely created by the panorama. The first picture was done with Oscar first squatting down, and slowly stood up with the camera, causing him to appear freakishly tall along with incredibly long arms, almost like Slender-Man. This one was done really seamlessly and almost looks real, hence why it's one of my favorites. The second photo used the same technique, except Oscar held up his hands when he finally stood up. This essentially gave him an extra pair of arms. Not as realistic looking, but it's still creepy and hilarious at the same time.

Hopefully you found as much absurdity and humor in these photos as I did, though it may be more likely that you found them rather strange and disturbing; and honestly, you're not wrong. But that was part of what made it so special to us. Depending on what we did or how we experimented with our panoramas, we would always get different results that seemed to constantly top each other, and I believe it's part of what brought us all together as table buddies during high school.

And with that, I'll leave you with a picture of one of my classmates, somehow being really short and really tall at the same time.