An exposure method in panoramic photo shooting to resolve a problem that luminance of a composite picture in panoramic photo shooting is not smooth, where the method includes obtaining, by a terminal device, luminance values respectively corresponding to M pictures shot in advance and a luminance value of a current environment in which shooting is to be performed, where M is a positive integer, obtaining, by the terminal device by means of calculation according to the luminance values respectively corresponding to the M pictures shot in advance and the luminance value of the current environment in which shooting is to be performed, a luminance value of a picture to be shot, and performing, by the terminal device, exposure according to the luminance value of the picture to be shot.