Merging Photos to Create a Panoramic

[nrjask]

I have a question about creating a panoramic photo with photo stich. You can see where the program has combined the photo because there are lines in the sky because of slight differences in the color. I was wondering if anyone had different program they used that did not create these lines or if there was some way in photoshop to remove the lines?

On another question - has anyone purchased the remote control for the digital rebel? Is it worthwhile to get it? Where can you find it?

[Ogrt48]

I too need help with this same problem, it really makes the images look poor. The best I've done it mess around with all the pictures color and white balance but its still not near perfect.

[nrjask]

Also - does anyone have a good way to print out panoramic photos. Is there a place I can take it to or a place online that does a good job.

[Mark Kemp]

On the front of this months Digital Camera Magazine (UK not sure about US) is a copy of Realviz stitcher. This claims to be able to balance exposures. I haven't tried it, but I may do when I get time as I have some older panoramics with the same problem. Another option is Colour Pilot which can match colours exactly, so this can be used to at least make the skies match. if not all the pictures.

The best plan however is to take the pictures on manual everything. So set the focus, aperture, shutter speed and white balance all to manual so that there are no subtle changes between exposures. That way you will get the closest match in the first place.

[ndh]

You can see where the program has combined the photo because there are lines in the sky
If your stitch tool has a "feather radius" -- the number of pixels across which it blends adjacent photos -- you can try increasing that.

When I got distinct lines in the sky on a panorama I made using PanoTools (http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~dersch/), I tried Enblend (http://www-cad.eecs.berkeley.edu/~mihal/enblend/) instead, with decent results.

[Jesper]

The "plain" PanoTools is a powerful, but hard to use program - it doesn't have a user-friendly user interface. You can get PTAssembler (http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr.htm), which makes using PanoTools a lot easier. Enblend can be used as a plug-in with PTAssembler.

Here are some tips for making good panorama photos:

1. Make sure you use the same exposure settings (aperture and shutter speed) for all the photos in the panorama, otherwise you may get large brightness differences between the photos. You'll need to use manual exposure mode on your camera.

2. Make sure you use the same white balance setting for all photos, to avoid color shifts between the photos.

3. Do not use a polarizer filter, because the effect of the filter differs a lot depending on the angle you point your camera to.

[Chazs]

If there aren't too many photos to stitch together (and assuming they weren't taken with the same settings) , you can try Matching Color. For instance, if you have two photos to stitch open them both up,

1. Make a small selection of the same area on each photo, and make the photo you want to change the active photo.
2. Click on [IMAGE] -> Adjustment -> Match Color
3. Click the "Ingmore selection when making adjustment" box
4. In the source area, click on the source picture (the other photo)

You can also play with the Fade slider. Click OK

Here's a picture that Photoshop attempted to stitch together
Photoshop Pan (http://members.isp01.net/snevetsc/photos/pscspan.jpg)

And here it is after the Match Color
My Pan (http://members.isp01.net/snevetsc/photos/mypan.jpg)

Also, sometimes I manually put the photos together in layers, and then erase part of the top layer using the eraser with a large radius, 0 hardness, and around 50% opacity. Sometimes you can slowly blend the two photos together this way and make the "connecting line" less obvious.

[stevekwiz]

The biggest thing is to make sure you use the same settings for every picture. Aim your camera at a point that is not too light or too dark and set your exposure. Photograph the scenes overlapping by about a third. I often will start at the top left, take four or five shots overlapping to the right, drop 2/3s, and then take the lower section from right to left. In most cases Photoshop and Elements can match them up and do a very good job, as I'm sure other software can also do.

[robertwgross]

If you want to make a really big panorama, then turn your camera 90 degrees into vertical orientation. It will require more frames to cover a piece of horizon, but you can stitch more together to produce a much larger total image. Use a spirit level with your camera on a tripod.

---Bob Gross---

[Nascar Nut]

I have had some good luck with The Panorama Factory from Smoky City Design. Most of the ones I made came out real nice. It seemd to match each photo up good. I have tried several and this one did the best job for me.


http://www.panoramafactory.com/

[mjordan]

I'll second the recommendation of Panorama Factory. I've done as many as 13 images with it and it came out great. I've been doing a number of panorama's in the last couple of weeks and really enjoy doing them. Here are a couple links to some images. The first one was 13 images the second one was 9.

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/bonniville2.jpg
http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/gorgepano.jpg


Mike

[adamsti]

See this article here. It explains it in great detail.
http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0103/ejp0103-1.html