panoramic stitching / merging / tips, software etc

I recently tried my hand at making some panoramics of the Seattle skyline and have found out the hard way that im not too good at it so far Heres my problem....

I did shoot with a tripod and just panned from shot to shot BUT i did not overlap the images. Ive downloaded literally 2-3 different programs that will not let me "stich" or merge due to not overlapping. Is there a way i can merge these together manually with a free / cheap software thats virtually dummy proof? Like i said, im new to this and these pics came out pretty well individually. I would love to see them panoramic. Any help is greatly appreciated

jason

I just use the one that comes with the Canon software discs. It's not perfect, but it does the job.

This one I did w/o the use of a tripod. I took a pano shot just as my home team scored at the Honda Center. no time to fiddle around even with a monopod - just clip your wings, take a deep breath, start from one side and pivot as you shoot.

Jason --

What software do you have? If there are no "gaps" between the images then you should be able to put them together manually using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements by creating a large blank canvas, dropping each image onto a new layer on top of the canvas, and then manually moving them until the edges match up. If there is even a slight overlap you can switch the upper layer to Difference mode temporarily to confirm proper alignment. Get as close as possible using the mouse and then use the cursor keys to nudge the upper image into place. Easier to do than to explain.

No overlapping certainly is a problem! You don't say what software you have, but whatever you have would need the ability to manually move things around to give it your best shot. If you don't have an app that does this you will need to look at something like Elements (about $100) or the Gimp (free but a bit more "clunky" to put together the pieces and learn to use).

If all attempts to merge and blend the shots fail, then you might want to get "creative" by treating each shot as a separate image (which in fact it is) and combine them into a "presentation" that both preserves the individual shots but also presents the panorama.

I've seen framed film panorama "projects" made up of three separate prings that were combined into one wide frame with three different "sections" -- dividers between the prints but the overall effect was pretty impressive. You were conscious of the dividers but still visually taking in the scene "as a whole".

When you stitch images into a panorama, you are basically doing three things:

1) Removing distortion form each image
2) aligning the images
3) blending the images.

(1) is typically done by stitching programs by examining the EXIF data to determine the focal length of the lens, sensor size, etc. and using a math model to correct the distortion. (2) is usually done by finding common features within overlapping images and matching these feature points up until the error between images is below some acceptable threshold. (3) is typically done in a number of ways that balance things like exposure, contrast and saturation.

If you don;t have overlapping images, you will probably need to remove the distortion by some means and then align the images by eye and blend them manually using layer masks.

Otherwise, as Tony suggested, make a triptych (three images side by side) with a small gap between each so that the images remain segmented but their proximity and adjacency create the impression of the panoramic scene without attempting to make the images overlap and blend.

Kirk

Create that large blank canvas and importing your images and manually arranging them as best you can and then in CS5, doesn't everyone have CS5, clean up the gaps and smudges with content aware scaling.

tonylong wrote in post #13041872
No overlapping certainly is a problem! ...

I've seen framed film panorama "projects" made up of three separate prings that were combined into one wide frame with three different "sections" -- dividers between the prints but the overall effect was pretty impressive. You were conscious of the dividers but still visually taking in the scene "as a whole".

That's a great suggestion! I've seen that sort of thing and it's almost more effective than an ordinary pano. It forces the brain to imagine what's missing from the gaps and really makes for a compelling image. I've even seen that sort of thing done by splitting up a complete image and intentionally making gaps just for the artistic effect.