Enewsletter
August 2009

Photoshop and Panorama Maker can only do so much, however. The onus is still on the photographer to capture great images right from the get-go. These individual images need to have enough overlap and consistent exposures so they can be seamlessly stitched together.

The first key element to capturing the images that will eventually comprise your panorama: a tripod. “A tripod helps keep you on a horizontal plane,” says Tamron field services manager Ken Hubbard, who shot the panorama featured here. “I start by leveling my camera on the tripod and pointing it at the center point of what is going to be my panoramic image. I then use either the grid in my viewfinder, or the bubble levels on my tripod, to make sure I’m level with the horizon.”

The next step is to loosen the panning knob on the tripod and turn the camera to the furthest left-hand point that you want in your image. “I usually frame slightly past the left-side point, because there’ll be some cropping later in the panoramic process,” explains Hubbard. “I take the first image, then turn the camera to the right, slightly overlapping the first and second images by approximately 15 percent (meaning 15 percent of the right side of the first image should be part of the left-hand side of the second). I continue turning the camera and slightly overlapping the images until I reach the right side of the desired panorama.”

Depending on the scene and the effect you're going for, you can shoot either horizontally or vertically. “In the example I show here, I decided to use horizontal images because I didn’t care for what would have appeared in the panorama if I showed more above and below,” explains Hubbard. “Shooting vertically, however, will work very well if you’re shooting a cityscape of tall buildings, for example, and if you can’t be far enough away to get them in horizontally.”

Well-exposed (and evenly exposed) images are critical—they need to all be consistent exposure-wise. “I achieve this by shooting in aperture priority,” says Hubbard. “This way, if there is a change in the light between shots, the camera adjusts exposure with the shutter speed. If you use shutter priority, you run the chance of possibly having different depths of field; if you use manual, your exposures will all be different.”

Piecing It All Together: The Photoshop Method
Using Adobe Creative Suite 4, you can stitch together your images to create some stunning panoramics in just a few simple steps:

1. Open Photoshop CS4 and go to File: Automate: Photomerge.
2. Next, pick a layout. If this is your first attempt at panoramas, start with “Auto.”
3. Make sure you click and activate “Blend Images Together,” Vignette Correct,” and “Geometric Distortion Correction.” These features will seamlessly blend the images together; correct any vignetting that shows up in your images; and (most important) correct distortion to give a nice, straight look to your panorama. It will correct all vertical elements so they look straight and not stretched out.
4. Click “Browse”; link through to where you have your images stored.
5. Highlight all the images you want to merge into one final panoramic shot.
6. Click “Open.”
7. Click “OK.” Photoshop will now process the images and blend them all together into one image.
8. Once the image has gone through the stitching process, your new pano will open in a separate window. Your Photoshop panoramic now consists of multiple layers and masks. These are all the different elements created by Photoshop to stitch all the images together and create a clean-looking panoramic image. (“I also use an uneven border around the image,” says Hubbard.)
9. Photoshop will create a layered and masked file so you can fine-tune the image.
10. If the image is OK, crop the image to the desired look using the Crop tool.
11. Once the image is cropped, flatten the image and save as a TIFF file.

A Photoshop Alternative: Using Panorama Maker
If you don’t use Photoshop, there are a number of stand-alone programs that work quite well. Hubbard uses Arcsoft’s Panorama Maker to create stunning panoramas in no time.

1. After you’ve captured your images, place only the images you want to stitch in a separate folder called “Pano” (or some other code name you’ll remember).
2. Open Panorama Maker and link to the folder containing your images.
3. Check the box that says “Auto select by group.”
4. Choose your stitch type (in this case, you’ll likely want to choose horizontal). There are other options as well, including a vertical panorama, a “tile” format, and a 360-degree effect.
5. Choose your output size. This will depend on the original file sizes you’re stitching together. If they’re individually very large and you stick with the original size, you’ll end up with a tremendously large image that may be hard for your computer to handle. So either pick 1/4 or 1/16 size to reduce your file sizes.
6. Click “Next.”
7. A preview window will pop up, allowing you to check the order in which the images will be stitched. Set up your image order.
8. Click “Stitch.”
9. The next window that pops up will be the stitched file. In this window you’ll be able to crop, rotate, adjust contrast, frame, and modify the image before saving. Zoom in to make sure all “stitched” areas of the file look natural and are blended correctly.
10. Save the file before printing.
11. Print.