Nice panorama for Kerry

[MarkusN]

Warning, the linked file is huge.



As to the how-to:

I worked in Photoshop, but PSP or another photo editiong program should work just as well. You need:
Layers
Free distortion of random areas
Rubber stamp
Brightness/contrast control
An eraser that can be used with a blurry tip

I created a big canvas that was certainly larger than all the blended photos
Pulled the photos in, one at a time, each on a different layer, blending them as I went along.
Blended them in like this:
First positioned to one well identifieable spot about at the center of the edge of the overlaying picture.
Then selected the overlaying picture and distorted its shape so as to align more points of the edge.
In some cases selected smaller areas of the picture and distorted those.
If the last step resulted in empty areas at the edge of the selection, rubber-stamped those out.
Adjusted brightness and contrast to cet colors to match.
Blended the edges by erasig the edge of the overlaying picture with a feathered edge.
I then blended all the layers into one.

This resulted in a panorama with jaggy edges and a distinct slant.
I first distorted the whole picture to get a more or less horizontal arrangement of the individual shots, then cropped the jaggy edges.

The location, BTW is in the Black Forest, a biker's eldorado in south-western Germany, right over the border from where I live.

[Alias]

Nice work!! Looks better than Canons photostitch program would do!

[Kerry]

Great image, MarkusN!  And nice scenery selection, too.  I wanted to take a similarly wide series of shots of aspens, pines, and meadow on Saturday, but the clouds just wouldn't cooperate.  At least I've got the spot all picked out now, and next time I'll bring my luggage-sized tripod along.

It took me a long time to reply to your message because I wanted to gather up some scattered info and include it all at once.  The description of your photo stitching method is what "got me started".

Max Lyons has done some amazing stuff with a combination of PTAssembler (the shareware photo-stitching software he wrote) and Photoshop.

I used PTAssembler to assemble the panoramas I took, but without Photoshop I wasn't able to blend the layers, etc.

For some of Max's impressive finished work, see the Max Lyons Digital Image Gallery.  But only if you have half a day to browse!

I notice that Max's site now contains links to an offer by Gregwired Digital.  They offer The Panosaurus -- a panoramic tripod head for getting the best panoramic performance out of your camera.  It works by allowing you to pivot your camera around its "nodal point" as you snap the individual images meant for stitching.  (Read more on Max's Panosaurus Tripod Head Review.)

You can find another useful tutorial (using an alternate stitching program called PTGui) on J. Brian Caldwell's Ultra-High Resolution Digital Mosaics page.

Now, if I could just afford a 6 mega-pixel camera, and a Panosaurus, and the vacation time to go USE it all....  Sigh!

EDIT: Just in case anyone can afford everything BUT the Panosaurus, check out Max's Home Made Panoramic Tripod Head page.

[Pragmatic]

That's just beautiful!

I need some country like that around here.  I'm going to save this picture and torture myself during the winter!! :lol: