Hi there

Apologies again for the delay in posting. Two reasons for this, to be honest: one is that I'm really, really busy at the moment. The other is that I've been getting so little feedback for this blog (despite thousands of page loads) that I was beginning to get a little despondent.

This has changed recently, however, and I'd like to thank all the people that have sent messages of encouragement (and love!). It really helps, and makes you think that you're not typing into thin air.

Just about to sit down and watch a very exciting episode of 24. Only recently got into it and I have to admit that it's better than I expected. Riveting stuff. Before I do so I'd like to go through the steps required to make a photographic panorama. It's a little hobby of mine (in fact, here you can find several examples of my panoramas if you're at all interested: http://web.mac.com/truth42/iWeb/Truth42%20Site/Panoramas.html)

1. The first step I obviously can't show. It's me standing in the middle of a forest with my feet rooted to the spot, holding a camera and swivelling like some kind of demented lunatic. It's not a pretty sight, I can tell you, but fairly essential if you want to produce a 360º panorama. Seriously though, keep a steady hand and try to include a landmark or object that was in the previous shot as you swivel. This helps when you come to line up the images later on.

2. The first thing to do once you're sitting back at your computer is to open Photoshop (CS2 in this case) and select File> Automate> Photomerge.. You will then be prompted to locate the images that you wish to Photomerge. Find them.



3. Photomerge will then do its stuff. In reality it's really a giant glorifed Action. As you watch you will see Photomerge create new layers, cut and paste images from one layer to another and generally try to make an automated panorama. It never quite manages it, however. And 99 times out of 100 you'll have to do it yourself. Hence the following warning:




4. Now it's time to start dragging. This helps if you were a child with an unhealthy predilection for jigsaws. Even better if you're a weird adult with an unhealthy predilection for jigsaws. Photoshop in its wisdom does, however, try to help us a little. You'll notice that images will snap neatly together when you find two pieces that fit.



5. All done. You'll notice that idiot here has included a few superfluous shots. I always tend to do this when I'm shooting panoramas. They are 'just in case' shots. Before you click OK make sure that the Advanced Blending option is checked. Most important this.



6. After you click OK Photoshop will begin to bump and grind its way through what is a fairly arduous task. The end result is pretty impressive but a little work is still required.



7. The next thing to do is to use Photoshop's Crop tool to cut away the bits of the image that are no good. I'm assuming that you know how to use the Crop tool.



8. Now I need to do a little balancing of tones. The image is way too dark so I create a Levels Adjustment layer (select the little two-tone circle at the base of the Layers palette). These are the settings I'm using to lighten the image:



9. This is almost good but there is a problem to the right of the images. One of the shots I took is way too dark even for this Adjustment layer. To combat this I temporarily turn off this layer and create a second Levels Adjustment layer. For this layer I solely concentrate on the dark area. These are the setting I use:



10. Now it's time to merge the two adjustment layers. Make sure both are turned on and choose yourself a medium size brush and feather it slightly (the square brackets will allow you to intuitively change brush size; shift-square brackets will allow you to feather the brush). Make sure that black is your foreground colour (hit D to do this); set the opacity down a little and begin painting the background back in. The aim is to equalize the tones in the image as much as possible.



It's not a perfect solution but as solutions go it's not too bad. You may wish to tweak the tones by using a combination of the Dodge and Burn tools. Happy Photomerging!