Before attempting to take the shots, look through your viewfinder to the right hand side and then find a subject or point that is about 20-30% in from the right edge. It can be a tree, a building, a specific flower, anything that can serve as a marker.
OK, one you have that marker, take the 1st shot.
Now, pan slowly to your right, keeping your camera as level as possible, and as you do so, make sure that marker you identified earlier is now about 20% in from the left hand side of your viewfinder.
When it is, then take you 2nd shot.
The purpose of that marker is so that when you use Photoshop or whatever is your photo editing software, you will have a safety margin to overlap the 2 photos to make sure you have it aligned correctly.
If you have a tripod then so much the better, it will make keeping the camera stable and at the proper horizontal level to make sure this all works.
But if you do not have a tripod, use a fence post, use the hood or trunk of your car (remember to turn off your engine). Anything that will help you keep the horizon stable.
Transfer the images into Photoshop or your photo editing software.
Here are the 2 images we will be working with in Photoshop: I have deliberately aligned the image so that you can see clearly the 20% of the right portion of the "left" image and the 20% of the "right" image. In this example my marker is the barn in the pasture.
In this example I will be using Adobe Photoshop CS4, and I have tested this process in Photoshop CS2 and it functions the same way.
Once you have opened Photoshop, Click on File in the menu bar at the top left.
From the resulting drop down menu, click on Automate.
From the next drop down menu select Photomerge.
In the popup box you will need to click on Browse so that you direct Photoshop to the 1st image you want it to process.
Once you have selected the 1st image, you will repeat the above step to get your 2nd image.
You will then see the names of your 2 images within the box, now assuming these are the correct ones, click on OK.
Now sit back and let Photoshop do its work. This process will likely take several seconds, depending on the size of the images you are attempting to process and the speed of your computer.
The resulting image may look something like this: Yes, I agree it is kind of weird, but this is because of the very wide angle lens used to take the individual images, combined with the work Photoshop had to do, to combine the images.
Fear not, we are not finished our work in Photoshop yet.
Then drag it over to your image and begin to "frame" a resulting square or rectangular panorama type of picture.
Once you have the border created, then go up to your menu bar, click on Image.
From the drop down menu, click on Crop, it will actually be the only menu item available for you to use.
This should give you a much better looking image.
Such as this:
For implementing these adobe photoshop tips, this one should have been relatively easy to follow. In the coming weeks we will provide more adobe photoshop tips and related photography techniques.
If you have any questions regarding this technique please do not hesitate to Contact Us.
If you have additional information on how to do this using Photoshop or any other software, or if you have any comments regarding other adobe photoshop tips that you would like to share with us, Become a Contributor.
Are you looking for more information on how to take panorama images, or examples of "how to", then you can use this Google search facility...
