Creating a Panorama or Photo Montage


Photoshop CS

The first time I tried the new Photomerge command out, I said to myself “Dang! This thing is smart!”

This Photoshop feature takes all the trouble out of combining photographs to create panoramas. It compares the pixels from one image with the pixels in another image, and it finds the areas with the same pixel values. Then, it plops the two images on top of each other, creating a new seamless image. And, you’re not stuck with just creating a panorama with two photos. You can use as many photos as you like.

Tip

Another great use for the Photomerge option is creating photo mosaics of related pictures. For instance, you could create a great montage of family portraits.

I just ran outside with my digital camera and took five pictures of a tree. The first photo I shot was the bottom of the tree and the successive photos moved up the tree to its top as shown in Figure 12-10. Let’s see what Photomerge does with the pictures.

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Figure 12-10: Five photos of the tree across the street. If I can put them together, they will create a view of the entire tree.

  1. Choose FileAutomatePhotomerge.

    An initial Photomerge dialog box opens as shown in Figure 12-11. You’ll use this dialog box to select the images that will be combined. If you have a previous Photomerge composition saved, you can also open it here.

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    Figure 12-11: The initial Photomerge dialog box lets you select the images that will be combined.

  2. With the Use drop-down list, select where the images will come from.

    Your options include Files, which lets you select individual files; Folder, which lets you select all the images in a folder; or Open files.

  3. If you selected Files in step 2, click the Browse button to locate the images you want to merge and load them into the Photomerge dialog box.

  4. Click OK to continue.

    Photoshop goes to work comparing the images and trying to place them together. If some (or all) of the image can’t be placed together, a dialog box appears telling you so. Click OK to continue. (You can fit the images in that couldn’t be placed later.)

    Figure 12-12 shows the large Photomerge dialog box that opens. This is where you can create your photo composition, be it a panorama or montage.

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    Figure 12-12: Use this dialog box to create your photo composition.

  5. Move the images around in the Composition area to match areas within the photos or create a photo mosaic.

    If you’re creating a panorama, drag photos that have areas that are the same toward each other, get them lined up as best you can (it doesn’t have to be perfect), then release the mouse button. The photos snap together as Photomerge automatically lines the photos up exactly.

    Tip

    When creating a panorama from photographs taken while moving the camera for each shot, the panorama can appear stretched or slightly warped. To remove this distortion, click the Perspective button. Photoshop automatically angles and skews the photographs to remove the distortion and make the panorama look normal.

  6. When you’re happy with the way the photos have been combined, click the Save Composition As. . . button.

    Tip

    This step is optional, but if you save the composition in Photomerge, you can come back and edit it later in the Photomerge dialog box.

  7. Click OK.

    Photoshop copies and layers the photos, finally opening the merged composition in a Photoshop image window. You can now edit the merged photo as you would any other image in Photoshop.

    Figure 12-13 shows the five tree photos merged together into one tree image. Figure 12-14 shows a montage of family photos.

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    Figure 12-13: This single image is a combination of the five photos shown in Figure 12-12.

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    Figure 12-14: This photo montage was creating using various family photos.




Photoshop CS For Dummies
Photoshop CS For Dummies
ISBN: 0764543563
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 221

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