bv52gyf Loc: Kincardine, Scotland

Hi Guys,

This is my first attempt at stitching a panorama using PSE11.

I know that there's room for improvement with the overall image but can anyone help me remove the shadow areas where the original images were taken. I can't see any tutorials for this.

Thanks
Andy

Glasgow Panorama

1066 Loc: England

Hi Andy, why don't you simply dodge and burn the image.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Hey bv52gyf, when I started shooting panoramas the tutorial for my stitching software recommended shooting with more overlap to avoid this issue.
I typically shoot with a 1/3 to 1/2 overlap now without any issues. Hope it helps.

Bill Houghton Loc: New York area

Hello Andy, I am not familiar with PSE11, but in CS6 witch is the adult cousin, after you stitch them, the next move is to blend them, before you flaten it into one layer, I don't know if 11 has that feature or not. But if it does it should take care of that problem. Bill

It's in the Edit - Auto Blend - select all layers and blends them together. Let use know.

JohninRockville Loc: Rockville, Indiana

You should be overlapping consec. pictures about 20-25%, shooting left to right. If I might suggest, turn your camera on end so you get more sky and land below the center of the frame. It takes more frames to include the entire scene you want but you get so much more information (bigger file) and the details are much clearer. I print my panoramas on canvas, 2 ft high by ??? My longest is over 6 ft!
I've never stitched photos using PSE - only PS and it does the blending automatically. I used a photo stitch program years ago and had to set blending modes - too soft and your landscape showed blurred lines, and too sharp and you had very obvious lines in the sky. My first panorama took hours of cloning, dodging & burning, etc and the sky never looked good! Photoshop does it all with a single click.
If you plan to do lots of panamoras - it's worth the money to go with PS5 or 6 or whatever the number they're at, although I love my PS3 - it is so much easier to use than the newer versions.
BTW - regarding your current image - you might try cloning large areas of the sky - set the transparency down - 20, 30, 50% and try cloning the lighter over the darker. It isn't going to be easy. Also, maybe you have a friend with Photoshop who could assemble the images on their computer?
Also - it's possible for someone here to receive your separate images, put them together then email back the completed image??? If nobody else volunteers I'll give it a try. My email is "otare67@gmail.com". I can't promise you the results will be great.

gdwsr Loc: Northern California

PSE11 does a nice job of stitching if there is sufficient information to work with, ie. overlap in this case.

JohninRockville Loc: Rockville, Indiana

OK - I haven't used it so I didn't know.

gdwsr Loc: Northern California

Yes, John, I think your earlier comments are right on. I did a comparison of several stitching programs some time ago and found that they all tried to make the stitch along some contrasting feature, eg. edge of a building, tree, cloud, etc. With enough overlap, none stitched in a straight line like the OP's image. But there was a difference in how/where they did the stitching. And none showed the banding seen here.

I can't tell if a polarizer was used (the lighting might be just the was it was) but a cp will really mess up a pano.

Good discussion everyone.

UtahBob Loc: Southern NJ

Andy,

Take a look at your input images and see if you have any vignetting or if the right and left sides of the image have slightly different exposures. The blenders are supposed to fix this kind of stuff in the final image but when adjacent images have differences in the sky area sometimes it comes out like you show. The easiest way to really see what you are dealing with is to take two adjacent photos and open them up in your editor and then put the matching sky area right next to each other. That will tell you if the right and left sides have slightly different exposures. If not, then start looking at the vignetting. Try fixing that if it is ever so slightly apparent but fix all the images the same. Looking at your final image, I think you have vignetting occurring in my opinion. As for the overlap, 30% gets you there but I don't like going over 50% unless for special circumstances like people moving all over that might need to be masked out in the final image. Like to see what it looks like when you finish!

Bob

DaveMM Loc: Port Elizabeth, South Africa

I have always had good stitching in PSE9 (haven't tried it on PSE11 yet).

Did you set the exposure to manual before taking the panorama? Do this by checking the exposure at all points and setting for the brightest direction. Then the stitching program has the best chance to match adjacent frames.

MyPharo Loc: New Jersey

You might look at this Link. It an instructional lay out on what you are trying to do in PSE 11.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/stitch-scenes-with-the-photoshop-elements-11-photo.html

UtahBob Loc: Southern NJ

Hey Andy,

I missed this point in your original post although I kind of replled to your question without realizing - so you are asking about the original images ... So I'm assuming that you did have the blender and vignetting options selected when performing the merge in PSE. As a follow up to the prior post, if you have non-linear and non-centric light falloff in an image, I believe that programs cannot fix that type of problem. If in fact, that's the problem in the original images, have a look at this article on vignetting correction. It uses PS but PSE should have comparable tools.

http://www.panos.at/howto/vignetting/index.html

Seems overwhelming on first read but it is step by step enough to be easily completed. If I recall correctly you'd need to do this with an image from the same body/lens/zoom focal length/filter combination as that of the original photos.

Bob

cheineck Loc: Hobe Sound, FL

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

mariraju Loc: Toronto

One question. Just to avoid the dark are shadowy areas, did you take all the photos with the same exposure and in manual settings including ISO. If the camera meters with auto settings you would usually fine these effects when you stitch them. For now, if the photos are in RAW, you might want to edit them in Photoshop with the same settings and adjust the exposure or brightness/contrast to get the effect. Please let us know.

cybermomm

For starters, put your camera in position to take lengthwise photos (portrait mode) rather than wide photos (landscape mode). This will give you a taller finished picture. In other words, your panorama won't be so skinny.