Photoshop_User_June_2017

> PHOTOSHOP USER

>^ JUNE 2017

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ANSWERS TO PHOTOSHOP AND GEAR-RELATED QUESTIONS

I’m trying to create a panorama, and nothing seems to work: Not Photoshop’s File> Automate>Photo-

merge; nor loading the files into layers and using Edit>Auto-Align Layers. I shot the images

using a tripod and overlapped each by about 25%, and the overlap areas include such identifiable

items as windows and the corners of houses. Is there any way to manually create a panorama

in Photoshop? — Rusty

Zoom out so that you can see more of the canvas. Use

the File>Place Embedded command to add the second

image to the canvas, and then press the Enter key to accept

the image’s size.

Now for the fun part: In the Layers panel, change the

upper layer’s blend mode from Normal to Difference (down

near the bottom of the menu). Using the Move tool (V),

Shift-drag the top layer until the area of overlap turns

completely black (or almost completely black, depending

on your lens). This ensures that the area of overlap is prop-

erly aligned. You may need to rotate the upper or lower

layer a bit to get proper alignment.

Back in the Layers panel, return the upper layer’s blend

mode to Normal. With the Hand tool (H) or the scroll bar at

the bottom of the image window, scroll to the right until you

see the right part of the second image and empty canvas.

(You’ll want all of the right side’s area of overlap visible.)

Place the next image in the sequence of your panorama

(and press Enter). Again, switch the top layer’s blend mode

to Difference and align the area of overlap, then return the

blend mode to Normal.

Using the same techniques, add each of the other

photos for your panorama. At this point, I strongly suggest

saving the image as a layered PSD or TIFF. Of course, it’s

good practice to save after adding each image.

Crop the panorama to remove the empty area to the far

right. If you had to rotate any of the images and you ended

up with transparency in areas, use the Crop tool with the

Content-Aware option selected in the Options Bar. n

Yes, sometimes the automated processes don’t read the

images well enough to create panoramas. (I’ve seen Photo-

merge take four well-overlapped horizontal images and

try to stack them vertically, and Auto-Align often mis-

orders the images.) Creating a panorama in Photoshop

from a series of overlapping images is certainly possible

and precise, but it takes a number of steps. Here’s how

I do it:

Open the first image (left, right, top, or bottom

depending on what you’re creating). In this case, I’ll use

the example of creating a horizontal panorama, starting

with the leftmost image.

With the first image open, head to the Layers panel and

click the Lock icon to unlock the layer. (This isn’t techni-

cally necessary, but I prefer to work over a transparent back-

ground rather than white—or whatever the background

color is during the next step.)

Go to the Image menu and select Canvas Size. In the

three-by-three proxy box, click on one of the three boxes

on the left, so that when you extend the canvas, it extends

to the right rather than to both sides.

Switch the unit of measure to Percent. Make sure that

the Relative box is unchecked. In the Width box, increase

the width according to the number of images in your

panorama. (If you’re using five photos, for example,

enter 500 in the Width box.) This is more canvas than we

need because of the image overlap, but the image gets

cropped later. Leave the Height field set to 100%. Click

the OK button to expand the image to the right.

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