The Canon Magazine 63
raw HDr Panoramas
sT eP By sTeP Quick panorama mixing
use merge to HDr panorama in camera raw or Lightroom to combine a set of photos
01 OPen the image set
Open Adobe Bridge and navigate to the set of images
(if using Lightroom, import the photos and go to the
Library module). Click on the first image, then hold
Shift and click on the last to select them all. Then
right-click them and ‘Open in Camera Raw’.
03 exPeriment with PrOJectiOn
The three options – Spherical, Cylindrical and
Perspective – at the top right each affect the way the
panorama is stitched. Click through to find the best
option for your image set. At this stage it can be useful
to uncheck ’Auto Crop’ so you can see the edges.
05 tidy ghOsting
One of the drawbacks of the HDR Panorama feature is
no Deghost option – it can be found when merging
single HDRs. For us, slight movement has caused
ghosting in these flowers. Grab the Spot Removal
tool from the toolbar and paint to remove them.
02 Begin the merge
Once open, hit Cmd/Ctrl+A to select all the images
in Raw, then right-click the selection and choose
‘Merge to HDR Panorama’ from the list that appears.
After a few seconds, the merged .dng image will
appear in the ‘HDR Panorama Merge’ dialog box.04 Fix the edges
The Boundary Warp slider works by reshaping the
edges of the panorama. Here dragging it to 80 allows
us to correct for the tilt in the set of shots (which often
happens with panoramas). We can recheck Auto-Crop
to tidy the edges up. Once happy, hit Merge.06 enhance the tOnes
We use tonal sliders and the local adjustment tools to
enhance our shot. Get the Graduated Filter tool, click
the minus icon next to the ‘Exposure’ slider and drag
down from sky to land. Next, up Dehaze to make the
clouds more intense and make any final adjustments.nexT monTh
reSTore olD
phoToSwhaT is hdR?
HDr stands for High
Dynamic range. We
create them by merging
a set of bracketed
exposures. This allows us
to expand the dynamic
range beyond the limits
of a single exposure.
The raw files created
by modern cameras are
capable of around
12 stops of dynamic
range, encompassing
very dark details to very
bright. But this may not
be sufficient to record
optimum detail in a
scene. By merging an
HDr, we can go beyond
this limit for detail-rich
highlights and shadows.Raw hdR
Whether you use raw or
Jpg start images, this
‘merge to HDr panorama’
technique creates a
.dng (digital negative)
file with extra detail to
reveal in shadows and
highlights much like a
powerful raw file.