How many photos for panorama

The great thing about creating a panorama by stitching photos together is the incredible detail than can be preserved. Photo by nejcbole. Here are some tips for creating a standard panorama composed of multiple shots stitched together:.

Photo by Ian D. Some camera manufacturers, such as Canon, bundle software with the camera that can be used to stitch photos together. If you become obsessed with taking panoramas, you may want to get a special panoramic head for your tripod.

Photo by rapidacid. There are even robotic heads that automate the process and take the pictures for you. Parallax errors become most obvious when there are really close objects in your scene. I have taken many panoramic shots of landscapes and seldom see parallax errors, but if you are a perfectionist, you will probably want to invest in a one of these heads.

Gary Ramey is an instructor at two colleges in South Florida teaching digital photography techniques, concept development, desktop publishing, website design, application quality assurance, and project management. About the Author: Gary Ramey trickphotographyideas. Photoshop analyzes the source images and applies either a Perspective, Cylindrical, and Spherical layout, depending on which produces a better photomerge.

Creates a consistent composition by designating one of the source images by default, the middle image as the reference image. The other images are then transformed repositioned, stretched or skewed as necessary so that overlapping content across layers is matched. Overlapping content across files is still matched. The reference image is placed at the center. Best suited for creating wide panoramas. Aligns and transforms the images as if they were for mapping the inside of a sphere, which simulates the experience of viewing a degree panorama.

If you have taken a set of images that cover degrees, use this for degree panoramas. You might also use Spherical to produce nice panoramic results with other file sets. Aligns the layers and matches overlapping content and transforms rotate or scale any of the source layers.

Aligns the layers and matches overlapping content, but does not transform stretch or skew any of the source layers. Blend Images Together. Finds the optimal borders between the images and creates seams based on those borders, and color matches the images. With Blend Images Together turned off, a simple rectangular blend is performed.

This may be preferable if you intend to retouch the blending masks by hand. Vignette Removal. Removes and performs exposure compensation in images that have darkened edges caused by lens flaws or improper lens shading.

Geometric Distortion Correction. Content Aware Fill Transparent Areas. You can edit the layer masks or add adjustment layers to further fine-tune the different areas of the panorama.

To replace empty areas around image borders, use a content-aware fill. See Use Content-aware, pattern, or history fills. Devices such as the Ricoh Theta V and InstaOne let you capture full panoramic images in a single take.

Alternatively, you can combine Photomerge with 3D features to create a degree panorama. First, you stitch together the images to create a panorama; then you use the Spherical Panorama command to wrap the panorama so it's continuous. Be sure to photograph a full circle of images with sufficient overlap. Photographing with a pano head on a tripod helps produce better results.

Do not include images that cover the top zenith or bottom nadir of the scene. You'll add these images later. If you photographed with a fisheye lens, select the Auto layout and Geometric Distortion Correction. If Photoshop cannot automatically identify your lens, download the free Adobe Lens Profile Creator from the Adobe website. You can edit equirectangular spherical panoramas in Photoshop. The Properties Panel in Photoshop displays the camera properties.

Here, you can adjust the field of view of the camera in mm as in a 35mm camera or degrees. You can also click and drag the Axis widget controls available in the lower-left corner of the document window in Photoshop to rotate the camera without switching back to the Move tool. You can use the painting and adjustment tools available in Photoshop such as the Healing Brush and the Spot Healing Brush to edit the panorama.

You may wish to make it easier on yourself with your first panorama by not including near foreground objects in the pictures. There is more to be aware of.

Traffic, people on the go, animals in motion, birds flying by, airplanes and vapor trails in the sky are just some of the elements that you have to consider when taking a picture series that will become a good panorama. You may have to time your picture-taking so that these elements have either moved on or can be incorporated by shooting the next picture quickly before you overlap your shots.

If you realize when shooting that something has created an inconsistency that can't be covered up when overlapping images, shoot the same scene over again when the situation has cleared up, if you can. Shooting quickly will diminish the effects of any change in the scene in lighting or objects in motion. When overlapping pictures, watch for moving objects such as the speedboat above, which was moving quickly enough to appear in both pictures, and therefore ends up twice in the final panorama.

You will find it helpful when stitching them together later on if you shoot from left to right, since that is the order in which they will be displayed as thumbnails by your software. You may find that your digital camera's panorama mode may do that automatically for you, by naming the files in their proper sequence. Once you have taken a series of contiguous photographs, download your pictures to an appropriate folder on your computer, then open them in your image-editing software.

If you are using software such as Adobe PhotoShop CS3 or Adobe PhotoShop Elements , you will probably be amazed at how quickly and easily PhotoShop handles the merging of the photos - that is, if you are merging two to three pictures only. Any more and you will probably discover that you have taken on a project larger than you may have anticipated.

We recommend shooting just two to three pictures in series for your first panorama. If your original images are very large files, you may encounter a memory problem that significantly slows down or prevents completion of the merge process, in which case you should downsize your image files before doing the merge.

Take care to resize them so they are not too large to cause memory problems when merging, but not too small for their intended use. When the Photomerge window opens, select two or more image files to make up your panorama. If the files are already open, you can click on "Add open files," otherwise you can click the "Browse" button to locate and select them. Click "OK" and PhotoShop takes over and completes the merge, stitching your images into a panorama.

Creating a basic panorama is as simple as that. If you are dealing with only two or three pictures to be merged, and there are slight differences in the height of the horizon among the original pictures, you may need to crop the panorama. But, if your panorama is made up of several images as in the example below, which combined seven pictures taken in series , you will probably need to spend some time in editing and cropping to get that just right look, especially if your camera was on auto-exposure mode.

When you stitch together several individual pictures, they will probably look like the assembly on top above. You will still need to edit and crop the merged pictures to end up with a final panorama bottom. You may not have PhotoShop loaded onto your computer.

Your image-editing software may be another application altogether, perhaps one that came bundled with your camera when you acquired it. But, it will hopefully have the ability to merge individual pictures into a panorama.

If your camera has a panorama mode, the software that came with it will be able to stitch together the panoramic images that you take. Check your software's manual or its "Help" link to learn how to stitch your panorama together in your particular image-editing application. A panorama with more than two picture segments in it can stretch out fairly wide. A swath of bright color can be the element that ties it together. Printing panoramas is not a problem. Quality precut printing paper is available in large sizes from several suppliers for you to print them on your home printer, and most photo labs handle panorama printing as a matter of routine.

All rights reserved. All rights reserved development by webonthefly hosting by advantex llc. Go to my Page. Panorama pictures from a series of photographs Taking pictures to join together for an extreme wide-angle image. The railing of a wharf on the Pacific ocean provided a level surface for the camera for this panorama stitched together from several photos when the tripod was left at home. Further information Related topics