Friday we created a joiner in CS4 today we're using Photomerge again but this time it's going to help us stitch a series of shots into a panorama. For this to be successful when you're out taking your shots make sure they overlap slightly. See John Gravett's video tutorial for more information on this.

Software used: Photoshop CS4 Time taken: 15 minutes (can change).

Step 1: Photo merge

Go to File>Automate>Photomerge. Open the images you want to use to create your panorama and make sure you've ticked Blend Images Together, Vignette Removal, and Geometric Distortion Correction. Click OK and wait for the process to finish.

Step 2: Merge layers

Photoshop will then create the panorama which can take a long time so you may want to go and get a cup of tea while it finishes. Once it's complete there will be several layers in the layers pallet that need merging together. You do this by going to Layer>Merge Layers.

Step 3: Crop and clone

You'll see Photoshop has overlapped and merged the images together but by doing so there's no gaps around the edge of the image. To tidy the image up you can use the clone tool to fill in the spaces or if you're not feeling that brave you can crop into the image to give yourself less cloning to do. Make sure you follow the pattern of the area you're cloning next to and sample from various areas so the pattern doesn't become too repetitive.


You've read the article, now go take some fantastic images. You can then upload the pictures, plus any advice and suggestions you have into the dedicated Photo Month forum for everyone at ePHOTOzine to enjoy.