How to Photomerge to Create a Panoramic Image

Tony Sweet

Duration: 12 mins

Description

The panoramic photograph can be majestic, but creating this style of sweeping scenic photo takes some know-how. In this video, professional photographer and editor Tony Sweet travels to Battery Park in old town Charleston, South Carolina to assemble a dramatic panoramic image through a process called photomerge. You will learn how to make a series of overlapping infrared images for stitching to a pan, and later how to employ editing tools to photomerge them together in post-production.

Tony carefully levels his tripod and composes a wooded park scene, then shoots a sequence of seven right-to-left images that overlap by a third to a half. He shoots only in the vertical format because he feels it’s easier to photomerge these files in post production. He takes you into his editing suite and opens the image files in Photoshop. Using the photomerge software, he aligns the seven selected layers until the software stitches the layers together in a single panoramic composition. He makes cropping adjustments to create the corrected image he can work on with various software tools.

With the targeted adjustment tool, Tony shows you how to darken the bright, grassy areas. Opening Nik Software, he demonstrates the techniques of the infrared filter, Color Efex Pro. Using the Glamour Glow tool, he shows you how to add a soft, blooming effect to the overall image and then layer the photograph with sepia tone to create the historical effect. In the last step of the editing process, he shows you how to employ the clone tool for spot adjustments that include filling in the highlights and shadows. The finished image shows a panorama of walking paths, trees, and lawn with a central —a beautiful infrared panorama. Follow along with pro shooter Tony Sweet as he shows you the complete photomerge process in panoramic photography.