The purpose of this exercise is to create a composite image using multiple photos stitched together in Photoshop to create a single image.
We will create two different composite images in this exercise: the first is a panoramic stitched image, wider than any camera view; the second is a layered image of the same scene where elements have moved or changed.
When shooting images for a stitched photo, keep some things in mind:
- Images should overlap by at least 20%. The greater the amount of overlap the less lens distortion comes into play. Images with 10% or less overlap will be hard to stitch together.
- Avoid using wide angle lenses when shooting images for stitching. Wide-angle incorporates curvature as it widens the view.
- Do not use a polarizing filter when shooting images which are to be stitched. The amount of polarization will vary as you rotate your camera and one edge of the picture will be darker than the other.
- Use the same exposure on all images. I recommend shooting a test image in aperture priority or program mode with the zooms set where I will be using it for the series of images. Check to make sure that this is the proper exposure by using your histogram in playback mode. If the exposure is correct, take note of the aperture and shutter speed settings, go to your camera’s manual mode, and sets the same aperture and shutter speed settings there. If the exposure is incorrect, darken or lighten the picture accordingly.
- Try to shoot your image on a day with relatively even lightning; harsh light or strong shadows can make stitching difficult and may make your picture unattractive.
Example 1: stitched panoramic
- Open Adobe Bridge and navigate to the folder containing your images
- Single click on the first image in the series; hold down your shift key and click the last image in the series.
- Click Tools > Photoshop > Photomerge
- The Photomerge dialogue box will open - choose Interactive Layout
- Click OK.
- Wait for Photoshop to make the preliminary stitch.
- Once the preliminary stitch has been made you can drag any of the pictures around for a better match. You can also delete pictures from the panoramic image by dragging them to the bar above the composite.
- Click OK
- Photoshop will create a stitched version of your series.
- Save your work as a PSD or TIF file to keep the layers.
- Crop to remove any jagged edges.
- Make a test print.
- If you are satisfied with your results, flatten your image by clicking Layer > Flatten Image.
- Click file > Save as to save your flattened file as a PSD, TIF or JPEG.
To view instructions on how to create a stitched panorama using Photoshop Elements, go to http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/photoshopelements/articles/lrvid2331_pse.html
Example 2: layered composite
- Open Adobe Bridge and navigate to the folder containing your images
- Single click on the first image in the series; hold down your control key and click on additional thumbnails of images you'd like to layer.
- Click Tools > Photoshop > Load files into Photoshop layers.
- Photoshop will open a new document with each image of your series as a layer in the document.
- Go to the layers panel. Hold down the shift key and click on the bottommost layer(this should make all your layers active).
- Click Edit > Auto-align layers.
- Auto align layers dialogue box will open; choose auto and click OK.
- Photoshop will align your layers. If the resulting image looks distorted, close the file without saving and return to the beginning of the exercise. When the dialogue box opens for the second time choose reposition as your alignment option.
- Save your work as a PSD or TIF file to keep the layers.
- Most likely part of one image will be obscuring part of the other so you will need to determine which image is your base image. Go to the layers panel and turn off the visibility of each of your layers by clicking the eyeball at the left-hand side of the column. Choose one of your layers as your primary image and drag it to the bottom of the layers panel so that it becomes the background image.
- Turn on the visibility of your first non-background layer. Make this layer your active layer by clicking on it in the layers panel. Zoom in as necessary to see detail.
- Use a selection tool such as the lasso, magic wand or quick select tool to outline the area you would like to keep.
- Click Select > Refine edge to soften and feather your subject.
- Click Layer > layer mask > reveal selection. Now you should see your background image with your first non-background image layered above it.
- Save your work.
- You may find that you are image needs a little softening where your first non-background image merges with the background. If this is the case, will need to adjust your mask. Begin by typing "d" on your keyboard to set your colors to default.
- Zoom in as necessary.
- Choose either your brush tool to add to the subject or your eraser tool to remove parts of the subject.
- Using a small to medium-size brush, paint or erase to clean up the edges of your selection. If you erase too much, you can switch to the brush tool and paint the detail back in.
- Save your work.
- If you are making a composite with more than one added component make your next non-background layer the active layer. Repeat steps above to add your next image.
- Crop your image for best composition.
- Make a test print.
- If you are satisfied with your results, flatten your image by clicking Layer > Flatten Image.
- Click file > save as to save your flattened file as a PSD, TIF or JPEG.
To learn more about clipping paths in Photoshop Elements, go to my post on them http://micheleburton.blogspot.com/2010/11/combining-images-using-clipping-paths.html
or the Photoshop Elements help file: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PhotoshopElements/8.0/Win/Using/WSae2ea3b149d0c3591ae939f103860b3d59-7f87_WIN.html
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