PANORAMIC PHOTO

Paint Shop Pro Tutorials by Karen

When I first saw a panoramic photo I wanted to try doing my own, I thought it was a brilliant way to see a view or scene, better than in a normal photo showing just a portion of it! I was surprised how easy it is, and have made several now. Here is how I make my panoramic photo`s, like the one above- made with 4 photo`s..

Ready?... let`s begin... First you will need 3 or more photo`s of the same scene at slightly different successive views... start as far left as you want the photo to begin, take a photo, then trying to have the camera at the same height etc, take another photo starting from about where the first one ended. Continue this until you have all your photo`s of the scene, from left to right Edit your photo`s as normal and open them in psp. Resize to about 400 x 300 pixels, then minimise them.. Start a new image the same debth as your photo`s and long enough to hold them all ( I will be using 4 photo`s at 400 x 300 pixels, so I will need a canvas of 1600  x 300.) (fig 1)

Reopen the photo`s one at a time, copy and paste as new layer onto canvas. (fig 2)

Using the mover tool, begin bringing the photo`s together, lining up the scene the best you can. Don`t worry if there are little bits that don`t quite meet, this can be matched up later. also, you may need to overlap the photo`s a bit (Fig 4) (it is very rare and difficult to take successive photo`s that will "knit" together perfectly without editing, so don`t panic about it. Any slight differences in contrast/brightness/colour etc can be put right now.) Once you have matched up the photo`s and are happy with them, and if they don`t need any more contrast/brightness/colours editing, merge the layers (layers / merge / merge visible) Now zoom in so you can see to work on the image. Select the retouch tool (white hand) right click it and go to tool options, click the middle tab and select "smudge" (fig 5) Now click the left tab and set as in fig 6.

Carefully "smudge" the joined up parts and blend them together, change the retouch tool brush size if needed. Now is also the best time to blend in any little parts of the main scene that don`t quite meet up. (fig 7)

If like in my quick sample there are any parts slightly lighter or darker than others, change the retouch tool brush to "lighten or darken" and a large size. Gently and carefully click on the parts you want to lighten or darken. Now select the selections tool and set as in fig 8.

Use the selections tool to draw a long narrow rectangle on the part you want to keep, as in fig 9.

Go edit /copy / edit / paste as new image, then close the original. Now go image / resize and resize it to between 40 %and 60% or preferred size. (fig 10)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial which was written for PSP7 but should adapt for other versions. Close window to return to index. If you didn`t come here from the tutorials index and want to go there now CLICK HERE

Close or minimise the original. Repeat this until you have all your photo`s on seperate layers, left to right. ( fig 3)

Now copy and paste as new image then close the original. Next go image / sharpen / sharpen and save it!