Photoshop CS3 Newly Discovered Panorama Stitcher Feature
Adobe Photoshop never ceases to amaze me. I’ve been working with it since version 3, which would have been somewhere around 1995 or 1996? So when I found this new automation in CS3, I was really psyched to be able to share this new feature I found. I used to take hours sometimes to do what Photoshop now does with a click of a button.
So what is this new feature?
Well, as an avid enthusiast of photography, I’m always exploring ways to further the art of creating an engaging image. Upon my explorations, I’ve dabbled in creating panoramas. Never resorting to purchasing either a wide-angle lens or a proper panoramic camera, I was left to discover cheaper methods to satisfy my explorative cravings in photography. I even briefly offered my panoramic photography services out to realtors before it was a common feature on realty web sites. These were Quicktime VR files, which were interactive (some examples of my quicktime vr examples). The creation of these files took an enormous amount of manual labor. The new automation ‘Photomerge’ within Adobe Photoshop CS3 is a godsend!
How do you make this new feature work?
This ‘Photomerge’ feature is found in the top menu under ‘File’=>’Automate’=>’Photomerge’. A window will popup which gives you the option to work with individual image files or a folder of images.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Photomerge Dialog Box
Demonstration
I’ll demonstrate working from a folder of images. Select which layout you prefer on the left-hand side (I’ll show samples of all these layouts at the end of this post), select ‘Folder’ and then click on ‘Browse’. I always choose the ‘Blend images together’ checkbox as this helps in blending imperfect matches between image edges.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Photomerge Choose Folder Dialog Box
Hit the ‘Choose’ button. This adds the selected images to the queue. Finally, hit ‘OK’ and see this magical feature perform it’s task.
Samples
Here’s the results below with different layouts used.
The ‘Auto‘ layout: (Full-size image)
The ‘Perspective‘ layout: (Full-size image)
The ‘Cylindrical‘ layout: (Full-size image)
The ‘Reposition Only‘ layout: (Full-size image)
The ‘Interactive Layout‘ allows you to manually move around the images. This can be useful when the automation isn’t quite perfect. All-in-all, a nifty little feature to have!
Chris J. Politzki
