# Help with panorama merge



## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

Hi everyone. 

I'm relatively new to doing panorama work so any guidance with the issue below would be great. 

My process was pretty basic as I just wanted to see how much cropping of the image would occur before I did post work/editing. All I did was add the 'lens correction profile' box in camera raw with the settings put at 16bit and adobe RGB as the colour profile. I then imported the images into photoshop and did a photomerge with 'blend images together' selected. 

I think the general stitching turned out fine except at the borders of each photo where a distinct line is evident - like vertical banding. The photos were taken manually at f16 ISO 100 and shutter speed 1/15. This is consistent for all photos so I'm not quite sure why the exposure differences is occuring.

Thanks in advance.


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## privatebydesign (Apr 10, 2014)

In Bridge select all your files and then go Tools-Photoshop-Photomerge.... Click Auto and then OK.

In Lightroom select the images you want, go Photo-Edit In-Merge To Panorama In Photoshop...


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## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

Hi mate,

Yes that's what I've tried, but the same issue occurs. You can see the problem in the image I posted above. There is a line going directly through the two images.


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## privatebydesign (Apr 10, 2014)

Post the images, unless there is very little overlap Photoshop will make a jagged merge line, it hasn't done a straight line for years.


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## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

I'll post them up in a moment, what file type should I send them?
I've been fiddling with it and if I only choose say 5 out of the 11 images it handles them fine, but when I do all 11 that's when the lines start appearing even in places where the 5 seemed ok.

I get the feeling it's because I'm importing 16bit files opposed to 8bit, which is what I've used before without issues.


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## philmoz (Apr 10, 2014)

It looks like the images have not aligned very well.

What version of Photoshop are you using?
What camera and lens (panoramas can be harder to stitch with a very wide lens due to distortion)?
Did the images have enough overlap to get decent alignment?
When you enabled lens correction in ACR, did it select the right lens?
Is it possible you missed the lens correction on one of the images which might account for the difference in brightness?

Posting the source images might help, as we can then try different options and software.

Phil.


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## privatebydesign (Apr 10, 2014)

TheBiologist said:


> I'll post them up in a moment, what file type should I send them?
> I've been fiddling with it and if I only choose say 5 out of the 11 images it handles them fine, but when I do all 11 that's when the lines start appearing even in places where the 5 seemed ok.
> 
> I get the feeling it's because I'm importing 16bit files opposed to 8bit, which is what I've used before without issues.



It can do any files, it is nothing to do with 16 or 8 bit.


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## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

Here's the compressed files. They are the darker lot because the image is bracketed for a HDR. They still give the same issue when doing a photomerge though. Thanks for your helping.


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## privatebydesign (Apr 10, 2014)

Mine works fine with the normal jagged line merge, here is the merge, and the second shot is with one layer switched off so you can see where it is merging.


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## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

Sorry Phil I missed your question. I've answered it below.

What version of Photoshop are you using? 
*CS6*

What camera and lens (panoramas can be harder to stitch with a very wide lens due to distortion)?
*5diii with 24-105mm at 50mm*

Did the images have enough overlap to get decent alignment? 
*I believe there was more than enough*

When you enabled lens correction in ACR, did it select the right lens?
*Yes.*

Is it possible you missed the lens correction on one of the images which might account for the difference in brightness?
*Double checked and not the case.*

Posting the source images might help, as we can then try different options and software.


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## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

I'm baffled as to why I'm having this issue then. There must be something I've selected in photoshop or perhaps another technical issue involved then. I'll post a quick screenshot of what I see when I do those steps with the same images.


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## privatebydesign (Apr 10, 2014)

Here is mine.

And here is the Photomerge settings I used.


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## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

The only difference I've noticed, which is probably why it's occuring is that yours has a layer mask applied (layers tab). Mine does not have that - it's just solid images. I think there's something I must have selected or activated by accident.


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## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

Here's what it looks like when you take two layers out. There is no seamless sort of stitching like it should be doing. Just 'straight cuts' for some reason. I've followed everything exactly as you said to confirm what I did.


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## philmoz (Apr 10, 2014)

TheBiologist said:


> The only difference I've noticed, which is probably why it's occuring is that yours has a layer mask applied (layers tab). Mine does not have that - it's just solid images. I think there's something I must have selected or activated by accident.



Make sure the 'Blend Images Together' option is selected in the Photomerge dialog box.

Phil.


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## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

It was. Still has the same effect with no masking.


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## privatebydesign (Apr 10, 2014)

I just did it with no Blend Images Together ticked, I got the same result as you are getting. If you do have your box ticked you need to reload PS.

Here is mine without Blend Images Together selected.


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## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

I'll try rebooting the computer. It is definately selected when I do the photomerge so not sure what the go is.
Were you suggesting to re-install photoshop?


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## philmoz (Apr 10, 2014)

TheBiologist said:


> It was. Still has the same effect with no masking.



That's weird - the result you're getting is what I see if I turn the option off. With the option on the images are blended together correctly.

I've no idea why it would be ignoring the option to blend the layers - you might be able to get more advice posting on the Adobe PS forums.

Phil.


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## TheBiologist (Apr 10, 2014)

Hi all. 

Thanks for your help. You were both correct in saying it was a blending problem. I finally managed to get the proper panorama after searching into the issue. Turns out there is a bug with the 64bit PS CS6 version when doing numerous images. It worked first go when I tried the 32bit program. I'm not exactly sure what triggers it since it works with fewer images (in the 64bit version), but after 10 it can't handle it and runs into problems. 

Quick question. Are the stich marks that appear actually there - when I zoom in they disappear so I presume it's just a guide to let you know where they joined the images together.

Thanks again all, I will have to get the finished panorama up once I finish editing it. Next phase is to blend two exposures into photomatix, so hopefully it can handle the full panorama.


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## philmoz (Apr 10, 2014)

TheBiologist said:


> Hi all.
> 
> Thanks for your help. You were both correct in saying it was a blending problem. I finally managed to get the proper panorama after searching into the issue. Turns out there is a bug with the 64bit PS CS6 version when doing numerous images. It worked first go when I tried the 32bit program. I'm not exactly sure what triggers it since it works with fewer images (in the 64bit version), but after 10 it can't handle it and runs into problems.
> 
> ...



Glad you got it working.

64bit version on my Mac works fine - may be a Windows issue.

The stitch edges you see are just artefacts of how PS renders the image when it is fit to the screen.
If you merge the layers and flatten the image they will disappear.

Phil.


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## Halfrack (Apr 10, 2014)

One thing to future readers of this thread, the number of images causes concern. Try merging 3 images together first, see if you get the expected result.


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## TheBiologist (Apr 11, 2014)

Yes it did work with a few images, the problem there was that it became harder to merge the combined images - at least from my experience. 

I think the root cause of the problem was the scratch disk size. I added a new drive with 300gb space and the problem disappeared. Not quite sure why the 32bit worked fine in the same situation though.


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