Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
You'll get the best panoramas if you plan ahead when shooting photos. The pictures should
be side by side, of course, and they should overlap one another by at least 30 percent. Also,
you'll minimize the biggest panorama problem—matching the color between photos—if you
make sure they all have identical exposures. While Elements can do a lot to blend exposures
that don't match well, for the best results, adjust your photos
before
you start creating a pan-
orama (see
Chapter 7
). It helps to keep them side by side so you can compare them as you
work. (See
Zooming and Repositioning Your View
to learn how to arrange photos in Ele-
ments.) The box on
Shooting Tips for Good Merges
has more tips for taking merge-ready
shots. However, Elements has gotten pretty good at blending photos together even if they
have somewhat different exposures, as
Figure 11-2
shows.
Figure 11-2. Top: Here's what you get with all the checkboxes in the Photomerge dialog box
turned off. Not bad, but clearly stitched together. Bottom: With the Blend Images Together setting
turned on, Elements does a fine job of smoothing the transitions between the photos. This image
also shows what happens to your image's perspective if you turn on Geometric Distortion Correc-
tion (page 371).
When the photos you want to combine look good, you're ready to create a panorama. Just
follow these steps:
