Need Photoshop help for creating Backdrop

[Motley]

Hey guys, I need someone's expertise with Photoshop to help me create a panorama picture for my backdrop.

I have Corel Photoshop software, but I can't figure out how to stitch the photos together for a panarama. I took a series of photos with my camera on a tripod.

This is for my mountain tunnel backdrop. So I took some pics of the mountain range near my house.

The dimensions for my wall is: 150" x 20"

Once I get the panorama picture fixed up, then I am taking to the local graphics print shop to print a poster for me.

The photos can be downloaded here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Motleym01/Mountains#

Thanks! I appreciate any help with this.

Michael

 

[hamltnblue]

Hi Motley,
I just answered your pm

 

[hamltnblue]

Since your pm was the same text as the post above here's the response so others can add to.

The pics are nice but the resolution is way too low.
Take one of your pictures and zoom in. Notice the pixels that appear. You have to take the pictures at the highest resolution your camera can do. Mine were at 18 megapixel. If your camera does 6 meg then use six. When the print is done it will stretch out the pics to the new size which will blur/pixelate it.
Also if the clouds are moving the panorama feature might get messed up. If that's the case the clouds have to be removed from the scene in the software before doing the panorama. Also make sure you use a tripod and when you take the pic use the timer feature in the camera so that it doesn't shake or vibrate when you click the pic. Just pushing the button on the camera is enough to shake it some. Don't forget to focus also when using a timer.

 

[eTraxx]

I use Paint Shop Pro and can talk you through using it .. but I imagine that the process would be similar enough for you to make it out ..

Your photos are 640x480. At a resolution of 72 px per inch that only comes out to a print size of 11.11" x 8.33". Changing the print size to 26.6" x 20" requires (at 72 px inch resolution) a 1920x1440 photo. For a print at 300px inch and that same 26.6"x20" print would require a photo 8000x6000 px. Now .. of course you are going to use your software to resize to that 20" height .. but the point is .. if you can .. you need to have the largest size photo your camera can create. My seven year old Sony Mavica can create up to 2272x1704 picture size .. just as an example.

Quick overview how to stitch together your photos.

Step 1 .. Since your photos are at 640x480 take the one on the far left and add a border on the right side that is 640 px. (a little excess since you overlapped the two photos)

Create a layer. Call it photo 2

Step 2 .. Copy the second photo. Switch back to the first with the border and paste as new selection (or whatever that is in your graphics program. You are pasting INTO the first picture) into the new layer. Leave it floating (dashed lines around it) so you can move it.

Find the same spot on both pictures. If you look at the second photo there is a small white 'dot' on the slope of the far left mountain. The same white 'dot' is a little right of center in the first photo.

Grab the floating image of the second photo and bring it to the left until the 'dot' it aligns with the first 'dot'. Click to set.

Notice that the mountains are darker

Step 3 .. Make sure you are on that new layer (holding the second photo) and lighten the selection. I used "Adjust Brightness and Contrast" .. and moved the slider until it matches photo 1 (for me .. was increasing brightness to 23).

Step 4 - whatever .. Repeat until all the photos are stitched together .. adjusting the brightness up or down until they are the same.

Step Last .. When finished you can adjust the brightness/contrast as looks good to you.

 

[Motley]

Nice!! Thanks Ed and Hamltnblue for the help!!

I will try to figure this out with Corel Photoshop. I don't have the Adobe Photoshop.

I also just found a local print shop that you can upload the photos to them. Maybe they have some experts that can fix up the photos for me.

Thanks again, I appreciate the help!

Michael

 

[hamltnblue]

Hello again
Look at the properties of the pics in your computer. Sometimes the file size is cut way down by the site you uploaded them to. Your originals might be much larger.
Also make sure the grass in front of the mountains isn't too large. I thought my original was fine but turned out when the pic was printed and enlarged, the water was 11 inches tall. Your grass will probably be the same and probably needs to be trimmed down.
When you get the panorama done perform an autofix on the result to darken it some.
One more thing. When you work on these projects do not use jpg files. First convert them to tiff files. The reason is that every time a jpg files is worked with and saved it loses quality. Tiff files are much larger but don't lose quality when worked on.

 

[hamltnblue]

Another thing.
If you want to try photoshop elements, you can download it as a trial for I believe 30 days. after that if you don't want it you can just uninstall it.

 

[eTraxx]

Just a heads up. For the majority of people needing a graphics program .. a program called GIMP is FREE .. and does about anything you could wish for. It's WAY more than adequate for something like this ..

http://www.gimp.org/

 

[eTraxx]

dang it hamltnblue .. you keep beating me to it!

 

[Motley]

Hmm, that's weird, my photos are all 3648 x 2736 in size. I have a 10MP camera.

Camera settings:

Filename: IMG_0118.JPG
Camera: Canon
Model: Canon PowerShot A495
ISO: 80
Exposure: 1/500 sec
Aperture: 5.8
Focal Length: 21.6mm
Flash Used: No


I don't know why you guys got a smaller file from picasa. Did you click on the download file option right? Not just copied from the viewing?

 

[Motley]

Also, I took these photos this morning right down the street from my house, it was a 5 min. drive.

Gotta love Colorful Colorado!!!

 

[hamltnblue]

Hmm, that's weird, my photos are all 3648 x 2736 in size. I have a 10MP camera.

Camera settings:

Filename: IMG_0118.JPG
Camera: Canon
Model: Canon PowerShot A495
ISO: 80
Exposure: 1/500 sec
Aperture: 5.8
Focal Length: 21.6mm
Flash Used: No


I don't know why you guys got a smaller file from picasa. Did you click on the download file option right? Not just copied from the viewing?

That might be but the file hosting site you use is probably reducing them. I use photobucket and they do the same for the free accounts. When I upgraded to a pro account it now allows a much larger file size. Not an 18 meg pic but about 10 meg.

Edit: I just did the download that you suggested and the file size is now 1.9 meg. Still a little small but better for sure.

 

[hamltnblue]

Using your the larger files This is what photoshop comes up with. I think the moving clouds reduced it some but still good. I also did an autofix on the final to darken it some. The file is 8.5 meg and can be downloaded from the photobucket site. This isn't the final result. The printer would have to re-size the image to your 150x20 and resample at 300 dpi. The resultant image would be 750 meg in size. Also the grass still might be a bit large when blown up.

 

[ianacole]

Nice panoramic!! I love Colorado!

 

[Motley]

Using your the larger files This is what photoshop comes up with. I think the moving clouds reduced it some but still good. I also did an autofix on the final to darken it some. The file is 8.5 meg and can be downloaded from the photobucket site. This isn't the final result. The printer would have to re-size the image to your 150x20 and resample at 300 dpi. The resultant image would be 750 meg in size. Also the grass still might be a bit large when blown up.

Dude, that looks AWESOME! Thanks!!! So if I download your file, I can take that to the printer shop? And they can make the changes necessary for printing?

Now I'm going to try to find a cornfield, for another panoramic pic for my other wall with the Ethanol plant.

I really appreciate the help!

Thanks,

Michael

 

[hamltnblue]

Personally I would wait for a day when the atmosphere is a little more clear and get sharper pics. Your look good but using a tripod, and a uv filter with the timer mode you'll improve the pics a good bit more.

By the way here's my Y6b merged with your panorama as it stands now. I didn't take the time to get the tree's right. If you notice the blurriness on the panorama. It's probably due to a little shaking.