Introducing the Photomerge command

- [Instructor] Alright, we're going to start things off by creating this panorama here which is based on some photographs that I captured of a rice field in Bali, Indonesia. Even though I'm telling you that you can create some very big images indeed by stitching multiple photographs together to create a panorama. This particular image isn't all that big. Notice if I go up to Image menu, and choose the Image Size Command, that at a resolution of 267 pixels per inch, the image measures about 12 inches wide.

That's because we're ultimately working with half size versions of he original RAW photographs. Even so this particular composition weighs in at 200 megabytes on disc, and we generally avoid providing exercise files that are that large. If you're working with your own high resolution RAW photographs, just know that your composition is going to be even larger depending on whether you decide to work with smart objects as I am or not. So there's two different ways to create a panorama.

One is to go up to the File menu, choose Automate, and then choose this final command Photo Merge. If you're working along with me, locate the images inside this sub folder right there. You can also work with your own photographs of course. The way I prefer to work, I'll go ahead and cancel out here, is to go to the File menu, and choose Browse In Bridge which is going to take you to Adobe Bridge assuming that you've installed it using the Creative Cloud Utility. One of the advantages of Bridge is that it allows us to preview the images.

Notice that I have 14 photographs in all. I'll just go ahead and select the first one, and press the Space Bar in order to enter the full screen Preview mode. Note that I am turning the camera as I am shooting all of these photographs. I'm actually facing this direction. My feet are positioned straight forward here. Then, I turn my body all the way over to the left like so, and of course you can start on the left or the right, it doesn't matter, but you do want to twist your body so that you're maintaining a common frame of reference.

That way the perspective of the shot isn't going to change. Then, you want to take a bunch of shots that overlap each other by at least by a third. In my case, they overlap by more than that which is going to work out just fine. You want to keep shooting the photographs well past the point that you need them, so you have a lot of wiggle room on either side. I also want you to see that I'm maintaining a common horizon, so that I'm not allowing the camera to bounce up and down. I have not however tripodded these shots.

I am working strictly handheld which is ultimately going to work out just fine. I'll just go ahead and escape out. Now I want you to know that these images started off as RAW photographs, and that I went ahead and corrected the lens distortion inside Camera Raw as we discussed way back in chapter 27 of the advanced course. That just ensures that we don't have any barrel distortion or pin cushioning from one image to the next, nor do we have any vignetting. That way the images can be easily stitched together.

Here inside Bridge, what you want to do is press Control + A or Command + A on the Mac in order to select all of the images. Then, you want to go up to the Tools menu. Choose Photo Shop, and choose Photo Merge. That's going to take you back to Photo Shop at which point the program goes ahead and loads that exact same dialogue box. The difference is that it lists all 14 of those images that we'll be stitching together. Then, the simplest thing to do is to just go ahead and click OK in order to automatically build the panorama; however there is some other stuff going on in this dialogue box including these various layout options, and I want you to understand those which is why I'm going to show you how each and every one of them works in the very next movie.