Polar Panorama in Photoshop
From eyeRwiki
I could only find a handful of guides on making a panorama, and most of them involved an piece of open source software called Hugin. Although this is great software, it is more difficult to use than Photoshop.
This guide covers making a panorama in Photoshop using the Photomerge function. It also covers how to convert this panorama into a polar panorama, which looks something like a miniature planet.
Contents |
[edit] Taking the photos for a Panorama
To get your photos right, first read this guide by Lifehacker, but only read the section on taking proper photos.
One note I want to add to this is that you don't just have to take one horizontal row's worth of photos. You can take another row closer to the ground and another row closer to the sky to get a more full image.0
[edit] Start with a normal panorama
With all you're photos in hand (or on hard drive), you're ready to go.
- Go to File > Automate > Photomerge...
- Make sure Auto is selected and that Blend photos together is checked. Now click Browse....
- Select all the files you too merge into one panorama and press OK in the main dialog box.
- Photoshop will take some time to automatically complete the following processes
- Load all the photos and stack them together
- Align all the images for you
- Blend the colors and lighting of the image together
- You'll be left with a panorama that includes some "rough edges" and blank space in areas that probably don't please you.
- Use the crop tool to get as much of the image into a rectangle as possible without leaving any transparent areas.
- NOTE: If you plan on doing the next step (polar panorama) then you should make sure that you crop the image so the right side of the image (nearly) perfectly ends where the left side of the image starts.
[edit] Turning it into a polar panorama
First you should modify any blemishes in the photo. Maybe some glare in one of the photos. Fix anything that bothers you about the photo before you proceed, but don't do any touch ups (like contrast or saturation).
- Go to Layer > Flatten Image
- Go to Image > Image Size. Uncheck the Constrain proportions box. You need a square image, so set both the boxes to the same number of pixels. You also need to make the image a more workable size. I usually choose between 4000x4000 or 6000x6000. Apply that change.
- Go to Image > Rotate > 180
- Go to Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates
- TA DA!
[edit] Optional improvements
- If you want to rotate the photo 90 or 180 degrees, go ahead. Whatever looks good to you is fine.
- There is going to be a seam where the left and right sides of the image meet up. To fix this, do the following:
- Make a new blank layer
- Set the clone stamp tool to 60% opacity and to Sample all layers
- Use long strokes up and down the area in the sky where the seam is really noticeable.
- The center of the image sometimes looks really spiky and odd because the ground had to be stretched to line up in the center. To fix this, do the following:
- Make a new blank layer
- Use the clone stamp tool at 30-60% opacity and have it set to Sample all layers
- Sample the area just a bit outside of the center stretched area. Then draw a line starting at the midpoint between your sample place and the center, and end the line at the center. Go around in a circle drawing lines in this manner until you've gone all the way around the circle and it looks mostly natural.
- To make it look more crisp in the center (instead of blurry), perform an unsharp mask (Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask...) on the layer that you devoted to fixing the center of the image (IE: The ground). Set it to about 90% and 2 pixels.
- Now make any other touch ups that you would like (like saturation and contrast).
- You can also crop the photo in a bit if you want to remove some of the sky and focus in on your new "planet".
