I could use some input from the panoramicists out there. I took a series of five shots, portrait orientation, panning with a tripod across a sunset view. Belatedly, I realize that I forget to switch to manual exposure and set a single fixed exposure across the group so the shots varied from f/4.0 at 1/60 at the edges to f/6.7 at 1/180 at the center. So, first solution is probably just to quit right now and try again with a fixed exposure, but ...
My first try was using Photomerge in PS CS3 on the RAW files. It did a good job of aligning the images, but there was still some noticeable banding between the stripes comprising the contribution of each picture.
My next try was importing each through ACR, applying the same corrections except for making a subjective adjustment of white balance to warm up the edges. Photomerge put that together, but then completely left off the sides, i.e., it really only used about 3 of the 5 images in the resulting image, even though there appeared to be 5 layers.
Then I tried a trial version of PTGui, but the banding it it was much worse than with Photomerge.
Then I tried importing through ACR and making all settings the same except for a center to edge adjustment in EV, but saving as a PSD instead of a JPG. Photomerge put that together fairly well, but there is still some banding.
Then I tried importing through ACR and making all settings the same, but making a subjective, but uniform adjustment in color temperature and saving as PSD. Photomerge took that and did something similar to the JPG import, i.e., only gave me the middle 2/3 of the span.
Anyone seen this kind of odd clipping with PS CS3?
Thus far, I am seriously underwhelmed by PTGui. |
