Stitching multiple images in photoshop CC

Stuart Philpott · 21 Dec 2023

guys I'm trying to stitch 5 images using photomerge. in PSCC.I use Canon's DPP as my RAW converter.then I've converted those to 16 bit TIFF. The files are from a 1DX mark ii. shot with a 400DO ii lens.
and made in the portrait orientation

when I use photomerge PS doesn't stitch the images together horizontally. I get a vertical " frame" with 2 images together at the top the middle image below that and the final 2 sticthed together at the base.

i don't use light room by the way. dont really want to go there either PP has always been a struggle for me

Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong please ?

Many thanks in advance

stu

LeeRatters · 21 Dec 2023

Without seeing the images, it's probably the software more than you!

It doesn't really help, but I use Affinity really just for stitching panoramas as I find it does the best job of what I've got.

Graham · 21 Dec 2023

You could download ICE, it just works.
Maybe I'm wrong but with PS you need to have a min 40% of each photo to be able to stitch photos.

Stuart Philpott · 21 Dec 2023

LeeRatters said:
Without seeing the images, it's probably the software more than you!

It doesn't really help, but I use Affinity really just for stitching panoramas as I find it does the best job of what I've got.

Lee I kinda love you for the first line ,but it's probably not it's probably me ( sometime one needs to own one's failings)..................really early on I managed to stitch with one of canon's sofwares photostyle editor to be precise. I just though PSCC and photo merge would do a half decent job after watching some vids

I'd really rather not add more software and the learning curve therein right now but huge thanks for your time

Stuart Philpott · 21 Dec 2023

Graham said:
You could download ICE, it just works.
Maybe I'm wrong but with PS you need to have a min 40% of each photo to be able to stitch photos.

G the images are full frame no crop........... I know nuffiin but my first take on seeing photomerge's outcome was could the files be too big..or is the fact I'm using a 400mm lens a player? I'd summize not many folks shoot such a narrow POV and stitch maybe i'm wrong

Again mate huge thanks for your time and thoughts

Stuart Philpott · 21 Dec 2023

LeeRatters said:
Without seeing the images, it's probably the software more than you!

It doesn't really help, but I use Affinity really just for stitching panoramas as I find it does the best job of what I've got.

PS........................ Lee they are a set of images taken at night of a local castle that does a light display 20sec exposure f11 ISO 100......5 images in portrait gave me mor BKG to work with than 2 in landscape

sort of like this only made from a different place much closer hence the 5 in portrait

_S2I0284 Castle of tiny lights sm j tDn by Stuart Philpott, on Flickr

Lee I don't really shoot night time or landscape, I'm brainstorming/playing if ya like...trying to work out what my gear does utterly out of my comfort zone but maybe not taking the most usual tack really enjoying the process though bar the stitch

LeeRatters · 21 Dec 2023

Stuart Philpott said:
Lee I kinda love you for the first line ,but it's probably not it's probably me ( sometime one needs to own one's failings)..................really early on I managed to stitch with one of canon's sofwares photostyle editor to be precise. I just though PSCC and photo merge would do a half decent job after watching some vids

I'd really rather not add more software and the learning curve therein right now but huge thanks for your time

Stuart Philpott said:
PS........................ Lee they are a set of images taken at night of a local castle that does a light display 20sec exposure f11 ISO 100......5 images in portrait gave me mor BKG to work with than 2 in landscape

sort of like this only made from a different place much closer hence the 5 in portrait

_S2I0284 Castle of tiny lights sm j tDn by Stuart Philpott, on Flickr

Lee I don't really shoot night time or landscape, I'm brainstorming/playing if ya like...trying to work out what my gear does utterly out of my comfort zone but maybe not taking the most usual tack really enjoying the process though bar the stitch

As long as you have overlap then I would have thought it would be okay. And there should be plenty of detail to line up if the image is anything like that other example.

I bought Affinity (18 months ago) because CS6 wouldn't stitch a night sky panorama image I had taken. A full 180 degree Milky Way arch sky & foreground. Those are anywhere between say... 16 to 26 images. The most recent 26 frame image was 3 rows - 2 sky & 1 foreground and Affinity managed it no issues. I have had subscription LR & PS for the past year or more but still use Affinity for stitching. There's not really anything to learn just for stitching.

If you want me to try your images for you I don't mind.

sk66 · 21 Dec 2023

Chances are that you don't have enough overlap for PS to make sense of the images order/positions. You could try the perspective mode rather than auto...

swanseamale47 · 22 Dec 2023

Have you tried blending two at a time, then joining them? As said photoshop needs a bit of overlap to align the images. Just wondering if you also shot on wide angle? I've had issues even with overlap on a very wide lens, probably the distorion

Stuart Philpott · 22 Dec 2023

LeeRatters said:
As long as you have overlap then I would have thought it would be okay. And there should be plenty of detail to line up if the image is anything like that other example.

I bought Affinity (18 months ago) because CS6 wouldn't stitch a night sky panorama image I had taken. A full 180 degree Milky Way arch sky & foreground. Those are anywhere between say... 16 to 26 images. The most recent 26 frame image was 3 rows - 2 sky & 1 foreground and Affinity managed it no issues. I have had subscription LR & PS for the past year or more but still use Affinity for stitching. There's not really anything to learn just for stitching.

If you want me to try your images for you I don't mind.

Lee that's a lovely offer thank you really kind matey!! I want to try and see if I can find a method myself, but that said I might bother you if I fail completely. Post is always a knife fight for me,so I am somewhat used to banging my head against a wall until it falls down. Spent last night fighting with it..quite funny got further but now I'm not sure how :runaway:

You are all correct , I don't have enough overlap at some stage I got that warning from PS, sooooooooooo,

I have managed to get all the images into PS as layers is there a way I can get those layers all into the "window" together side by side and try to stitch them manually?

Lads as everything is new to me here I might well end up reshooting this there are worse ways to spend an eve than being up a hill in the middle of nowhere looking at pretty lights Its all a steep learning curve not just the post but camera skills too. But I'd like to try and persevere with the post as obviously I need to learn there too and that influeneces what I do in the field.IE more overlap.

So how do I get my layers into PS CC's 2window and how can I attept to stitch manually( I've learnt a tiny bit about photo align and draggiing layers about last night.

Wayne photomerge does stitch the two end pairs, but not the middle one , but in my case presented them as a vertical strip.......I can get a bit past that at this time by using layers

@sk66 @swanseamale and Lee thank you for your patience merry chrimbo lads

swanseamale47 · 22 Dec 2023

The way I normally do it manually is to open the left image (as I look at the pano) then increase the canvas size to the right by say 600% and the hight by about 50%, I then drag on the second pic and line it up, and so on using free transform if needs be to tweak the pics. the extra canvas size (more than you really need) is to give some wiggle room.
Theres probably a better way but that works for me on the odd occasion I do it.

LeeRatters · 22 Dec 2023

Stuart Philpott said:
Lee that's a lovely offer thank you really kind matey!! I want to try and see if I can find a method myself, but that said I might bother you if I fail completely. Post is always a knife fight for me,so I am somewhat used to banging my head against a wall until it falls down. Spent last night fighting with it..quite funny got further but now I'm not sure how

You are all correct , I don't have enough overlap at some stage I got that warning from PS, sooooooooooo,

I have managed to get all the images into PS as layers is there a way I can get those layers all into the "window" together side by side and try to stitch them manually?

Lads as everything is new to me here I might well end up reshooting this there are worse ways to spend an eve than being up a hill in the middle of nowhere looking at pretty lights Its all a steep learning curve not just the post but camera skills too. But I'd like to try and persevere with the post as obviously I need to learn there too and that influeneces what I do in the field.IE more overlap.

So how do I get my layers into PS CC's 2window and how can I attept to stitch manually( I've learnt a tiny bit about photo align and draggiing layers about last night.

Wayne photomerge does stitch the two end pairs, but not the middle one , but in my case presented them as a vertical strip.......I can get a bit past that at this time by using layers

@sk66 @swanseamale and Lee thank you for your patience merry chrimbo lads

You sound like me. Keep trying and won't let things beat you

I was also thinking more of a 'will Affinity do it' thing rather than actually 'doing it for you'

Graham · 22 Dec 2023

@Stuart Philpott
Here is a link to download the Microsoft Image Editer.
It works that`s all I can say.

Image Composite Editor - Microsoft Research

Note: This project is retired and no longer supported What is Image Composite Editor? Image Composite Editor (ICE) is an advanced panoramic image stitcher created by the Microsoft Research Interactive Visual Media Group. Given a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera...

www.microsoft.com

Stuart Philpott · 25 Dec 2023

LeeRatters said:
You sound like me. Keep trying and won't let things beat you

I was also thinking more of a 'will Affinity do it' thing rather than actually 'doing it for you'

Lee I'm sure it will, if I can get past not killing my PC and physically get them from moi to you sure have a play. Lee I live in the sticks web speed is profoundly slow sending files somewhat labourious, Bare with me bud as you read the next bit more will become clear . Wayne has got me there leastways a working method @swanseamale47 thank you buddy.

Lads basically the method Wayne has explained has worked, but with fall out........I am running into all manner of problems with scratch disc space, so I have actually got 5 images stitched ( GET IN) now manually after trying to clear files as best I can from disc C ,but I can't actually save it as no space for PSCC to process next steps............which is kinda ironic after I have spent most of chrimbo day trying. That said the constant failure and rinse dry repeat possibly means I might remember some of the steps towards a workiing method tomoz, so no hardship there

Lol so, now II think I need an external hard drive an SSD one is that right,? ( until my son whom is actually astoundingly good at PC stuff can look at my machine and clean up my cdrive if possible...but from reading an external drive seems the most likely work around.

Any advice you can share please.how big would it need to be in TB's. ?

Is this kind of drive the same as I back pics onto? I'd rather keep things separate , My understanding of computers is so poor sorry if the Q's are silly.

G, @Graham it's probably prudent I don't download anything else right now,that said kindness is appreciated and Wayne has got me a fair to middlin' start in PSCC which was what I was searching for.

thanks guys

stu

LeeRatters · 25 Dec 2023

Stuart Philpott said:
Lee I'm sure it will, if I can get past not killing my PC and physically get them from moi to you sure have a play. Lee I live in the sticks web speed is profoundly slow sending files somewhat labourious, Bare with me bud as you read the next bit more will become clear . Wayne has got me there leastways a working method @swanseamale47 thank you buddy.

Lads basically the method Wayne has explained has worked, but with fall out........I am running into all manner of problems with scratch disc space, so I have actually got 5 images stitched ( GET IN) now manually after trying to clear files as best I can from disc C ,but I can't actually save it as no space for PSCC to process next steps............which is kinda ironic after I have spent most of chrimbo day trying. That said the constant failure and rinse dry repeat possibly means I might remember some of the steps towards a workiing method tomoz, so no hardship there

Lol so, now II think I need an external hard drive an SSD one is that right,? ( until my son whom is actually astoundingly good at PC stuff can look at my machine and clean up my cdrive if possible...but from reading an external drive seems the most likely work around.

Any advice you can share please.how big would it need to be in TB's. ?

Is this kind of drive the same as I back pics onto? I'd rather keep things separate , My understanding of computers is so poor sorry if the Q's are silly.

G, @Graham it's probably prudent I don't download anything else right now,that said kindness is appreciated and Wayne has got me a fair to middlin' start in PSCC which was what I was searching for.

thanks guys

stu

Best way to send is probably in a zip file through Dropbox or something. If it comes to that.

I have a 5Tb external hard drive which stores all my photos & bit of video stuff. I have a 1Tb back up external which is.... Full. So not 'everything' is backed up. Which is fine, because some stuff doesn't need to be.. But all my kids, car, holidays, night skies and decent landscape/coastal stuff from the past 8-10 years is backed up.

I do need a bigger back up though which I was going to pick up in the sales somewhere.

swanseamale47 · 25 Dec 2023

I usually use 2 or 4 TB drives for back up. it's worth getting at least 2 as sooner or later one will fail. Ideally keep another copy off site, mates home, parent anybody you trust, even the shed. That way if theres a major drama with the house you still have your pics.

taxboy · 26 Dec 2023

Hope you are making some progress with your issues. One tip I can offer is if you are going to be playing with large files and want to see if something will work is to make small jpeg copies to play around with. I found this useful for star trails to avoid spending ages waiting for the processing to finish