Creating Panoramas Using Photoshop Elements 7

Recently, I decided to go out and shoot a panorama.  I wanted to shoot the San Francisco skyline from Treasure Island.  It's a great vantage point for capturing the entire skyline.  So, I packed up the tripod(cheap piece of crap), and headed out the door around 8am.  It was a foggy morning, but I figured I could get some cool shots of the Golden Gate Bridge sticking out of the fog.  Unfortunately, the fog completely engulfed the bridge.  I still took the shots in hopes for an interesting photo.  The image didn't turn out quite the way I had imagined it.  So, I headed for the city with plans to return on the way back.

On the way home, I exited at Treasure Island once again.  This time the light was much more favorable.  The city was side-lit in a way that would give the buildings some shape and depth.  I quickly set up the tripod and snapped away. I took the shots moving from south to north(camera left to right).  Everything worked as planned, except when I got to the north end of the city, I couldn't focus.  The problem was that the land was below my focus points.  I didn't want to focus manually, and as a result, I only got a piece of the Golden Gate in the shot.

When I got home it was time for the post-processing.  I imported the images using Lightroom 2, and opened them in Photoshop Elements 7.  There were about seven RAW images, I opened the files, hit the "Select All" button, and adjusted the White Balance, Contrast, Saturation, Clarity, Vibrance, and Sharpening.  I then saved the images as PSD's(Photoshop Documents).  Now all that was left was to select "File>New>Photomerge Panorama".  PSE automatically stitched all the images together(takes a while), and I cropped the the resulting panorama as needed.

I was pleased with the results being that it was my first attempt.   Also, I downloaded a freeware program called WPanorama.  It allowed me to view the pano scrolling from left to right( or vice versa).  You can also create a screen saver or movie which you can upload to your website, or share with friends.The image was just as I had imagined it.  Next time I'll slow down a bit as well as get more images, both vertically and horizontally.  I'm now looking forward to shooting more panoramas.

Fog Behind San Francisco - Panorama from Henderson Images on Vimeo.