How to Merge Photos for a Wider Shot

[ovenstone]

I'm shooting the interior of a bed and breakfast and the space is pretty tight, resulting in some really challenging shots. I need a photo facing each bed, but this one in particular is so close to the opposite wall that I had to take three separate vertical shots and am now attempting to merge them together to create a horizontal shot of the bed. I used a 24mm lens and removed the fisheye in Camera Raw, but I'm having trouble merging them due to the differing perspective of each shot. Any idea the best way to merge these shots while making the bed look large and inviting?

 

[480sparky]

Pano stitching software.

It might even be baked into the camera. Check the manual to see.

 

[Thiophilos]

Both ICE (Image Composite Editor) and Lightroom C will merge the images. The LrC result was compressed horizontally. I made the Lr one broader in Transform but left the ICE one as-is. It might be possible to get the result you want.

ICE version

LrC version

 

[davev]

I think the problem you're having is because you moved the camera to a different spot in the room for each photo.
Try staying in one spot and take the three photos from there.

Another thing you could try, if 24mm is wide enough, turn the camera horizontally and take an upper and lower photo and merge them.
It may work, it may not.

 

[wfooshee]

Yes, as davev said, the images MUST be from the same point for stitching to work. After all, the point of stitching is to produce an image of what you saw while standing there, and you can't do that if the other images are from elsewhere. The perspective changes, and the stitching software has no basis for the merge.

Also, fisheye makes lousy source images for stitching, even flattened out on the computer. Beg, borrow, or steal an ultrawide. I have a 10-24DX that I use for such shots and it's perfect. Your widest zoom or prime lens in vertical might work well, too, maybe you'd need more than three frames.

 

[adamhiram]

My preferred way of stitching together multiple photos is to use the Photomerge feature in Adobe Photoshop.

• Click File > Automate > Photomerge
• Select the photos you want to merge
• Select the Layout you want to use
• Leave "Blend Images Together" checked
• Click OK

I recommend trying the Auto layout first to see what you get. You can try each layout option to see if you get different results and what they look like. Once you get something you like, you may want to use the Geometry tool (Filters > Camera Raw > Geometry > Guided) to remove perspective distortion from the image, or Conntent-Aware Fill or generative AI features to fill in any missing edges after merging photos.

 

[ovenstone]

My preferred way of stitching together multiple photos is to use the Photomerge feature in Adobe Photoshop.

• Click File > Automate > Photomerge
• Select the photos you want to merge
• Select the Layout you want to use
• Leave "Blend Images Together" checked
• Click OK

I recommend trying the Auto layout first to see what you get. You can try each layout option to see if you get different results and what they look like. Once you get something you like, you may want to use the Geometry tool (Filters > Camera Raw > Geometry > Guided) to remove perspective distortion from the image, or Conntent-Aware Fill or generative AI features to fill in any missing edges after merging photos.

This is pretty close to the workflow I used. I took the images from the same point, manually overlapped them, used auto align and then adaptive wide angle filter. There's still some distortion that I'll try to manually remove but it's a good start. Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[RacePhoto]

You'll get less distortion with more images and a more "normal" lens. As someone above wrote, stitching software has more trouble with the curved perspective of a wide or fisheye.

Here's one more, FREE, IrfanView, go to Image -> Create Panorama image to open the Create panorama image window (follow the guided instructions) Otherwise, ICE, Lightroom, Elements, Affinity, Photoshop, I don't know what you have. All of those will work.

Here's another tip for making the sets easier to merge. Set the focus on the main subject and MANUAL. Set the camera exposure to the main subject or a choice that has enough latitude for the whole image, and shoot manual. Everything manual.

Depending on your camera and lens, if you don't do the shots manual, the white balance will change, the focus point will change and if the exposure is different, you will have light and dark streaks (potentially) between the images. If the pictures are all identical, they will stitch more evenly and look better, without a lot of complicated editing.

Take more images all the way past the edge of what you want, so you have extra crop room. The example you used, I'd start with 3 high and 4 wide, overlapping around 33%, as the minimum number of images. More images, with a more standard lens, will give you more detail, and a larger combined/stitched image. When reduced it's even better.

This one is only 8 images, 105mm, and downsized, but later years, I started making 14-16 shots to combine.

 

[ovenstone]

You'll get less distortion with more images and a more "normal" lens. As someone above wrote, stitching software has more trouble with the curved perspective of a wide or fisheye.

Here's one more, FREE, IrfanView, go to Image -> Create Panorama image to open the Create panorama image window (follow the guided instructions) Otherwise, ICE, Lightroom, Elements, Affinity, Photoshop, I don't know what you have. All of those will work.

Here's another tip for making the sets easier to merge. Set the focus on the main subject and MANUAL. Set the camera exposure to the main subject or a choice that has enough latitude for the whole image, and shoot manual. Everything manual.

Depending on your camera and lens, if you don't do the shots manual, the white balance will change, the focus point will change and if the exposure is different, you will have light and dark streaks (potentially) between the images. If the pictures are all identical, they will stitch more evenly and look better, without a lot of complicated editing.

Take more images all the way past the edge of what you want, so you have extra crop room. The example you used, I'd start with 3 high and 4 wide, overlapping around 33%, as the minimum number of images. More images, with a more standard lens, will give you more detail, and a larger combined/stitched image. When reduced it's even better.

This one is only 8 images, 105mm, and downsized, but later years, I started making 14-16 shots to combine.

Just this week I had the epiphany that the focus should be set to manual. I've been shooting with auto focus and then erasing out of focus areas before merging the shots, but Photoshop's auto blend still struggles with different focus areas at times. I use an average of 15 images for each finished shot, 3 high and 5 wide with about 1/3 overlap as you suggested. I use a 35mm when possible but can also get decent results with a 24mm if I remove the lens distortion in camera raw first.

 

[480sparky]

Just this week I had the epiphany that the focus should be set to manual. ...

Not only focus, but exposure, white balance etc... everything should be set to manual an none of those can change.

 

[ovenstone]

Not only focus, but exposure, white balance etc... everything should be set to manual an none of those can change.

I always shoot those other aspects manually; focus was the only thing set to auto. One challenge with the focus/exposure is that I'd have to use a high f stop to get decent focus out of the foreground and background which means higher ISO. Some of these rooms can be a little dark and I don't like to use too much artificial overhead lighting. In the most recent photo I posted, there's no window in that bedroom so it ends up being a little flat. I have an off-camera flash that I may bring in and diffuse or bounce off the wall or ceiling.