Panaroma Tutorial

Finally got my new PC with good software's, and finally came back to upload some stuff.
Here's one I was doing for my friends assignment, panaroma. So I decided to try it. Here's how I did it.

I have Photostitch from Canon, but you still can buy the software.

Run it.

Then open the images.

After you've opened it,

arrange it, i did it by switching, means 12345 becomes 54321.

54321...
Now, let's start merging some pictures. Click on start.
And Photostitch will automatically merge it for you. But... doesn't look that proportional isn't it?

Click on display seams, so you can edit the seems between pictures.

It'll show a few yellow boxes.

Click on one to go to the editing window. Shown below.

By default, Photostitch would just specify one overlapping area. What you need to do to enhance the proportion of your picture is to specify important details and let Photostitch deal with the 'lining up'.

Here's an example. I want the tower to be correctly merged with the other picture, so i select it, and drag it to the other picture.
A few more would be good. I did three times more than this example below.
As you can see, its now straightened.
Do the same for the rest of the images, you'll end up with something like this.
As you can notice here, there are some mismatched merges, keep specifying overlaying areas, and specify the important areas only.
Once you're happy with it... (for me, after 15 tries....) save it.
Open it up in Photoshop. Use your brush tool, set to soft hardness, hold alt to bring up the colour extraction tool, there are going to be a few merge lines visible, so go to the side of the line, extract the colour beside it, and cover the line. Do this repeatedly as you go along the line. so the horizontal colours are similar. Making it seemed like you erased the line.
Then to further enhance the picture, I went to curves, and adjusted it. Check youtube for tutorials on this part.
Darkened the shadows, and boosted the highlights.
Then I went to vibrance adjustment.
Bring up the vibrance, but be careful not too much, if not it'll look oversaturated and unreal.Next I went to Shadow/Highlights adjustments. This helps boost the range even more.

This is defualt.
This is my settings.

And lastly.. the all important, copyright :P mcm yes.
And here is the final thing. Super huge... my first panaroma. Try it yourself!
Pictures of this post are taken with Canon 500D with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. Images copied and edited in Picasa3.
Software used : Canon Photostitch 3.1 , Adobe Photoshop CS4, Picasa 3.

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Jules' 10 Minute Photoshop Lesson: Selective Coloring

Yo~

Wassup people~

As per my title...
I'll be starting a series of simple Photoshop lessons that you (yes, you!) can use in editing your images...

Well...
Without further ado...
Let's start the first lesson~

*note*
Enlarge the pictures to view them if needed

Today I'll be teaching you guys how to do:

Selective Coloring

This technique will help make your subject stand out more...
This is an example what a picture will look like if the selective coloring technique is applied:

Before:
After:

Looks complicated?
To be honest it's not actually...
In fact it's quite simple...
Just follow these simple steps and you should be able to do it:

1. Open your Photoshop CS3/CS4 or any other version of Photoshop.
(I'm using CS4)

2. Open your image file. (Don't need me to teach you how to open your image file right?)

3. Choose a subject that you wish to have its colors remain while the rest are in black and white. In this case mine would be the beer bottle and the cup.

4. Zoom in to an area of choice to make outlining the subject of choice easier. Hold 'Ctrl+Space Bar' and left click (hold it down as well), then drag the mouse til you see a box. (as pictured below)

5. Select the 'PEN' tool. This can be found on the toolbar on the left of the Photoshop window or you can just press 'P' on your keyboard. Also make sure that the 'Pen' tool has been selected to 'Paths' mode. (pictured below, marked by red circle)

6. Select a starting point where you want to start from by left clicking your mouse. A small square box should appear (as pictured below, marked by red circle). You will need to do this in order to select the subject.

7. Left click (don't let go of it) on a next point and drag the mouse around to get a curved line. Just left clicking alone will result in a straight line. The reason why we want to do curved lines is so that the final result won't appear rough around the corners/curved areas. Keep dragging the mouse around until you are satisfied with the outlining. (pictured below)

*note*
Read step 8 before proceeding to outline the whole subject.


8. Press and hold 'Alt' and click on the middle box. (as pictured below, marked by red circle)

Before middle box is clicked on:
After middle box is clicked:

9. Repeat step 6 and 7 until the desired subject is fully outlined. The way to tell if your subject has been fully outlined is that there are no more square boxes remaining. To fully outline your subject, just click back on the starting point where you started the outline. Make a curved line if necessary. (pictured below)

Not fully outlined subject:Fully outlined subject:
10. Right click on any part of the image and click on 'Make selection...'

11. A small window should appear on your screen now. Just change the settings (if required) to the same as the picture below and click 'Ok'.

12. Next, click on the 'Select' tab (found on the top of the Photoshop window) and click on 'Inverse' or you can just press and hold 'Shift+Ctrl+I' for the short cut.

13. Next, click on the 'Image' tab (found on the top of the Photoshop window), select 'Adjustments', and click on 'Black & White...' or press and hold 'Alt+Ctrl+Shift+B' for the shortcut. A window should appear for you to adjust as to how black or white a color should be. For me I like to use the 'Maximum Black' setting so that the subject stands out more. When you are done just click 'Ok'. (pictured below)

Window for custom black and white editing:
14. You are finished and ready to save your file~
(don't need me to teach you how to save a file right!)


Here are some examples as to when to use the selective coloring technique:

1. Distracting background

Before:
After:

Before:After:
2. Bringing the focus on to a certain subject

Before:
After:

Before:

After:

3. Pictures with colorful characters in it

Before:

After:
.................................................................................................................

There we go~
Pretty simple wasn't it?
Leave a comment if you don't understand anything...

There is another way to do this actually...
Read about it here...

That's all for today folks~
Til next time~

................................................................................................................

Quote of the day:
"Experience is the best teacher of all... And for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist... Only the journey matters..."
-Harry Callahan-

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