Create a stunning panorama with Photoshop

If you ever visit the Grand Canyon, here's a word of warning: It's huge! Like many of nature's wonders, it's too vast to be captured with just your standard digital camera. But with a little Photoshop voodoo, you can capture it all.

Photomerge is a function you'll find in any of the Creative Studio, or CS, versions of Photoshop. It also exists in Photoshop Elements, the lower-cost version of Photoshop. Photomerge lets you blend a series of multiple photos into one panorama, like the one in Figure A. Here's how it works.

Step 1: Take your photos

Position yourself in front of your subject, then start snapping pictures from left to right until you've shot as much as want to include in the panorama.

There are a few things to remember to be sure the finished product looks its best.

First, lock your aperture and white balance settings, if you can. This keeps the color and lighting consistent between each piece of the puzzle you'll later assemble. Second, a tripod is a huge help, but you can do without one. I took the shots that make up Figure A by just standing in place and pivoting. Lastly, each of your photos should overlap by as much as one-third. This will help Photoshop blend them together more easily.

Step 2: Blend your photos

So, you've loaded your picture files onto your computer. Fire up Photoshop, then Select File->Automate->Photomerge, as you see in Figure B.

Of course, Figure B shows how this looks on a Mac. If you're using Windows, you have my condolences 😉 -- but it works the exact same way.

When the Photomerge dialog box pops up, find the photos you took earlier. You can either select the pictures as individual files, or just select the whole folder, as you see in Figures C and D.

Next, you'll see the list of picture files come up. Be sure the option to Attempt to Automatically Arrange Source Images is checked, like in Figure E.

Now, click OK and watch Photoshop work its magic. Well, sort of. Photoshop opens all your files and tries to match up them according to repeated patterns of pixels it finds at the edges of each picture. Chances are it will ask you for a little help, as you see in Figure F.

Any pictures Photoshop couldn't blend automatically appear in the frame that runs across the top of the Photomerge window. Drag them down and try to place them as best as you can, as shown in Figure G.

You can use the horizon, shadows and other lines to help you eyeball everything together. The zoom slider in the Navigator box to the right will let you get in closer to see the details. When the blended panorama looks decent, click OK.

Step 3: Finishing touches

Photoshop will blend all the photos into a single file. Sometimes Photoshop moves photos up or down a tad - especially if you didn't have a tripod handy when shooting them -- which results in an irregularly shaped patchwork. No worries, just crop all the ragged edges out, like in Figure H.

There's one last thing. Photoshop's blending wizardry is pretty amazing, but it's not quite perfect. If you look closely, as in Figure I, you'll spot random goobers like those disconnected branches floating in the sky. Touch those flaws up with the Rubber Stamp tool and you'll be good to go.

So now that you know how to use Photomerge, what are you waiting for? Head for the great outdoors -- with camera in tow -- and capture some gorgeous vistas.