Techniques...

Ive just finished my second Panoramic. These are the main techniques i employed in order to produce it in a little more detail than i gave before:

Guidelines -
Before i began blending and positioning the images, i positioned the first one (the one that would be furthest left) as i wanted it, then created a new layer. On this new layer i drew two straight red lines across the image measuring them up with the top and bottom edge of the first image. This meant throughout the project i would not lose sight of what i would have to chop off later

Dealing with Tonal Difference -
There are innumerable amounts to change the tone of parts of an image, but what i found to be perticularly useful were the following:
In order to make an image darker i created a new layer and layed it over the top of the spot i wanted to affect, then used the 'paint bucket' tool to make the image black, after experimenting with bkending options i found it was really best just to alter the opactiy of the image. I used the 'burn' tool on the original image in conjunction with this technique and it worked pretty well. The image on the left demos the effect.
For an obvious difference in colour i found the 'replace colour' tool very helpful, this tool does what it says on the tin - letting you not opnly change the colour but change the tolerance (how much it picks up). The image on the right demos this effect and tool.

Selective Warping -

 The warp tool comes in very handy in this kind of project, one thing that's definately worth knowing is that the warp tool can be used very selectively. If you make a selection then go Free Transform > Warp, then the warp tool will only apply within the selection.

Warping can have destructive consequences, it can leave small areas of pixels blank where the image has been dragged off them. For instance, the thin white line across the middle of the image on the left. For these, i found the the 'clone stamp' tool and the 'healing brush' tool are the best for patching up. 

 


















Perspective Transforming -


If you go Free Transform > Perspective, you get a tool that transforms the image as if the angle of view was changing. This is very helpful in panoramic editing, as some times the camera goes round at an odd angle. In the image below you can see how extensively i used this tool.

 
Layer Masks -
For me, Layer Masks are the heart tool for blending, they do the best of the work. Blending is definately the key word with masks, as they allow you to fade one image into another (and non-destructively). In the image below you can see the difference between a mask blend and no blend.