Create a panorama

The Photomerge Panorama command combines several photographs into one continuous image. For example, you can take five overlapping photographs of a city skyline, and assemble them into a panorama. The Photomerge Panorama command can tile photos horizontally as well as vertically.

When you set up a Photomerge Panorama composition, you identify the files you want to merge (called your source files), and then Photoshop Elements automatically assembles them into a single panorama. After the panorama is complete, you can still make changes to the placement of the individual photos, if necessary.

Your source photographs play a large role in panoramic compositions. To avoid problems, follow these guidelines when taking pictures for use with Photomerge Panorama:

Images should overlap approximately 15% to 40%. If the overlap is less, Photomerge Panorama may not be able to automatically assemble the panorama. If images overlap by 50% or more, it can be difficult to work with them, and blending may not be as effective.

Avoid using the zoom feature of your camera while taking your pictures.

Although Photomerge Panorama can process slight rotations between pictures, a tilt of more than a few degrees can result in errors when automatically assembling the panorama. Using a tripod with a rotating head helps maintain camera alignment and viewpoint.

Tip: When photographing a panoramic scene from a high place, the natural inclination is to keep the horizon level in the viewfinder. However, this actually produces a noticeable rotation between images. Try using a tripod to keep the camera level when taking photographs in this situation.

Try not to change your location as you take a series of photographs, so that the pictures are from the same viewpoint. Using the optical viewfinder with the camera held close to the eye helps keep the viewpoint consistent. Or try using a tripod to keep the camera in the same place.

Lenses, such as fish-eye lenses, that noticeably distort the image can interfere with Photomerge Panorama.

Avoid using the flash in some pictures and not in others. The advanced blending feature in Photomerge Panorama helps smooth out different exposures, but extreme differences make alignment difficult. Some digital cameras change exposure settings automatically as you take pictures, so you may need to check your camera settings to be sure that all the images have the same exposure.

Photomerge Panorama Guided Edit

The process to stitch multiple photos together to create a panorama is now simplified - introducing the Photomerge Panorama Guided Edit. Creating a panorama now requires you to just perform a series of actions in a step-by-step workflow - and you get a panorama ready to share or print at the end. 

For more information on the Panorama Guided Edit, see Photomerge Panorama Guided Edit.

Create a Photomerge panorama composition

Create a Photomerge panorama interactively (Photoshop Elements 10 and 11 only)

Generally, the automatic options in the Photomerge dialog box create satisfactory panoramas. If these options don’t produce the results you want, select the Interactive Layout option. The Photomerge dialog box for interactive layouts lets you manually rearrange your source images.

The Photomerge dialog box for interactive layouts

The Photomerge dialog box contains tools for manipulating the composition, a lightbox for storing source images that are not in use, a work area for assembling the composition, and options for viewing and editing the composition. You can also zoom in and out to better see the alignment of each file.

• To navigate, select the Move View tool  and drag within the work area. Or, drag the view area (the red box) or the scroll bar of the navigator.
• To zoom, click the Zoom In icon  and Zoom Out icon , or use the Zoom tool . Hold down Alt (Option in Mac OS) to zoom out with the Zoom tool.
• To rotate images, select the Select Image tool , click the image you want to rotate, select the Rotate tool , and then drag in a circular motion around the image.
• To reorder images in the lightbox, select the Select Image tool and drag an image in the lightbox.
• To add an image to the composition, select the Select Image tool, and then drag the image from the lightbox to the work area.
• To remove an image from the composition, select the Select Image tool, and then drag the image from the work area to the lightbox.

Change the vanishing point in a Photomerge panorama

The Vanishing Point tool selects the vanishing point image, which changes the perspective of the Photomerge panorama composition.