Or something like that. You see this episode begins with a peek into the author/editor process. How, in Amsterdam, under the influence of a small amount of Jenver, the glowing light of Deke’s iPhone, and a hefty dose of denial, we hatched a plan about how it would be great to create a new chapter to the fifth version of Deke’s book, Adobe Photoshop CS5 One-on-One. The theme of the new chapter is Pro Photography tools, and it includes exercises on HDR Pro and Photomerge.

Flash forward: chapter complete (after time and pain spent), beautiful book on the shelf, and we once again decide to take a swim in our bottomless pail of optimism regarding what we can accomplish in a given amount of time. Under the influence of a small amount of gin, the glowing lights of the dekeLounge, and a hefty dose of denial, we decide to do a show about Photomerge and HDR Pro. And of course, we really only get halfway through. (Because we’re not supposed to take the “hour” in our show’s title literally.) Thus, this week’s show is really all about stitching panoramas in Photomerge. Don’t let it tell you otherwise.

Turns out, as automated as the photostiching phase of the process is, there was quite a bit to talk about:

Of course panoramas are a great way to capture the epic nature of what’s around you that would otherwise be lost within the confines of a single frame. And Photoshop does most of the work stitching your files together, so your real contribution comes at the moment of capture. Some tips from Deke from this weeks show include:

• Do not shift perspective while you’re shooting your component shots. Sure a tripod is best, but Photomerge can make up for some minor shifts. Just stabilize your hips, rotate at the waist, and keep your arms and elbows locked and you should be OK. Case in point, I shot the image in this week’s Martini Hour graphic without a tripod at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Preserve along the California Coast (and yes, that fuzzy thing on the far left Deke’s head not a small beach-dwelling animal; he thinks it’s weird I left it in the shot. I think it gives interesting perspective).
• Think about shooting vertically to get more information. In other words, even if your plan is to create a long, horizontally oriented final image, shoot the component shots in portrait orientation so you get more top to bottom info. Just shoot more of them to cover the horizon.
• Overlap your shots at about a third, consider a half, but know that Photoshop is going to take longer the more information you give it.
• Theoretically, it’s OK to leave autofocus on, since you’re often past the infinity point anyway. (Unless Deke’s head is in your field of view).
• Do lock down the ISO.
• Locking down aperture and shutter speed may not be as critical as people think, because the auto-align + auto-blend process in Photomerge will bring your color and luminance variations together, sometimes with nicely realistic effects. For instance, look how awesome the sky looks in Deke’s panorama from France:

  

• Make a (photographic) memo for yourself that you’re starting a set of panoramic shots. Hand signals work well. Case in point below, if weren’t for images of four fingers and backward pointing thumb shots surrounding the shots between, I might wonder why I had found these Irish cows and clouds so fascinatingly worthy of four shots.

  

• When it comes time to fix those inevitable missing corners, consider two options in CS5: Content-Aware Fill or, interestingly, Puppet Warp.

All this and more (plus HDR Pro in a future episode!), including my mad interviewing skills that cause Deke to answer a question I was just about to ask!  Here’s the regular-quality audio file. You can stream, or for best results, right-click and choose Download or Save. Here’s the high-res version; you’ll want to download rather than stream. And don’t forget our usual plea to subscribe via iTunes.

May you have panoramic sized goals and the patience and discipline to meet them! Cheers, dekeOtopians!