Photoshop CS3 has a Photomerge Tool that really Works


I have been using Photoshop CS3 this week and I am very impressed.

The interface changes are not that different to CS2 and so I am able to quickly find my way around. The improvements are many and I will not list them here as I plan a separate CS3 review a a later date.

What I want to highlight is the much improved, and now very useful, Photomerge tool. Photomerge is Photoshops action driven image stitching solution.

It has been available in previous Photoshop versions, via the Automate menu item, but has never been good enough. It nearly always resulted in a final image with some form of visible banding. I have had to resort to either stand-alone stitching software or to the time consuming use of Photoshop's layers and blending.

photomerge_cs2_final
Photoshop CS2 - Photomerge result, visible blending!

Photoshop CS3 introduces two new commands; "Auto-Align Layers" and "Auto-Blend Layers" which both used by the Automate/Photomerge tool. Plus you now have a choice of settings and options as to how to merge the files.


photomerge_CS3_options
New Photomerge layout settings in CS3

The results are very impressive. I have returned to a number of my panoramas and recreated them with CS3 and have been very pleased. Here is the final version of the merged images above using CS3.

photomerge_CS3_final
Photoshop CS3 Photomerge result using the Automate command and the Auto layout setting

Third party stitching tools could be a thing of the past for me!
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