Cylindrical. Tapers left in the right portion of the image but rounds the horizontal. Applies distortion to favor wrapping images around cylindrical shapes. This is ideal for the new 3D features in CS4 Extended.

Spherical. Applies distortion in favor of wrapping images around spherical shapes. This too is ideal for the new 3D features in CS4 Extended. Reposition. Merges photos without using Transform or Warp distortions. This is ideal when you do not want your images to be transformed with stretch or warp.

[Figure 5.4] Results of the Auto-Align Layers command.

[Figure 5.5] Access Auto-Blend

Layers in the Edit menu.

5. Click OK and take a look at the results in Figure 5.4.

6. The landscape has been blended fairly well, and if you take a look at your layers, you can see how each image has been positioned so that the three images are overlapped in such a way that the landscape takes on a continuous flow. But there are a few problems. First, each photograph seems to have a slightly different exposure because the digital camera was set on auto exposure, which means each image has its own exposure settings. Another problem is that the edges of the images are prominent and need to be removed. You could do that with masking, or Photoshop can do it with the Auto-Blend Layers command (Edit > Auto-Blend Layers), as shown in Figure 5.5.

[Figure 5.6] Results of the Auto-Blend Layers command.

[Figure 5.7] Merge all layers.

7. This command blends the edges of your photographs and adjusts the brightness and color balance so that the overall results look consistent, as shown in Figure 5.6.

8. When the layers are merged, Photoshop expands the canvas size to fit the three images. Since we want to retain the original dimensions of 8.5×15 inches, merge all three of the layers and place the merged object into the new canvas that you created earlier (see Figure 5.7). Afterward, simply Free Transform (Ctrl+T/Cmd+T) the image to fit within the dimensions of the new file. Place these files into their own layer group titled “merged landscape” (see Figure 5.8).

[Figure 5.8] The results of merged layers.

[Figure 5.9] Apply the Quick Selection tool and remove

the sky.

9. Use the Quick Selection tool to select the sky, as shown in Figure 5.9. When you are finished, press Delete to cut out the sky.