There is a definite magic associated with panoramic images that capture the entire scene that the eye can see (and often more). Sadly taking panoramic photos is out of reach for most individuals as it requires expensive panoramic photography equipment. However, anyone who has a fairly recent version of Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CS upwards can also accomplish panoramic photography. Read on to see how!

To achieve panoramas you must take several photographs which have a region overlapping. The other key point to producing good panoramas is to keep the cameras position still and rotate it around its axis. Do not rotate yourself with the camera in your hands, rotate the camera.

Also, if possible you will want to turn the camera off automatic shoot-mode. To do this on a standard digital camera go on to manual focus, exposure, aperture and shutter speed. This will ensure that all photos will appear consistent, e.g. they will all be a consistent brightness.

Once you have the photographs and are back at your computer load up photoshop and go to file - automate - photomerge. What happens next varies depending on your version of photoshop, sometimes it brings up a screen where you can manually adjust the photo positions. If this is the case arrange them so they all match up as best as you can (how difficult this is varies depending on how well you shot the images).

Inevitably this process doesn’t create a rectangular result due to the photos being skewed, repositioned and distorted. You can leave the final image like this or crop it so it’s rectangular.

Note: Don’t restrict yourself to horizontal panoramas, sometimes it’s fun to have tall and thin images too. Here are some more panoramic photos I took whilst travelling around Europe. If you wish to use these images anywhere then please email me and request permission (they are copyrighted along with everything else on the site).