Please note that the first 60 steps are the unprocessed image sets for HDR. More information on HDR photography and how to set your camera to bracketing:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/high-dynamic-range.htm

1. To start, I take the first set of 3 frames taken and drag them into Photomatrix, a program I use to preocess the bracketed photos into HDR (high dynamic range) photos. For information on where to get the program, you can visit this site:

http://www.hdrguru.com/photomatix-review-and-discount-coupon/?gclid=COKBrO6C16UCFSBugwoddz49lQ


Drag your first set of three into photomatrix. A pop up window will appear. The first option "Generate an HDR image" should be checked by default. Then click ok.

2. Another box will appear, showing what files are about to be processed. Just click ok.

3. Another box will appear with additional options. In my experience with Photomatrix (which is about a month) I seem to get my best results by making sure "Align source images (by matching features), reduce chromatic aberrations and reduce noise. All other settings I leave default. Then click OK.

4. An additional dialog box will appear, showing what actions are being taken to the RAW sets.

5. Now we have the first frame of our panorama. The next step is processing. Click Tone Mapping.

6. Now we are on the Details Enhancer Tab in Photomatrix. For the purpose of this SBS and entry, I kept everything default but you can sometimes enhance (or overcook) your HDR if you do. Adjustments can also be made in the Tone Compressor tab as well but once again I just decided to keep it set to the auto defaults. Click the process tab.

7. Now we have our first HDR frame to make into our finished Panorama. Then save your finnished HDR to jpg in a folder set for your finished set of HDRs. I repeated the first 3 steps with all pano frames. You can now close out photomatrix.

8. Open Photoshop CS3 and drag all HDRs you just processed into your pallet. YOU MUST have CS3 or higher!

9. Go to file/automate/photomerge

10. On the photomerge window, click "Add Open Files" and in the layout settings, leave it set to the default setting "Auto". Then click OK.

Note: In my experience, the auto setting will work with most panorama sets but at times needs to be changed for effect.

Ps3 will process and stich the photos together into the panorama for you. This is why I have used such close-shot frames, moving only a 1/5 of the way to the right with each set. Depending on the speed of your computer, this processing may take some time. Faster computers with more RAM and processor speed are recommnded. So take a break. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em. :-)

11. After processing all sets into one single photo, We now have the completed stitched panorama. As you can see, photoshop has done all the lining up for me, making a flawless stich. Once again, this process is a lot more flawless when you keep the origial sets close together.

12. I Close out all sets used to make the pano and then click "layer/flatten image".

13. I cropped the pano and bumped up the contrast to enhance it a bit.

14. Since the pano is very large at this point, nearly 10,000 pixels wide, I resize to 7000, still keeping the high definition but also to reduce the size of the upload. Honestly, 7000 PX is plenty high.


I hope this helps someone.