Can I auto-align a file moved over one of equal size in CS5?

[Bruce Cox]

Trial and error, absent much wider knowledge, has left me in the habit of moving a b&w version of an image over a color version and then aligning them, before combining them.  Frequently, I can get them straight in the initial move, but must then blow them up to check because some are off a little.  I looked under "edit," but under these circumstances auto-align seems unavailable.

Bruce

[daws]

Not sure if this will accomplish what you need, but in CS5 you can load both files into a new file with Files | Scripts | Load Files Into Stack (the two files will be layers), then highlight both layers and auto-align them with Edit | Auto-Align Layers.

[Bruce Cox]

Not sure if this will accomplish what you need, but in CS5 you can load both files into a new file with Files | Scripts | Load Files Into Stack (the two files will be layers), then highlight both layers and auto-align them with Edit | Auto-Align Layers.

Thanks, Scripts / Load Files Into Stack, which I was unaware of, looks to be what I need.  Could Stacking, unlike Moving, be relied on to align equal size images without further Auto-Aligning them?

Bruce

[Robert55]

Maybe just a copy-paste?
Assuming working frow RAW. Open the color and the b/w version without any crop /resize. Select the B/W, Select All (Ctr-A), Copy, switch to color version and Paste

[Bruce Cox]

[quote author=Robert55
Maybe just a copy-paste?
 
Yes, thanks, that seems to work too and may work more smoothly.  I'll practice.

Bruce

[JeffKohn]

If you have both images open, you can do the drag/drop, just hold down Ctrl+Shift instead of just Ctrl, and when you drop the image it will automatically center.

[dmerger]

Bruce, maybe you already have the answer you need, but I understood your question to be a little different.  If you already have your two images in layers, then the reason that auto-align was unavailable was probably because you didn’t have both layers active.  If you activate both layers simultaneously then the auto-align option should become available.

[Bruce Cox]

Bruce, maybe you already have the answer you need, but I understood your question to be a little different.  If you already have your two images in layers, then the reason that auto-align was unavailable was probably because you didn’t have both layers active.  If you activate both layers simultaneously then the auto-align option should become available.

Thanks, again.  Each of these answers are good enough to show me questions I didn't know I had, as well as speed my work.  Having come down with a cold in the meantime, I have settled for the "scripts" rout because it was easiest for me to remember.  At first I checked the auto-align box there, though now it's faster and adequate, with the files I have, to do without checking it. However, it suggests that I should come back with some altered files that need it.  I tend to invent the wheel whenever possible, so I am not working in layers, but layering saved files.  I tried layers, but it wouldn't let me convert a color gradient layer into b&w.  I need more experience with multiple layers, but I fancy advantages to committing to my choices by saving them and perhaps later using them somewhat differently.  It is wonderful to be freed, by the digital medium, from the tyranny of early choices one endures in something like watercolor, but I prefer to collect relatively solid building blocks rather than keep all the balls up in the air at once.

Bruce