CS6 Photomerge (Panoramas) Using Scanned Film?

[nkpoulsen]

I'm curious.  Has anyone successfully used the CS6 Photomerge utility with multiple scanned film images, versus with multiple digital images?  

I ask because, even though we know Photomerge can obviously create panoramas from multiple digital images, that doesn't mean that it can do the same from multiple scanned film images.  Due to idiosyncrasies of a chemical development process, the base can expand or contract differently from one frame of film to the next, probably even within the same roll.

So the questions being, can Photoshop handle these additional idiosyncrasies?  

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I'm curious.  Has anyone successfully used the CS6 Photomerge utility with multiple scanned film images, versus with multiple digital images?  

I ask because, even though we know Photomerge can obviously create panoramas from multiple digital images, that doesn't mean that it can do the same from multiple scanned film images.  Due to idiosyncrasies of a chemical development process, the base can expand or contract differently from one frame of film to the next, probably even within the same roll.

So the questions being, can Photoshop handle these additional idiosyncrasies?

Hi,

For a panorama stitching application there is no difference. It will match subject features that are present in the overlapping region(s) of images and will calculate a deformation that will allow (close to) perfect registration. Once that's done, it can transform it to any available type of output projection. The more different the image geometries are the harder it will be for a pano stitcher, especially a mostly automatic one as Photomerge. Stand-alone stitchers like PTGUI are better equipped to handle difficult cases, because they optionally allow more manual intervention in the process.

Cheers,
Bart

[Anthony.Ralph]

I have been successful in stitching large scanned documents in PS and some have been slightly distorted in some cases, by having been folded. The results have been good and pretty much pixel perfect, so I would say you should have no more problems with scans than with digital frames.

Anthony.

[AFairley]

Well, I have used photomerge to stack film scans scanned at multiple focus distances to get increased DOF to solve warped slide issues, and photomerge (followed by hand masking the layers) worked fine for that.

[nkpoulsen]

Thanks for the information.  This is encouraging.  I've heard that CS6 could do a decent job of bringing multiple sheets of film together to increase dynamic range.  So, it prompted me to inquire about stitching film into panoramas.

[langier]

I did just that automatically with film in an older version of Photoshop. Which version, I don't remember but it was perhaps 2006 or 2007 so it may have been CS3…

The remarkable thing was that the frames were shot with a zoom lens and were at different focal lengths and rotations. I did not realize the situation until I had them stitched and saw that the layers were of substantially different frame sizes. It was amazing  If I had tried to do this manually, I would have been totally frustrated when they would not match up.

This image was not originally planned to be a panorama but when I found the frames and had the need for a pano, Photoshop did its magic.

[Deardorff]

Photoshop does an adequate job of stitching images but a number of programs are better with some being much better.

AutoPano Pro is a much better program for stitching, especially with smal branches, windows and such. Photoshop goes nuts at times with stitch jobs that look to be easy and straightforward.

A few examples below - and I've been on  tech help with Adobe who can't figure out why the stitching jobs that are screwed up would ever happen.

[LesPalenik]

That first pano result is something else. They should patent the method, and include it as another stitching option.