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swebsurf
swebsurf
Participating Frequently
March 1, 2024
Answered

Panorama merge result not matching the preview.

  • March 1, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 893 views

Starting this as a question since I may be doing this wrong.  I'm merging 2 photos of a bird in flight using the Photo merge panorama feature.  This is not a typical panorama in that there really isn't any panning. I'm basically trying to get both images of the bird in the same photo, but maybe this isn't possible?  The Perspective mode preview shows the photos merged as expected with both birds visible, but upon merging, the resulting .dng file only shows one of the birds.  I'm attaching a screenshot of the Panorama Merge Preview and a screenshot of the resulting Merge. Thanks for any advice. Running on MacOS  Sonoma 14.2.1, Lightroom Classic  version 13.2

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Correct answer JohanElzenga

You say "This is not a typical panorama in that there really isn't any panning". Are these two (cropped) images taken on a tripod, so basically the same image except for the birds? In that case you can't do this with a panorama merge. Lightroom merge will always disregard any crop, so it will see that these images are identical. And so the merged image will simply be one of the two images. It is odd that the preview does show two birds, but the merged result is as expected. This is something you need to do in Photoshop. It is very easy. Open the (uncropped!) images in Photoshop as layers. Then add a mask to the top layer and paint with black to reveal the bird in the bottom layer.

 

1 reply

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
March 1, 2024

You say "This is not a typical panorama in that there really isn't any panning". Are these two (cropped) images taken on a tripod, so basically the same image except for the birds? In that case you can't do this with a panorama merge. Lightroom merge will always disregard any crop, so it will see that these images are identical. And so the merged image will simply be one of the two images. It is odd that the preview does show two birds, but the merged result is as expected. This is something you need to do in Photoshop. It is very easy. Open the (uncropped!) images in Photoshop as layers. Then add a mask to the top layer and paint with black to reveal the bird in the bottom layer.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
    swebsurf
    swebsurfAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    March 2, 2024

    Thanks Johan, that's kind of what I figured was going on, but hopeful there was a way to make it work without the Photoshop layering/masking/revealing route.  Yes, the scenario was pretty much as you described, but handheld. Cheers!

     

    J
    Community Expert
    Jao vdLCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 2, 2024

    If handheld, you wanmt to auto-align the layers in Photoshop first. It will use the tree features to align the two images and then you just paint the mask reveal indeed. I like doing these too. They're quite fun.

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