Layers do not overlap enough.

[martinr42570729]

Hi,

I'm trying to auto align layers in PS but I keep receiving a pop up message telling me that layers do not overlap enough to detect alignment. Images intended for alignment should overlap by approximately 40%.

I have never had this message before but have done this task several times in the past but this is the first time since updating my OS to Monterey Version 12.0.1

 

[J453]

Can you post the files you're having trouble aligning? (link to cc files or dropbox) It's possible the images don't have enough unique features to align. Does it work it other sets of images?

[bonniep51462754]

I'm getting the same message, and never had this issue before. I had to save the images as tiffs so I could use Topaz DeNoise AI on each file first.  I'm still learning that, so maybe that made the issue worse. Then I tried to auto align.  The images are close enough to alignment.  There's some problem somewhere else, perhaps, as I can't attach them, even when resizing and changing to jpg.  Should I always try to stack and align first before exporting to Topaz DeNoise AI? that would make life much easier, too. thanks.

[Old Irish Lad]

Same problem with astrophotography using a tracker - so the images are very well aligned.  Using Bridge, which admits that it's not designed for a Mac with am M1 chip like mine.

[Chuck Uebele · Accepted solution]

In my experience, a lot of this has to do with the content of the image. If there are fairly large areas with little detail, PS has a hard time aligning. I would imagine astral photography would fall under this, with large areas of black with very small detail

 Graphic images don't work well either where there are bold lines. You would think that that type of image would be easy, but I guess not.

[Barry Rudick]

In this case you might consider cropping the pertinent files to near the edge of image info of the moon. The empty areas are confusing PS. Just crop to near the edges and Save As, making a new set of images to merge.

I discovered this by photomerging sections of copied art against a black background. Merging them with a lot of the background often failed. When I cropped and saved, the new "tighter" files merged just fine.

[ramma29755782o0e8]

Hi...have you solved the issue yet?? im facing it right now. 3 days ago it still works but today after im taking a lunar eclipse trying to do the auto aligned and its pop up the same messaged as yours.

Can you spill the solution for me? thanks

[positive_coder5EF3]

Its wild, its 2025 and im trying to figure it out now for the Lunae eclipse that happened

[D Fosse]

And the answer is still the same as the above.

This is pattern recognition, and large flat areas don't count. They don't have any patterns to recognize. Noise is also excluded since that's inherently random, and thus stars are also excluded.

In short, all you have is the moon itself. So crop as close as you can - then paste the finished result back into the wider frame.

A third non-workable image element is water with moving waves. We see it as "water", but the algorithm sees it as patterns of light and dark that are completely different.

[positive_coder5EF3]

dang, i have 616 photos. this is gonna be a doozy haha