Photoshop photomerge issue, any advice appreciated.

[theMusicMan]

Hey All

I am experiencing an issue with the photomerge feature of PhotoshopCS3 and am after some pointers from experts on here.

I was engaged to do a job at the Cadogan Hall in London last weekend with the BBC Young Musician of the Year, Michael Nyman and a Band. I took many shots, and am happy with the results... however, there's one set of images I tried but can't get the photomerge feature on CS3 to merge correctly.

I took 5 pano shots of the band in formation (30 people, in 3 rows), but I took the shots from different locations - though all equidistant from the band i.e. like this....


0000000000000000000000000 <- three rows of people
0000000000000000000000
000000000000000000




^ ^ ^ ^ ^ <- camera positions for shots

I took these shots in portrait mode, and asked everyone to be still whilst I moved from position 1 to position 5. However, when I try to merge the resulting 5 images in CS3, I get nothing like acceptable results... the images are not joined at all and I end up with just one image of what looks like the two outer images.

Is there a way in CS3 I can force the merge to work...?

Any advice appreciated... thanks.

EDIT: the text formating on here has moved the camera positions - they were left, 25%, 50%, 75% and right.

 

[Enduro Rider]

i've never got a panorama to work acceptably when the camera was moved between taking the shots, but that was using elements and / or elements 6.

have you tried the manual panorama mode rather than the auto mode, as you can keep dragging the shots around until you get a result you are happy with.

also worth turning off the 'perspective correct' option, as that can really distort the image

 

[Garnock]

I'm sorry, mate.
If you moved the camera location between shots then you're in the ****.
It's not only important that the camera be in the same position but for nearby objects the camera has to revolve around the nodal point.
Which is why some people use pano heads.