Photoshop Help Request

I just had an order for a 20x60 panoramic print which is a composite of 9 digital images. I put it together with Auto Pano Pro and most of the image looks good, but the sky isn't quite right. There are some banding issues in the sky and I would like some help on how to address this. I use Photoshop Elements, so I may have some limitations. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Here's the image I'm working on

What type of files are you working from? If possible, start with the 16-bit tiff files rather than the jpegs you often use, since there's so many factors more info and lots less banding. Of course, if you shot them jpeg in-camera, please disregard everything I just said.

There are a number of things that you might try. You could select the sky portions, create layers and then make a slight adjustment to the exposure to make them match. You could also use the spot healing brush to blend the two and take away the lines. Or, you could clone/blend it out using a slight opacity on the cloneing brush until it looks seamless.

I'm blending the RAW files directly with AutoPano Pro and export it as a tiff. I don't have 16 bit capability. I may try some of what you are suggesting Scott, but the problem is not small lines where they connect but large patches of sky which are lighter or darker than others (areas of overlap I think). I'll keep playing around. If anyone else has suggestions I'd love to hear them! Thanks guys!

Erik,
I use PTAssembler which makes use of a free plugin tool called Enblend. It's worth a look. I've never had a problem blending skies with this.
http://enblend.sourceforge.net/

BTW, thanks for showing us around the gallery today. It was great meeting you.
Paul

Erik, if there are large patches, you might try to take a color sample of the sky around the bright spots and then use the paintbrush on a very low opacity (on a new layer) or you could do it at 100% and lower the opacity of the entire layer. I also have AutoPano (Mac) and I'm pretty sure that I do have 16 bit capacity. I blend in raw and then export as 16 bit PSD. If it exports in 8 bit, you can still change it to 16 bit afterwards for editing purposes. Also, why tiff and not PSD for editing? If you wanted to send me the raw files via email I'd be happy to give it a try myself and send you a CD via mail- should take 1 day). I've done a fair amount of work on fixing panos.

Erik, I have only use Autopano Pro a little, but I have been consistently disappointed when letting it work with raw files. I usually process the raw files out of ACR into tiff's, making sure all the settings are the same, especially watch the tone curve (I use linear and then spice up the contrast later in PS). Once I have the tiff's I then use APP on them.

Hope that helps.

I would second the PTAssembler. If you convert all your RAW files using the same method (WB, exposure...) into JPEGs, PTA will match the sky perfectly between the photos. I've done this many times, and it has yet to make a mistake.

There is just no more valuable resource for photographers than this place!!!! Evan, your approach completely solved my problem and gave me trouble free skies. Thank you all so much!!!

Erik - glad you got it solved. One other quick technique to consider, when you have a composite that you like everything but the sky: apply a large gaussian blur to the sky only. Depending on how the processed sky looks compared to the rest of the image, you might put a bit of noise back in; try both gaussian and monochromatic.

Evan's solution highlights an important aspect of working with raw captures - the effects of the raw processing engine. If you are making composite images (stitching panos etc.), it's always best to do the raw conversions first, in a separate step in the workflow, and combine the images using tif or psd files. Make sure the raw conversions use exactly the same settings. Some of the individual captures may be underexposed, some overexposed. If necessary, you can fix this on the composite using a curves adjustment layer with a gradient mask.

Nat,

For some reason in PSE (3) I've found that the gaussian blur causes serious posterization. I'm not sure if it is an older algorithm or a problem with 8 bit processing, but it usually ruins the sky. I'd need to check the values of the bands to determine if the problem is due to them being 8 bit colors.

Mel - I haven't seen this problem in the full version of Photoshop. Definitely 8 bit vs 16 bit would make a difference here.

Yet another option os to fill the sky with a gradient of your own design.

In either case, though, you'll almost always need to add noise after-the-fact to make the modified sky match the rest of the image. Adding noise also diminishes the appearance of banding.