Ok. Adobe rant:
I installed Lightroom last week. I haven’t started using it, but it’s on the computer. Apparently, when I installed and activated it, it deactivated or corrupted CS6, so when I went to make this panorama of the source of my stress, it told me I had 30 days left on my trial.
But that’s not why I’m ranting. I reactivated, and I’ll call and curse out Adobe after the move.
So I made a 9 shot panorama of this pile of most of my stuff—it’s too much stuff—and loaded it into CS6.
After about 15 minutes of careful consideration, it spat out a very long vertical image with the 9 shots pretty much just spaced out top to bottom, as if it didn’t even try.
(If 15 minutes seems a long time to (not) stitch together 9 frames, consider that I’m attempting this on a 15″ macbook pro with a 2.6ghz i7 and 8GB of ram, with mail, iTunes, Chrome, and Aperture running, and maybe you’ll wonder what the effing eff is up like I do.)
So I looked, and realized I only had maybe 1/5th of each frame overlapping, and so maybe CS6 wants more.
(Meanwhile, I was engaged in tearing my desk setup apart: packing up printers and unused storage drives and etc.)
Ok. You want more? Fine.
I shot a 29 frame panorama. It went floor to ceiling.
I loaded 27 of 29 frames into CS6 after examining them in Aperture and finding that I had between 1/3 and 1/2 overlap for every image, top to bottom and left to right.
After 37 minutes, CS6 spat out a long vertical image with about 7 frames clumped together in the center, and the remaining 20 strung out top to bottom.
The neighbors in the apartments across the street probably heard the string of profanity that came from my mouth.
So you get the clump.
I didn’t merge the layers in hopes that the stitch lines would remain, but alas.
I’m (not very) seriously considering offering my license keys to the 9th caller.
For the record, I have made exactly 3 successful panoramas in CS6, vs about 300 in CS5. My process has not changed, and the engine was supposedly better in CS6. Pshaw.
Also: this is why I’m an amateur and not a pro.
D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ~7 of 27 frames, all shot at ISO800, 1/60th, f/1.4. Unsuccessfully merged in Photoshop CS6, and given about 25 seconds of slider play in Aperture.
