Aligning Panoramics Using the Difference Mode

You can use the Difference mode to align panoramic photos:

If you have three pictures to assemble (left frame, middle frame and right frame), you can try the following:

1) Bring up the left frame for the first picture.

2) Create a new canvas that is white and is large enough to hold all three pictures with a little white edge (use the “file”, “new” commands to create the new canvas – make sure the resolution is the same as your three photos).

3) Use the move tool to place the left frame image of the left part of the new canvas.

4) Open the middle frame and use the move tool to put it roughly on the new canvas.

5) Now change the layer mode to “Difference”. This will change any pixel that perfectly overlaps in tonality to jet black.

6) Pick a point in the image to align and move the middle frame to overlap. When the selected point is aligned it will turn black.

7) Once it has aligned add a layer mask to the middle frame. Get a black paint brush (set at 100% opacity) and paint black on the part of the overlap that is just to the left of the perfectly aligned point.

8) Now go back and change the layer blending mode for the middle frame to Normal.

9) Repeat the process for the right frame.

10) Crop the final image to ensure that all edges are aligned.