Nowadays there are a lot of programs that allow you to mount panoramas from several images and not of them is Lightroom, the complete photo editing tool from Adobe.
Before you start, remember that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a paid service, although you can try it for free for seven days. To do this, you just have to go to the Lightroom site and choose whether you want to log in with your Adobe ID to test the web version or download and install the desktop version of the Adobe tool by clicking on “Try for free”.
Create a Panorama in Lightroom
- First, we are going to import the photos into the Lightroom Library. To do so, just access the Library module and click on the Import button .
- Then press the Select All button to select all the photos in the folder you want.
- Now select the photos you want to make the panorama.
- Now click on any of them and click with the right mouse button.
- Access the Photo Combination menu and choose the Panorama option .
A panorama merge preview dialog opens. Choose here the option “Select projection automatically” so that the program will automatically choose a projection of the design for you. Lightroom will analyze the original images and apply a perspective, cylindrical, or spherical layout, depending on the projection it deems best for the panorama.
If you prefer, you can choose a manual design projection. The options are as follows:
- Spherical
- Cylindrical
- Perspective
When you have the one you want, click on the Combine option. Lightroom will create the panorama with all the photos you have selected and will save it in the catalog. You can edit it as much as you want in the “Reveal” module like any other image.
Panoramas made using photographic processing are generally not perfect. That’s why Lightroom offers you two tools to improve them: Boundary Warp and Fill Edges.
How to create HDR panoramas in Lightroom
Requirements to combine photos in HDR panorama
All the photos that you select to form this type of panorama must meet a series of requirements (all equally). Otherwise, if they do not comply, the application will show you a warning saying ” The HDR panorama cannot be created with your selection”
The requirements are as follows:
- All selected images must contain exposure metadata: exposure time, F number and ISO.
- Each set of exposures with multiple forks must have the same number of images.
- Each set of exposures with multiple forks must have the same exposure offsets.
- Each set of exposures with various forks has to be captured contiguously.
- In a set of exposures with different forks, the images cannot have the same exposure value.
Now, let’s see how we can create HDR panoramas
To do them you have to import the photos to the Lightroom Library . To do this, access the Library module and click on the Import button .
Select the photos you want to make up the HDR panorama. When they are selected, click on any of them with the right mouse button and go to the Photo Combination / HDR Panorama menu .
In the HDR Panorama Merge Preview dialog box choose a layout projection.
- Spherical
- Perspective
- Cylindrical
As with normal panoramas, if the results are not as good as you expected you can apply the Boundary Warp and Fill Edges tools. You will also be able to edit the panoramic HDR images from the Reveal section as you would with an individual photograph, change the parameters that you consider such as saturation, hue or luminosity.