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Dave Johnson

"How to Do Everything: Digital Camera 5 edition"

In plain English, that means you need to take all the pictures from the
same location. Don??™t drift a few feet from side to side as you photograph, and take the
shots on a tripod if possible (though you can get superb results just holding the camera
in your hand).
?–  Avoid using a wide-angle lens because this can distort the images and make it difficult to
line up edges.
Now it??™s time to make the panorama. While it??™s sometimes technically possible to combine
pictures into panoramas by hand, it??™s really hard and it won??™t always work very well. Instead,
you really should purchase a panorama program that automates the entire process for you. That??™s
okay, though: there are many inexpensive programs around that can do the stitching for you. If
you??™re interested, check out any of these:
?–  Windows Live Photo Gallery (www.live.com)
?–  Adobe Photoshop Elements (www.adobe.com)
?–  Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album (www.jasc.com)
?–  Ulead Cool 360 (www.ulead.com)
?–  ArcSoft Panorama Maker (www.arcsoft.com)
Using any of these programs, all you need to do is drag and drop the individual images
into the panorama canvas, and the software does the rest (see Figure 14-5). These programs are
designed to match the edges between the pictures automatically, and they typically do a good job
even with wide-angle lenses and other technical difficulties.


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