Create a Panorama Using Photomontage -- ExpressionGuides.com Microsoft Expression Guides and Tutorials

Create a Panorama Using Photomontage

The Photomontage feature in Expression Graphic Designer is a great new feature that automatically stitches multiple photographs of a location into a single, seamless panorama or large original image.

To get started, we’ll need some source images (bitmapped). I walked down to a lake near my house and snapped a few photos of the water and shoreline. We’ll create a panorama from 4 separate images.

Step 1: Create new document with a single vector layer.
Create a new document (File > New) and select Vector Layer as the First Layer Type in the New Document Setup box.

Step 2: Import source images
Use the Insert Image command (CTRL + I or File menu > Insert Image) and select your source images. Hold down Shift to select multiple images to insert.

You can arrange your source images anywhere on the pasteboard of the document workspace. They do not have to be within the document borders.

Step 3: Create the Photomontage
Select the images to be stitched together and run the Photomontage command (Image > Photomontage)

Next we will choose the settings of the Photomontage command.

The default settings usually work well. If you experiment with the settings, you may want to turn Advanced Blending off, as it is very processor intensive. With Advanced Blending turned off, you might see ghosting and overlay artifacts. You can use the Undo command (CTRL + Z or Edit > Undo) to undo the Photomontage changes and try different settings until you get the result you like. When you are ready, turn on Advanced Blending and run the command for final output.

Step 4: Cropping
The Photomontage output needs a little trimming, so we will crop our image. We’ll start by converting the Vector Layer to Pixel Layer so we can use the pixel selection tool. From the menu, select Layers > To Pixel Layer.