How do you put two (or more) images together?

[Bizibilder]

This must be simple but I just can't fathom it out!! How do I put two images together? I have two processed images of the double cluster and I want to "merge" them into one ie put them onto one another, line them up and make one image with both lots of data showing ("manually stacked" I suppose?).

Got to be simple. Is Photoshop suitable? (It shouild be able to do this at the price they charge!

[lukebl]

Have you tried File > Automate > Photomerge in PS? It should work provided there's some overlap in the images for it to register.

I've only got version CS3, but presumably it's the same in later versions.

[Bizibilder]

Luke those commands are there - Thanks. But all I can get is an error message. Do I have to have the two images open? If so how do I select them or "tell" PS what to do? Thanks

[Beyond_Vision]

Are the images of the same area or are you trying to produce a mosaic? If you are trying to stack images download Deep Sky Stacker it's free

DeepSkyStacker - Free

If you want to do a mosaic use Microsoft ICE again it's free

Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor (ICE)

Regards

Kevin

[lukebl]

Luke those commands are there - Thanks. But all I can get is an error message. Do I have to have the two images open? If so how do I select them or "tell" PS what to do? Thanks

You would need to save them as separate images and then select them when prompted to 'select two or more files to merge into a panorama'. You must select 'reposition only' in the layout option otherwise it will distort the images. At least those are the instructions in CS3.

Does that make sense?

[Bizibilder]

Doesn't seem to want to work in CS5 - keep getting "constructor error"

[dlp]

To do that in PS, open both images. Drag the tab of the second (which will become the top image) image down so it's separated from the other. Now with the top image selected go in to the layers palette, hold shift and (hold) left click the layer whilst dragging into the first layer palette. Holding the shift registers the image in the same dimension as the first, so assuming they're both the same pixel dimensions, you're top image is now as a layer above the first image. You can reduce the transparency of the top image to say 50% to show whether it's in register with the bottom image, then select the move tool to move it into register if it is not. With the move tool selected your keyboard arrow keys will move it one pixel per click. If it's out of register in rotation you'll need to do a transform (CTRL-t) but that's a load of fun, not. You'd then need to crop slightly to hide the black corners. Once you've got images aligned you can use the different blend modes and transparency on the top image to achieve different effects.

If you simply want to stack, then as Kevin says DSS is your best bet.

David

I've just noticed under 'File/Scripts/Load Files into Stack' that this will do the same thing... (sorry, still on PS5 in my head!)

[martin_h]

Are the two images taken with the same setup? If they are why dont you just put all the seperate light frames in DSS and stack the whole lot? Then process the result.

[Bizibilder]

I think that the problem is that the images are not exactly the same size! i will have to work on them - Thank you all for your help.

[ollypenrice]

The Rolls Royce tool is Registar. Any image (of the same area!!), any scope, any field curvature, any pixel size, any image size... click, zap, done. I just dropped a telescopic Horsehead onto a super-wide canera lens Orion and it didn't even blink.

Not free though by quite a long way. But it really is good.

Olly

[adamsp123]

The Rolls Royce tool is Registar. Any image (of the same area!!), any scope, any field curvature, any pixel size, any image size... click, zap, done. I just dropped a telescopic Horsehead onto a super-wide canera lens Orion and it didn't even blink.

Not free though by quite a long way. But it really is good.

Olly

Second that!

A brilliant easy to use tool

[Bizibilder]

Have you seen the price!!!! - I just bought Photoshop too!!

[Bizibilder]

CRACKED IT!

In Photoshop:

Open both images. Select marquee tool, select, copy first image. click on second image, click edit and then paste - this puts the copied image as a layer on the second image.

Drop the opacity of the copied layer to 50%, select the move tool and then use the mouse or arrows to align the images, flatten and job is done!!

I did this to my two Double cluster images BUT had a problem in that the JPEGS I joined had been "lens corrected" - Oh boy was the result horrible to look at!!