Need Photoshop tip for blending two pics together

[quarterback]

I have a panorama photo (made up of 5 or 6 individual pictures) that has been stitched together by my Canon photo-stitching software.  The software does a pretty good job, but in the solid blue sky area, I can discern a slightly darker line where the pictures have been stitched.

So, I started thinking about stitching these pictures together myself.  In the end, I'm not sure how much of a great idea this is but, nonetheless, it leads me to my question.

How can I seamlessly blend two photos together?   There has to be a way, but I've had no luck with Photoshop's 'blend' functions.  I'm either (a) not using it correctly, which is highly possible and/or (b) it's not really made to do what I'm wanting it to do.

I want to take 2 photos, overlap them by a certain amount and then have Photoshop blend from one into the other within that overlap. In video editing terms, what I'd like is a "dissolve" where (within my defined overlap area) one photo goes from full-opacity to zero-opacity at the same time the 2nd photo goes from zero-opacity to full.   This should create a completely seamless connection as opposed to the way my stitching software does it, which leaves a slightly darker "bar" (which becomes more and more obvious as the photo is tweaked)

If that's confusing at all, I can supply examples of what I'm talking about, but I figure there has to be a way of doing this.
Thanks
qb

[gamecreature]

Use the erase tool - select a brush with soft edges. Go over the edge until it just fades away.

[quarterback]

Use the erase tool - select a brush with soft edges. Go over the edge until it just fades away.

Yeah, I tried that, but what it doesn't do is to really mix it with the other photo.   

I mean, it worked to a certain extent.  I layered the photos over one another and messed with each one, but there was still a discernable line... a soft one, but one none the less.

Additionally, I tried adding additional layers and messing with their layer-opacity and I also tried using various speckled-type brushes with the "stamp" tool to cover up the darker connection 'seam'.  In the end, it was a lot of work and still not completely successful.   

A 'dissolve' in the video/film world is really what I'm looking for and, it seems to me that there should be an easy one or two-step way to do this in Photoshop, because it's such a basic thing to do.  But I could be wrong.
Thanks

[gamecreature]

It could be your technique - have you reduced the percentage of the brush pressure? When I want to do delicate blending, I sometimes put the percentage as low as 10 or 11. You have to make several passes, but you get much more control. Also, it could be the size of your brush. A larger brush allows for more delicate results. Of course, that could be a problem if you don't have a large area to work with. Is replacing it with a different piece of art possible? If I'm joining two pieces and the sky doesn't look right, sometimes I cut the sky from both pieces and work in a sky from a third piece.

[mutant]

You could try doing this with a gradient mask, assuming I understand what effect you are looking for.

I am trying to find a good tutorial for you now... Not having a lot of luck.  The last time I did something like this with panoramic pics, I used the gradient mask, then went in and worked on the mask itself with the brushtool to clean it up.

Perhaps these will help?

http://www.t-tutorials.com/read-tutorials/32/flawless-collage-of-two-panorama-photos

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/j.houghton/blending.htm

[odysseyroc]

A combo of the rubber stamp and airbrush tools usually works good.

[quarterback]

You could try doing this with a gradient mask, assuming I understand what effect you are looking for.

http://www.t-tutorials.com/read-tutorials/32/flawless-collage-of-two-panorama-photos

Thanks for the link.  I went through that tutorial, working on my photos, but it wasn't really doing what I wanted... or, rather, I wasn't sure it was doing what I wanted, but while I was going through it, it led me to an "all about layer mask" tutorial and my solution came out of that.   I'm going to type it up here so (a) I'll remember what I did and (b) people can tell me where I've screwed up/made something more difficult than it needs to be.


Since the sky is really the area I'm having a problem with (not the landscape itself) what I did was this:

-1- Take the first two photos and overlap them with photo 1 being below photo 2.  Take photo 2 and scootch it around until the landscape at the edge of photo2 lines up with photo 1.

-2- To blend the landscape portion (which is textured and multi colored etc), use the "Eraser Tool" with a ~90px brush and 0% 'hardness'.  Set it to ~50% opacity and get rid of the hard/sharp edges of photo 2.   Zoom in close and  continue 'erasing' photo2 until you get a completely smooth transition.  At points, I changed the opacity down into the ~20% range.

Now to move onto the sky.  This was the main problem for me because it's a single color that has very smooth, natural gradients in tone and color, so even with the eraser tool, you could see the unnatural shifts in shading.

-3- Create a layer mask on photo 2.  Do this by selecting the photo2 layer and clicking the "add vector mask" button at the bottom. (the grey square with a white circle in it)   

-4- Take the "polygonal lasso tool" and outline the landscape.   "Select inverse" so now all of the sky is selected.   Now, select the "gradient too" (which is under the "paint bucket" tool) and "drag a line" in the sky where you want the fade to happen.  Play with the "opacity" perhaps dropping it to 80% or so, and voila, a nice 'fade'.

It's still not the even 'dissolve' between two layers that I feel should be possible (but maybe isn't) but it does a pretty good job.

If anybody has any additional tips or suggestions for my workflow (since I basically figured it out by trial and error) I'm definitely open to hear them.

[odysseyroc]

it would help to see the photos your working with.

[Chris John Hunter]

I don't know if it has all the options you want but a good tool for creating Panorama images is IrfanView its a free image editor . Its quick simple but very powerful.Not only can you create perfectly joined Panoramas without joins. It retains the exact image qualities for each image within that. You can do both Horizontal and Vertical Panoramas.You can also blend two images together using the watermark image feature. You can adjust the level of blend and at what point it is layered over, top corner bottom corner . Etc.


Check out the pics.