Using a Spherical/Panoramic Background Image in Photoshop?

[peenwolf]

Hello,

Does anyone know if Photoshop has a feature where you can use a panoramic or spherical image as a background, and then rotate it within photoshop to get the correct perspective/alignment?

For example, if I have something like the image below, with a foreground image in front of a panoramic background image, would I be able to somehow rotate the spherical panorama in a way that would make a realistic background?



I could simply use a panorma viewer to rotate it to a likely position, then import that into photoshop. But it might take many iterations to get the most optimal angle, which takes time, so it would be a lot easier if Photoshop supported rotation of backgrounds. I've tried playing around with some of the 3D options, but none of them really seem to allow me to do what I want.

 

[IamSam]

Hello and welcome to PSG.

Of course Ps has the ability to rotate a background in a 2D plane. However I don't think it's what your looking for. I think your referring to 3D rotation around the X axis (left to right), if so then then you might could do it using a postcard mesh layer from the 3D menu.

Original


Rotated around X axis........in this case I leaned the top edge of the image forward.

 

[peenwolf]

Hello and welcome to PSG.

Of course Ps has the ability to rotate a background in a 2D plane. However I don't think it's what your looking for. I think your referring to 3D rotation around the X axis (left to right), if so then then you might could do it using a postcard mesh layer from the 3D menu.

Rotated around X axis........in this case I leaned the top edge of the image forward.

Hello, thanks for the response.

You're right in that that's not really what I was looking for.

I really wanted to convert the panorama from being just a flat image into being an actual 3D environment in which to place my foreground layer. Basically the reason for even wanting to do this is so that I can match up the angle of the foreground and background layers without them looking fake. Usually if you try putting a foreground image onto a background image, even after trying to adjust for perspective, it just looks fake because they're never at exactly the right angle. But I feel I'd have more lucky using panoramas and then rotating them to get the correct angle so foreground and background were aligned.

I think I'm going to just do this the long and tedious way. I.e., use a panorama-viewer and then rotate it to a putative angle, screencap that then bring it into photoshop, and keep doing this trial and error till i get something that looks good.

 

[Tom Mann]

I agree with your idea of using a panorama viewer, but would caution you that screen captures rarely have enough resolution to give truly outstanding results, especially when there is lots of detail in the image. You would likely be better served by a pano viewing program that allows one to export images at the native resolution of the starting image.

Good luck with your project.

Tom M

 

[SCTRWD]

Did you try 3D->New Shape From Layer->Spherical Panorama?

Check out this http://www.photoshop.com/tutorials/603

 

[peenwolf]

Did you try 3D->New Shape From Layer->Spherical Panorama?

Check out this http://www.photoshop.com/tutorials/603

I swear I had already tried that, thanks, it does seem to work doing that now.

 

[Strat Parrott]

I was about to mention doing the above mentioned 3D->New Shape From Layer->Spherical Panorama AND while you can create a new layer, make the edit there then Merge Down. I can't for the life of me figure out hour to reverse and get the Spherical Panorama back to a Rectilinear Panorama.