Splicing Overlapping Photographs

Overlapping photographs may be spliced together to form a wider panoramic image. Sometimes, depending how the photographs were composed, the splicing is easy. But often differences in viewing angle, or photograph color tone, make smooth joining impossible and the overlaps extremely obvious. Digital manipulation of the individual photos can overcome these problems to generate seamless images.

Example 1

On an evening's walk in the park with the pooches, this beautiful rainbow appeared, with a leaden sky behind it, and the whole scene bathed in sunlight. It lasted for a few minutes before the sunlight faded, and the rainbow disappeared. It was impossible to capture in one single photograph, so three seperate shots were taken, with the rainbow framing a tree. When the three were spliced together, differences in color tone were obvious, as can be seen in the original photos below the composite. Colors were therefore corrected in the composite, and a little contrast added to better recall the beauty of the moment.
Spliced rainbow composite photograph
Partial rainbow 1
Partial rainbow 2
Partial rainbow 3

Example 2

Below is a panorama of Eagle Lake, in Acadia National Park, Maine, taken on a beautiful, calm September afternoon. It is a composite of two photographs, which overlapped one another, but not perfectly.
Spliced photographs of Eagle lake
First Eagle Lake photograph
Second Eagle Lake photograph
Detail of the imperfect overlap, Eagle lake photographs
Here is shown detail of the overlap of the two original photographs. Taken from slightly different angles, it was impossible to line up both foreground and background elements. With the far hills overlapping perfectly, both the rocks in the foreground and the small cloud mid way up the sky are mis-aligned. In addition, color tone was different between the two original images - particularly noticeable in the sky - and had to be adjusted.

Example 3

Below is a portrait of the bride and groom, taken at their wedding reception. The original photographs, shown below the composite, were badly composed by the photographer, with the groom and half the bride in the first, and the bride with half the groom in the second. The couple wanted a composite with both of them in it, and had asked more than one photographer to splice the two pictures. This had proved impossible as the two photographs did not overlap perfectly. Using digital techniques, the photographs were joined seamlessly to generate this portrait, which the couple loved.
Composite image, wedding photographs
Detail of overlap, wedding photographs
Wedding photograph, groom
Wedding photograph, bride
Above is detail of the original overlap between the two photographs. Not only is the overlap imperfect, but color tone and contrast level also differ. The prints are also a little over-exposed. All these factors were corrected for the composite image.