How to Create a Panoramic Wrapped Picture

Recently, one of my friends shared with me a picture on Facebook that was labeled “Taking a Panoramic Picture while Rolling Down a Hill”.  It was of a gorgeous picture, supposedly taken with an iPhone while rolling down a hill.  She “challenged” me to see if I could do it, or more specifically, if my husband could do it.  I immediately accepted – but I wasn’t about to roll down a hill!  I pulled out my laptop, fired up Photoshop and let the editing begin!

Step 1 – Take or Create a Panoramic Picture

For this tutorial, I’ll be creating a panoramic picture using an existing picture.  Some elements you will want your picture to have are:

• Landscape – 4:3 aspect ratio
• Skyline – 1/2 or 1/3 of the picture should have sky, preferably with trees or buildings in the background

• Open your picture in Photoshop
• Select the Crop (C) tool
• In the tool preferences, check “Unconstrained”

 

 

 

• Drag the top and bottom handles of the bounding box until you have a panoramic picture, then press “enter”.

 

 

 

 

 

• The next step is key in making this a successful edit.  You MUST have each end of the picture appear as if it’s continuous.
• Using the Marque (M) tool, draw a selection around either the left or the right side of the picture.

 

 

 

• Once you are happy with your selection, click “Command”/”Control” + “J”.  This JUMPS your selection to a new layer.
• Click on the new layer.  Using the Move (V) tool, click and drag the layer to the opposite end of the picture.
• Then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal.  Your picture should look funky like mine does below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Select the Eraser (E) tool, and using a medium sized soft brush, erase the hard line, blending the two layers together.
• Once you are happy with your edit, go to the Layers Palette Menu and Merge the layers.

 

 

Step 2 – Wrapping your Image

Now the fun part begins!

• Go to the Image menu > Image Size
• Uncheck “Constrain Proportions”
• Whatever the height of the image is, make that the width of the image as well, so you have a perfect square. (See below for an example)
• Click OK.

 

 

 

• Now go to the Filter menu > Distort > Polar Coordinates…

 

 

• Make sure “Rectangular to Polar” is checked
• Click OK.
• You will now have a wrapped panoramic picture!
• Feel free to crop and edit with your favorite MCP Actions!

 

Jenny Carter is a portrait and landscape photographer based out of Dallas, Texas. You can find her on Facebook and view her work here.