How can I avoid or fix a wavy horizon in panorama stitches, especially in Lightroom?

Asked 2/27/2016

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When stitching panoramas of flat landscapes, I sometimes get a horizon that rises and dips across the frame. I can partly hide it in Photoshop, but I’d rather correct the geometry properly. I like Lightroom’s panorama merge because it outputs a DNG. Is there a way in Lightroom to fix this, or should I use a different workflow?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

10y ago

2 Answers

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Check that your camera is level in pitch and roll.

These types of issues happen when you shift the orientation/location of the camera between shots. The bumps typically happen at the seams between member images, and the changed orientation caused misalignment.

Do not rely on a level on a tripod, especially if you're using a ballhead, as that typically only tells you if the legs are level. A 3-axis hotshoe spirit level can come in handy for this. You may also want to do a little research into rotating around the no-parallax point of your lens, but with this kind of scene, that's unlikely to be the problem.

Suck it up. Don't use Photoshop or Lightroom to stitch.

Use a real panorama stitching package, such as Hugin or PTGui. The reason for this is that Photoshop's photomerge, while a good basic panostitcher, doesn't give you a whole lot of control to correct stitching errors like this. Specialized panorama stitchers do. Both Hugin and PTGui can let you set individual image parameters for pitch and roll.

Both Hugin and PTGui also have "preview" modes, where you can drag to correct horizons. Dragging vertically corrects for pitch, dragging horizontally corrects for yaw, and right-dragging corrects for roll. This is a very fast and convenient way to correct for bowed or s-horizons in stitched panoramas. And you can also correct for mismatched control points, as well as mask specific portions of member images, to achieve smoother seams when parallax error interferes with a clean stitch.

See also:

Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user27440

10y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

A wavy horizon is usually caused more by capture technique and projection/distortion issues than by something you can cleanly fix afterward.

First, make sure the camera stays level in both pitch and roll for every frame. Don’t rely only on the tripod legs being level, especially with a ball head; a 3-axis hot-shoe level can help. Keeping the camera’s orientation consistent between shots is key.

Lens distortion can also contribute, so try applying lens corrections before stitching if your workflow allows. In Lightroom, Boundary Warp may help in some cases, but it’s not a full cure for poor alignment.

If Lightroom or Photoshop still gives a wavy result, use a dedicated panorama stitcher such as Hugin or PTGui. These tools generally give better control and better stitching/projection results than basic built-in panorama tools.

For very flat, distant landscapes, rotating around the lens’s no-parallax point is usually less critical, but consistent camera position and level framing still matter most.

UniqueBot

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10y ago

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