Photomerge really struggles blending that kind of a shot. Did you do any exposure adjustments before you stitched Joe? Just curious because I've been working on a couple of stitches similar to that and CS3 just can't get it right whether I use the originals or matched RAW conversions. That is a beautiful scene however.
That's a great image asthetically but it's a terrible blend. There's an obvious seam off center right on the water and the blend in the sky is messed up pretty badly as well. Other then clicking smart blend (which I assumed Joe did) or messing with the exposure going in I not sure there's a good way to fix this. I've been playing around with it and am having the same problems. Here's an example of one of mine that I just can't get to blend right, it's a 3 shot stitch and it's pretty obvious where it's not blending.
My beta just expired. I'm not sure if I'm going to upgrade or not. I recently got AutoPano Pro which is doing a better job with stiches and CS2 will do everything else I need PS for (albeit slower on my Intel MBP) PS upgrades have alway been around $150 and now Adobe wants $200 plus the serial number verification can be a nightmare if you forget to uninstall PS and then sell that computer! I doubt the offering the beta per se at this point probably a 30 day free trial.
I tried this stitch with CS3 a while back and wasn't happy with the blending in the sky. This one was done with AutoPano Pro which seems to do a little better job with problem scenes. The other thing I like is APP works with RAW files which I'm not sure CS3 did as I never tried it.
Joe ~~ So is that Greg's Van in your last post? Sorry it sounds like I know him but I only talked with him a few time when he brought an Epic to SLC. I was looking to get a hat while he was down here and our paths didn't cross before he left to the next demo. Will you pass the word and looking to see if there is a demo going past or though SLC. I was on the Epic but the water cond. and it had a little problem with the front ballast we never got a chance to really check it out and ride. Congrats on your position with Epic!