Ajusting the Panorama Images
Now that the panorama has been stitched, you need to adjust the JPG file before adding it to the site. The image needs adjustment for two reasons. First, poor lighting in the laboratories combined with the mediocre quality of the digital camera usually results in dull, dark images. Second, the panorama image will be very large. Since people will be downloading this image over the internet, we have to keep the file size down for people without broadband access. Also, certain versions of the Netscape browser will not display the panorama at all if it is larger than a certain size.
The first step is to adjust the color. Open the JPG image in Photoshop. You can use another photo editing program, such as the GIMP, if you wish, but you will have to adapt the instructions in this tutorial to work with your program of choice. Most panoramas will be rather dim, so brighten the photo up using Photoshop's adjustment tools. There are multiple ways to adjust the image, and you should use whichever method you are most comfortable with. You can find a list of options under the "Image >> Adjust" menu. "Brightness/Contrast" is the easiest tool to use for brightening the image, but it is the least flexible. I personally use the curves editor, but it may be a bit overwhelming if you are a beginner. A good middle-ground is the "Levels" editor. I recommend experimenting with each tool to figure out how it works and choosing your favorite.
When the brightness is properly adjusted, you may need to tweak the color. The most common color problem is that the lighting on campus is too yellow. You can remove some of the yellow using a number of techniques. Again, I prefer to use the curves tool, but you can also use the levels editor. To use the levels editor to bring down the yellow, click on the pull-down menu that says "RGB" and choose "Green". Play around with the sliders until you have a color balance you like. Afterwards, you may need to adjust the brightness again.
Next, you must resize the image. In order to work with all browsers, the total number of pixels in the image must be less than 500,000. Choose "Image >> Image size..." from the menu bar. To find the total pixel count, multiply the height by the width. The goal is to make the image as close to 500,000 pixels as you can without going over. (Tip: For almost every panorama I've done, I've made the height 260 pixels. The width will take care of itself, and the total size will always be under 500,000 pixels.)
With the image adjusted and resized, save the file without changing its name. Now you are finally ready to upload the panorama to the website.