Panorama software

[dropman]

I am looking for good software for creating panoramic shots (stiching multiple images into one). I have Canon camera, and there is some soft with it, but i think it's too basic to make good panorama.

[John_Reed]

I am looking for good software for creating panoramic shots (stiching multiple images into one). I have Canon camera, and there is some soft with it, but i think it's too basic to make good panorama.Check out Panorama Maker 3, by ArcSoft. I got it free with my Panasonic cameras; it works great, even if you have to pay for it! You can check it out here. (http://www.arcsoft.com/en/products/panoramamaker/)

[Underscore]

I am looking for good software for creating panoramic shots (stiching multiple images into one). I have Canon camera, and there is some soft with it, but i think it's too basic to make good panorama.

I too was a little disappointed with the panorama stitcher that came with my Canon. Then, recently, I came across Panorama Tools, so have been playing about with creating pano's of late. Since I'm a techy, I've gone for a solution that is a bit more involved but the results are stunning - and all the software is free! I'm using Hugin (http://hugin.sourceforge.net) as a front end to Panorama Tools. You will then need an image editor that can read and process layered photoshop files (.psd files) - for which I use Paintshop Pro 8 but, if you want to keep it free, I think that The GIMP will do that too. Two commercial front-ends to PanoTools are PTAssembler (http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr.htm - a great site with a very useful tutorial) and PTGui (http://www.ptgui.com/).

BTW, make sure you've got enough memory for editing the resulting files - over the weekend, I created a pano from 5 x 8MP images from my Oly C-8080 and PSP went up to 650MBytes of memory in Task Manager. I have 768MBytes of RAM and it was still thrashing the disc occasionally when I was fine-tuning the seams.

Have fun,

_

[John_Reed]

I too was a little disappointed with the panorama stitcher that came with my Canon. Then, recently, I came across Panorama Tools, so have been playing about with creating pano's of late. Since I'm a techy, I've gone for a solution that is a bit more involved but the results are stunning - and all the software is free! I'm using Hugin (http://hugin.sourceforge.net) as a front end to Panorama Tools. You will then need an image editor that can read and process layered photoshop files (.psd files) - for which I use Paintshop Pro 8 but, if you want to keep it free, I think that The GIMP will do that too. Two commercial front-ends to PanoTools are PTAssembler (http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr.htm - a great site with a very useful tutorial) and PTGui (http://www.ptgui.com/).

BTW, make sure you've got enough memory for editing the resulting files - over the weekend, I created a pano from 5 x 8MP images from my Oly C-8080 and PSP went up to 650MBytes of memory in Task Manager. I have 768MBytes of RAM and it was still thrashing the disc occasionally when I was fine-tuning the seams.

Have fun,

_So how many pixels constituted your final pano size? I was curious, since I did a 5 x 4MP pano which came out about 1500 H X 7000 W, and the file opens up to about 30MB in Photoshop on my Mac. In that pano, Panorama Maker managed to put it together with invisible seams.

[Underscore]

So how many pixels constituted your final pano size? I was curious, since I did a 5 x 4MP pano which came out about 1500 H X 7000 W, and the file opens up to about 30MB in Photoshop on my Mac. In that pano, Panorama Maker managed to put it together with invisible seams.

IIRC, it was about 3,000 (or a little under) x 10,000 (or a little over). The PSD file created by panotools was just over 200MB, since it had 10 layers in 5 groups (raster layer plus mask for each source image). Since I also forgot to lock the white balance for the photos, I then needed to add a colour-balance adjustment layers to four of the five groups to get consistent colour across the pano. Of course, once it was flattened down, the file size dropped to a fraction of the layered version.

I've tried using enblend - a free tool that joins the constituent images after processing by panotools - and it generally works very well. However, since I frequently carry a camera but no tripod, often my pano images suffer a degree of parallax error due to shooting hand-held. In that case, using the difference blending mode between layers (as outlined on Max Lyon's site) allows me to very quickly produce imperceptible seams when automated tools can struggle. Besides, for me, messing about with the images is part of the fun of digital photography - it's like the fun I used to have in the darkroom at Uni but without the mess!

_

[John_Reed]

IIRC, it was about 3,000 (or a little under) x 10,000 (or a little over). The PSD file created by panotools was just over 200MB, since it had 10 layers in 5 groups (raster layer plus mask for each source image). Since I also forgot to lock the white balance for the photos, I then needed to add a colour-balance adjustment layers to four of the five groups to get consistent colour across the pano. Of course, once it was flattened down, the file size dropped to a fraction of the layered version.

I've tried using enblend - a free tool that joins the constituent images after processing by panotools - and it generally works very well. However, since I frequently carry a camera but no tripod, often my pano images suffer a degree of parallax error due to shooting hand-held. In that case, using the difference blending mode between layers (as outlined on Max Lyon's site) allows me to very quickly produce imperceptible seams when automated tools can struggle. Besides, for me, messing about with the images is part of the fun of digital photography - it's like the fun I used to have in the darkroom at Uni but without the mess!

_To avoid those shot-shot variations, I've taken to using totally manual settings for my FZ10, which locks the WB and all the other shooting parameters for the whole series. I also shoot without a tripod, which calls for some cropping of the overall pano to account for my wavy arc! Do you have a choice of setting exact shooting focal length on the 8080? With the FZ10, I have to guess at it, but fortunately Panorama Maker has an "automatic camera" feature that compensates for the particular focal length you used.

[Underscore]

To avoid those shot-shot variations, I've taken to using totally manual settings for my FZ10, which locks the WB and all the other shooting parameters for the whole series. I also shoot without a tripod, which calls for some cropping of the overall pano to account for my wavy arc! Do you have a choice of setting exact shooting focal length on the 8080? With the FZ10, I have to guess at it, but fortunately Panorama Maker has an "automatic camera" feature that compensates for the particular focal length you used.

I'm still getting used to having to do allt hese things manually; I've only just got the Oly and my other camera is a Canon which has a Pano mode built in that takes care of it all. The 8080 can select a focal length, sort of; you can set up a custom mode, which can include the focal length of 28, 50, 90 or 140mm (35mm equiv) IIRC. However, I generally don't use it since you can get the focal length used from the EXIF data in the image.

_

[John_Reed]

The 8080 can select a focal length, sort of; you can set up a custom mode, which can include the focal length of 28, 50, 90 or 140mm (35mm equiv) IIRC. However, I generally don't use it since you can get the focal length used from the EXIF data in the image.It seems to me that the optimum panorama focal length would be 50mm, the "normal" lens focal length. Therefore, if you could select that focal length for making panarama sweeps, it could be advantageous. On the other hand, if the panorama software can accommodate different focal lengths anyway, maybe it just doesn't matter much.

[Underscore]

It seems to me that the optimum panorama focal length would be 50mm, the "normal" lens focal length. Therefore, if you could select that focal length for making panarama sweeps, it could be advantageous. On the other hand, if the panorama software can accommodate different focal lengths anyway, maybe it just doesn't matter much.

I took a panorama of a building on holiday this year with my Canon at full wide angle (35mm EFL) and, while it stitched together very well, the perspective does look unnatural. For panos with few parallel lines, e.g. most landscapes, the focal length used doesn't seem to make a huge difference to one's perception of the final image. I will certainly try to use 50mm, or thereabouts, in future if shooting panos containing buildings or that sort of thing.

_

[erichlund]

That's a bit surprising because the angle of view of the 35mm when on a dSLR is as close to normal as your going to get. On my D70, the 35 is a 52.5 equivalent and on Canons, the 35 is a 56 equivalent.

I would expect distortion to be minimized.

Cheers,
Eric

[Underscore]

That's a bit surprising because the angle of view of the 35mm when on a dSLR is as close to normal as your going to get. On my D70, the 35 is a 52.5 equivalent and on Canons, the 35 is a 56 equivalent.

I would expect distortion to be minimized.

Cheers,
Eric
By EFL I mean Equivalent Focal Length, i.e. The lens was at the wide end, which is the equivalent of 35mm on a 35mm camera on my Canon Ixus. The actual focal length was obviously much shorter.

_

[Erik VdB]

I don't know if you are aware of the new stitcher at http://www.autostitch.net/
It may not be the best stitcher but today i solved 10 (handshot) panoramas that did not work in other stitchers.

Erik

[pairojvej]

My equipments are Canon G6 and Kaidan panorama head. I have PanoramaTool + PTAssembler + Autopano + Enblend, they work perfectly but consume very very very long time.

I need a casual panorama application. I tried Ulead 360 and Canon PhotoStitch v3.1 but the result is very disappointed. They produced a lot of ghosts in the final picture.

Today I try Panorama Factory, it works great with very few ghost (it takes time around 10 minutes).

Have anyone tried PhotoVista Panorama v3.0 yet? As I was informed that the trial version of PhotoVista Panorama had some kind of spyware, so I don't want to try it.

I would be appreciated if someone could share your experiences with Panorama Factory and PhotoVista Panorama v3.0. Thank you in advance.

http://pairojvej.fotopic.net

[pairojvej]

After trying PhotoVista Panorama v3.0 Trial and Panorama Factory v3.3, I decided to buy Panorama Factory as it is easy to use and the result is very impressive. Although, Panorama Factory 3.3 takes quite a long time to stitch my photos together.

You all could see the result of PF at my photo gallery http://pairojvej.fotopic.net

[CJphotographer]

Hey there, I have been looking for ages for a good panorama tool. I've had no problems with 360 Panorama Professional from 360 Degrees of Freedom. Beats the photo editing tool I was using before (frustrating!) Anyway just a recommendation. Their site is http://www.360dof.com
Cheers, CJ

[Coltess]

Photoshop CS2 has its own stitching software, called Photomerge.
I've only tried it a couple of times with somewhat poor results.

[Coltess]

I've been experimenting with the 360dof that CJ mentions above and thought I would post the result. (Click on the pic to see the full image [13141x2292, 9.7 MB])
http://www.coltess.net/images/posted/small.jpg (http://www.coltess.net/images/posted/original.jpg)
This turned out way better than it did in PSCS2.
The focus is off because I was using a fixed focusing distance when I took the pictures, and obviously my tripod setup wasn't quite as level as I thought it was :o
One annoying "feature" of 360dof is that it runs out of memory real easy, but mayby they will fix that along the way. Then again, how often do you need a 28+ MP image? :D
Anyone know if there is an optimal focal length for panorama shots?

[reyval2k]

I don't know if you are aware of the new stitcher at http://www.autostitch.net/
It may not be the best stitcher but today i solved 10 (handshot) panoramas that did not work in other stitchers.

Erik

Yes I've tried Autostitch and it works perfectly everytime. Its simple with a straightforward interface plus its currently free. I'm also currently using The Panorama Factory v3.4.

[smerfle]

You could also try Mapwing http://www.mapwing.com. It isn't quite panorama stitching software. Actually, it doesn't even require stitching, but it builds some pretty neat tours. Works great with a nice digicam too.