software for panoramas

[lee74]

I Have tempted to have a go at shooting panoramas and have at the moment Photoshop Elements 5 and was wondering is this up to the job, as I have read a article saying that if the programme is more than a year pr two out of date then it will be lot harder to merge the photos together.

Will this be the case with version 5 or do i need to update?

[beejaybee]

as I have read a article saying that if the programme is more than a year pr two out of date then it will be lot harder to merge the photos together.

Well, it won't work worse than it used to, however many updates have been issued in the interim .... whether it's adequate is a different matter, I've used it fairly successfully. Suggest sucking it & seeing.

[john_g]

I've tried a few such programs and really rate Microsoft's free Image Composite Editor (ICE).

Get it here: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/...roups/ivm/ICE/

[john_g]

Oh, and the other thing you can do to help the stitching process to be successful is to allow a decent amount of overlap between frames (horizontally and vertically if you are doing a panorama in both the X and Y axes) and try to include easily identifiable anchor points for the software to lock on to.

[Fen]

Oh, and the other thing you can do to help the stitching process to be successful is to allow a decent amount of overlap between frames

I'd recommend at least 1/3 of the photo

[Gromit]

Also best to shoot in manual mode, keeping the same exposure for each image.

[dangie]

I've used the Panoramic merge on Elements 5 & 6 and also Photoshop CS3, but I don't think they are as good as the "free" Canon Photostitch that came with an old Canon compact. That's what I always use.

[chr1s]

the panorama software that came free with my canon is the best i've used too

[Monobod]

I have stitched together 3 images taken from a 'viewpoint' using CS4. They have joined up very well, but the sky is a different blue at the joins and the vertical line is obvious. I'm not sure how best to overcome this problem at the moment. I have colour matched the three shots, the grass and trees are well matched but not the sky.

[Gromit]

I have stitched together 3 images taken from a 'viewpoint' using CS4. They have joined up very well, but the sky is a different blue at the joins and the vertical line is obvious. I'm not sure how best to overcome this problem at the moment. I have colour matched the three shots, the grass and trees are well matched but not the sky.

It sounds as if you've either used different exposures or have pre-processed the images. Leave any processing until after you've stitched them together. If you shoot in RAW, but have to convert them first, then you need to apply exactly the same settings to each image.

[swanseadave]

the panorama software that came free with my canon is the best i've used too

I go along with that too.Canon Photostitch is good and easy to use.
I have CS3 extended but find it overly complicated.My son uses it more than me.

[dangie]

I have stitched together 3 images taken from a 'viewpoint' using CS4. They have joined up very well, but the sky is a different blue at the joins and the vertical line is obvious. I'm not sure how best to overcome this problem at the moment. I have colour matched the three shots, the grass and trees are well matched but not the sky.

Gromits right Monobod. The exposures must be the same for each frame. Use manual exposure and manual white balance.

[Terrywoodenpic]

There are many better programs than CS3 for panoramas.
I use PTAssembler, but about the most popular program amongst Panographers is PTGui.

Both of these programs are far more flexible and offer far more projections than CS3.

If you are thinking of taking this seriously they are the way to go.

I find that those people using canon, windows, or photoshop programs soon get dissatisfied and stop making pans.

[lee74]

Thanks for the all the info guys, will give it a go with what I have at present and see what the results are like.

[Monobod]

Hi,

Thanks for the tips. I had post processed in Bridge before stitching. Now done this first and then post processed. The result is not perfect but very pleasing IMHO.



Large Image HERE

[Samsam]

The PTAssembler and PTGui that Terry recommends are good, free and very powerful.

Something that is also worth mentioning is Hugin: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Free again and quite user friendly with some decent tutorials on the site. As far as I can tell, a frontend to the PTTools above.

I have a copy of Realviz Stitcher which was bought out by Autodesk. If you want an up to date copy of that its a few hundred pounds from the Autodesk website but I managed to pick up an old version on Ebay which does the same.

Autodesk/Realviz Sticher is very good. If you are able to keep to the nodal point of your lens stiching with this is a breeze.

[Norman]

The PTAssembler and PTGui that Terry recommends are good, free and very powerful.

A small correction. PTGui is not free but isn't too expensive and works very well. It is a GUI "front end" for Panotools, mentioned above, and needs PT installed on the PC. It can do "circular" and "spherical" panos too.

[Samsam]

Sorry, my bad

[Terrywoodenpic]

Neither is PTAssembler free Just very inexpensive.

The latest beta version does not even need PT Tools to function though it is included as part of the package.

This is a 145 degree pan using PTAssemler and one of the new projections Note the sides are straight
HERE

This is the same file using the usual cylindrical projection.
and HERE

[MarkCook]

Try autostitch - it does an awesome job (for free!)

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

This is the original version of the algorithm (and IMO the best) used in Autopano Plus, Serif PanoramaPlus and Calico (tried em all).

This in a demo app written by the guy who came up with the mechanism at UBC but has all of the knobs and whistles exposed, it even takes care of exposure blending and other funky clever stuff !

Here are a couple of full sized images on my flickr account all done with autostitch


Presidential range sunset (9 images)


Bartlett (NH) from Bear Notch Road


Kirkstone Pass Lake District

Cool application just dont expect fancy gui's - the results speak for themselves.

BTW - most of these will have been shot with AWB !!!

Mark