Recommended photo stitching software?

[Henrik]

I did a little stitching with Canon PhotoStitch, and it works pretty well. Yet in the case of the FIRST sunset photo below there are annoying shades added at the stiching points. The pro's are that I got the program along with a camera (it's free!), and it is very fast and easy to use. But could I use a better software (Windows Vista/64bit - Nikon D40)?

According to the very wise Ken Rockwell, I couldn't!

The SECOND sunset photo below I did with Microsoft ICE, and maybe that is the answer to my dreams? No! I notice that the chimneys to the left and to the right now no longer are straight up!

In the THIRD sunset photo I used the appropriate "Rotation Motion" setting in ICE (in stead of "Planar Motion 3"). Now the chimneys are upright, but - alas - in spite of using the same 100% JPEG quality, the photo is now a bit more blurred (look at the lights in the windows). Also, I notice a convex change to the horizon.

There is a little discussion at Flickr. As I am not into sewing my pictures "by hand", it seems Hugin could be the answer for me. Would you agree on that? Will the "authorized" 32-bit ready compiled version work with my 64-bit Windows Vista? As you probably know Hugin is a GUI for 'Panorama Tools'. And it's free as against PTGui. (PTGui Pro is a real 64 bit program. And expensive!) - There are plenty of Hugin example photos at Flickr.

Regards

P.S. I'm aware that my originals for the sunset photo aren't very sharp. But for testing they work well.

[Colin Southern]

Panoramas have quite a few "gotcha's"

For openers, I'd suggest ...

1. Use a tripod - and check the level throughout the range of motion that you'll be moving it through to capture the scene

2. Shoot in manual mode so that you don't have different exposures for different shots (which creates issues like you have)

3. If you're doing a horizonal panorama like this then shoot vertically

4. Ensure that your frames overlap by at least 20%

In terms of stitching, I always use Panorama Factory - they have a free trial if you're interested.

[KentDub]

3. If you're doing a horizonal panorama like this then shoot vertically

Colin can you please explain why?

[wjh31]

I would strongly recommend autopano pro, which also has a free trial, very powerfull program (see my site for plenty of examples), does a good job of matching up. Hugin is the free alternative that ive heard praises for the most, but have no experiance myself with it.

[carregwen]

Colin can you please explain why?

Because the stitching process, in order to get the perspective, often loses some height from the frames. By shooting in portrait mode you allow more space for the perspective adjustment. Something like that anyway. Also, you might want to shoot in manual focus if some objects are nearer, because when you pan across the scene the nearer objects may cause autofocus to change the focus. If that happens the shots may not merge properly.

I use Photoshop CS4. CS3 wasn't so hot, but CS4 works a treat.

[Colin Southern]

Colin can you please explain why?

Yeah - pretty much along the lines of what Rob said - it basically just gives you a bigger safety margin - more "bang for your buck"

[Henrik]

Thanks for your comments. I've been working hard testing some 10 applications. The winner is PanoramaStudio 2. - Or maybe Hugin after all!

@Colin: Your advice is sound. Probably Canon's PhotoStitch could do the trick, if I follow them. Especially the advice on shooting in manual mode I will bear in mind. I guess you're also right about shooting in portrait mode, when dealing with a landscape panorama - to get a larger safety margin.

Panorama Factory didn't make my test, see below.

@William: I decided to let my rather poor sunset photos be the challenge for a number of software programs. In this case Autopano Pro didn't work well. The result seemed blurry, and for some reason (the demo-version?) only two of the three photos were included in the group. Hugin was far better.

I recommend that you view the pictures in full size for comparing. All tests were done with the minimum of adjustment in the programs.

Now I see the horizontal line at the left side of the picture so clearly in all three photos, I actually get confused, if Hugin has the right way of doing it rather than PanoramaStudio??



PanoramaStudio 2 - my favorit



Panorama Factory 5.3 (the horizon goes a bit up and down)



Hugin (the horizon slopes to the left, where the lights also are very low)

[eNo]

PTGui Pro for me. It comes with the added advantage of making HDR panoramas.

[arith]

I use autostitch which is free but not easy and only works on jpeg. However it is possible to buy a version and I suppose that could be friendlier and possibly even stitch tiff files.

I think the bending is caused by the lens.

[The Blue Boy]

Photoshop CS3 for me.

[arith]

Nice pic