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Jasvox · 01-17-2010, 01:21 AM

Originally posted by ozlizard

Don't want to hijack this thread but was going to post this question so thought it might fit in here! The question is what is the best photo stitching software? I have tried PS CS 4 but wasnt happy with the resut. Have tried a few demos online but they all seemed too complicated. Any ideas?

Oz, did you read the entire thread? You may find some suggestions within.

Jason

jezza323 · 01-17-2010, 04:22 AM

I quite enjoy using Autopano Pro or Autopano Giga

they are both by Kolor, and are highly regarded

VERY easy to use and always nice results.

ozlizard · 01-17-2010, 04:34 AM

Quote:

Oz, did you read the entire thread? You may find some suggestions within.

Yeah sorry my bad, didn't see the second page...will read the rest now......

pop4 · 01-17-2010, 08:10 AM

I used to use Autostitch, but now use Microsoft ICE

**rayallen** · 01-17-2010, 02:57 PM

Originally posted by pop4

I used to use Autostitch, but now use Microsoft ICE

I have just started using Autostitch and, although it is very slow, I am happy with the results. I had a set of images that had vertical banding in the sky when processed with CS3, CS4 and MS ICE. When I stitched them with Autostitch there was no banding. Looks like I will be using Autostitch more often now.

graphicgr8s · 01-17-2010, 07:02 PM

Originally posted by ozlizard

Don't want to hijack this thread but was going to post this question so thought it might fit in here! The question is what is the best photo stitching software? I have tried PS CS 4 but wasnt happy with the resut. Have tried a few demos online but they all seemed too complicated. Any ideas?

If you weren't happy it may have been your settings. Or the way you shot it. I've done a lot and have only had 3 I had to redo manually

**Canada_Rockies** · 01-17-2010, 10:15 PM

Originally posted by ozlizard

Don't want to hijack this thread but was going to post this question so thought it might fit in here! The question is what is the best photo stitching software? I have tried PS CS 4 but wasnt happy with the resut. Have tried a few demos online but they all seemed too complicated. Any ideas?

For the few panoramas I have assembled, I have had good luck with Photomatix. It seemed to line things up quite well with minimal interference from me. I have been careful with the input images. Tripod, manual exposure, manual white balance, manual focus. This eases the troubles caused by slight changes in depth of field, colour balance and exposure when adding the images together. Overlap at least 25%, use the lens with the least distortion that you have. (I used my M 100/4 macro once, and it worked very well - but took an awful lot of images to make the pano).

RioRico · 01-19-2010, 08:40 PM

I still can't get MS.ICE to install. Darn. Anyway, I've successfully used just two stitchwares, both free. PHOTOSTITCH came with a Canon printer, AUTOSTITCH is available as a free download with irregular updates.

PHOTOSTITCH is fast and simple, but unforgiving with input photos - they must be carefully exposed-aligned, arranged in a matrix, and slight parallax errors leave dangling ends. But it's handy for generating unique effects, and in situations where you WANT it obvious that the output is a Frankenphoto.

AUTOSTITCH is (or can be) slightly more complicated, and slow with big or highly overlapped inputs, but is very forgiving about aspect and parallax. EXCEPT that if you're doing a vertical stitch, all the input photos must be rotated 90 degrees.

philbaum · 01-19-2010, 10:06 PM

Originally posted by ozlizard

Don't want to hijack this thread but was going to post this question so thought it might fit in here! The question is what is the best photo stitching software? I have tried PS CS 4 but wasnt happy with the resut. Have tried a few demos online but they all seemed too complicated. Any ideas?

I recently used 11 HDR files (33 images) to make a 360 deg. panorama, the subj was nothing special, i just quickly wanted some images to see if i could do it. I downloaded Microsoft ICE, the 64 bit version to my Vista laptop, and was able to make it all work on my first attempt. I'll just show a short segment below, all the branches seemed to line up fine, i didn't use any nodal equipment, just a tripod and a 28mm lens in portrait mode. I'm not very competent with computers, so this first attempt amazed me :-)

paulelescoces · 01-20-2010, 01:13 AM

I have previously always done a merge to panorama via photoshop... however downloaded Microsoft ICE a few days ago and much prefer for this purpose...

I find ICE faster, less resource hungry and from the examples I was playing with it was also giving better results. Only downside is that it cannot work directly with RAW (DNG or PEF) so you need to convert to TIFF/JPEG before stitching.

LensScribe · 01-20-2010, 02:24 AM

Definitely possible without a pano head. The pano below was taken with a compact (Sony W-50), mounted in portrait orientation on a bog-standard tripod - I just set it to night mode and took about 14 shots with varying amounts of overlap (aimed for about 20% though).

I used to us Photoshop's photo merge to do them, but having read such positive things about MS ICE in this thread, I'm going to try it out (still without a pano head, but this time with a DSLR - A Pentax, naturally).

180° Panorama - Looking North towards Flinders Walk from Southbank, Melbourne.

marcinski · 01-20-2010, 03:35 AM

This is my first attempt at panorama. Shot on the way to work with 43mm Ltd and stiched with MICE. It turned out quite well for a quick handheld shot.

Marcin

falconeye · 01-20-2010, 04:39 AM

What has been said so far is correct. But it is part of the picture only.

There are simple and less simple cases. Sooner or later, you'll run into trouble and change your stitching software. So, why not start out with a capable one, i.e., one which can handle the less simple cases.

Below, I show an example for a less simple case. First, it is shot in a bad way. In a scene like that, the position must be absolutely centered in the symmetry point, or be clearly off center. And it lacks a second or third row to show the height of the hall which is a capitol roof actually ...

Second, the stitcher made (three) unavoidable stitching errors because of a moving nodal point.

Therefore, here I would have needed more time, a tripod and nodal point adapter indeed.

Third, and I cannot show it here, most stitchers produce a random arrangement of patches where you can see nothing. A shock. This is because of the many repeating patterns in the images which are wrongly correlated. Esp. as marginal motion blur (tungsten light) made correlation less significant. Even PTGui (the second best program) failed miserably for this example.

I used Autopano Pro and it produced the attached result (inside Havanna Capitol, Cuba).

I learn that Autostitch is a free demo by M. Brown and D. Lowe, the inventors of the SIFT correlation algorithm licensed, e.g., to Autopano.

PhilippeG · 01-21-2010, 03:25 PM

I've been using PTGui for quite some time and it's automatic stitching has always amazed me. Very accurate with or without tripod, can take care of differences in exposure, lots of output options (including Photoshop format with separate layers, useful for tricky panoramas), can work with RAW files!

rustynail925 · 01-26-2010, 06:39 AM

If you're taking 5 shots do you need to change position every shot or just remain in the same place?

01-19-2010, 08:40 PM	#38
RioRico Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Limbo, California Posts: 11,263	What a stitch! I still can't get MS.ICE to install. Darn. Anyway, I've successfully used just two stitchwares, both free. PHOTOSTITCH came with a Canon printer, AUTOSTITCH is available as a free download with irregular updates. PHOTOSTITCH is fast and simple, but unforgiving with input photos - they must be carefully exposed-aligned, arranged in a matrix, and slight parallax errors leave dangling ends. But it's handy for generating unique effects, and in situations where you WANT it obvious that the output is a Frankenphoto. AUTOSTITCH is (or can be) slightly more complicated, and slow with big or highly overlapped inputs, but is very forgiving about aspect and parallax. EXCEPT that if you're doing a vertical stitch, all the input photos must be rotated 90 degrees.

01-20-2010, 04:39 AM	#43
falconeye Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Munich, Alps, Germany Photos: Gallery Posts: 6,871	What has been said so far is correct. But it is part of the picture only. There are simple and less simple cases. Sooner or later, you'll run into trouble and change your stitching software. So, why not start out with a capable one, i.e., one which can handle the less simple cases. Below, I show an example for a less simple case. First, it is shot in a bad way. In a scene like that, the position must be absolutely centered in the symmetry point, or be clearly off center. And it lacks a second or third row to show the height of the hall which is a capitol roof actually ... Second, the stitcher made (three) unavoidable stitching errors because of a moving nodal point. Therefore, here I would have needed more time, a tripod and nodal point adapter indeed. Third, and I cannot show it here, most stitchers produce a random arrangement of patches where you can see nothing. A shock. This is because of the many repeating patterns in the images which are wrongly correlated. Esp. as marginal motion blur (tungsten light) made correlation less significant. Even PTGui (the second best program) failed miserably for this example. I used Autopano Pro and it produced the attached result (inside Havanna Capitol, Cuba). I learn that Autostitch is a free demo by M. Brown and D. Lowe, the inventors of the SIFT correlation algorithm licensed, e.g., to Autopano. Last edited by falconeye; 06-15-2011 at 05:29 AM.

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01-17-2010, 01:21 AM	#31
Jasvox Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 3,107	Originally posted by ozlizard Don't want to hijack this thread but was going to post this question so thought it might fit in here! The question is what is the best photo stitching software? I have tried PS CS 4 but wasnt happy with the resut. Have tried a few demos online but they all seemed too complicated. Any ideas? Oz, did you read the entire thread? You may find some suggestions within. Jason

01-17-2010, 04:22 AM	#32
jezza323 Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Brisbane Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,421	I quite enjoy using Autopano Pro or Autopano Giga they are both by Kolor, and are highly regarded VERY easy to use and always nice results.

01-17-2010, 04:34 AM	#33
ozlizard Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Bridgetown West Australia Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 903	Quote: Oz, did you read the entire thread? You may find some suggestions within. Yeah sorry my bad, didn't see the second page...will read the rest now......

01-17-2010, 08:10 AM	#34
pop4 Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: YMML Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,879	I used to use Autostitch, but now use Microsoft ICE

01-17-2010, 02:57 PM	#35
rayallen Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Forresters Beach, NSW, Australia. Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,014	Originally posted by pop4 I used to use Autostitch, but now use Microsoft ICE I have just started using Autostitch and, although it is very slow, I am happy with the results. I had a set of images that had vertical banding in the sky when processed with CS3, CS4 and MS ICE. When I stitched them with Autostitch there was no banding. Looks like I will be using Autostitch more often now.

01-17-2010, 07:02 PM	#36
graphicgr8s Guest	Originally posted by ozlizard Don't want to hijack this thread but was going to post this question so thought it might fit in here! The question is what is the best photo stitching software? I have tried PS CS 4 but wasnt happy with the resut. Have tried a few demos online but they all seemed too complicated. Any ideas? If you weren't happy it may have been your settings. Or the way you shot it. I've done a lot and have only had 3 I had to redo manually

01-17-2010, 10:15 PM	#37
Canada_Rockies Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Sparwood, BC, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,385	Originally posted by ozlizard Don't want to hijack this thread but was going to post this question so thought it might fit in here! The question is what is the best photo stitching software? I have tried PS CS 4 but wasnt happy with the resut. Have tried a few demos online but they all seemed too complicated. Any ideas? For the few panoramas I have assembled, I have had good luck with Photomatix. It seemed to line things up quite well with minimal interference from me. I have been careful with the input images. Tripod, manual exposure, manual white balance, manual focus. This eases the troubles caused by slight changes in depth of field, colour balance and exposure when adding the images together. Overlap at least 25%, use the lens with the least distortion that you have. (I used my M 100/4 macro once, and it worked very well - but took an awful lot of images to make the pano).

01-19-2010, 10:06 PM	#39
philbaum Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Port Townsend, Washington State, USA Posts: 3,659	Originally posted by ozlizard Don't want to hijack this thread but was going to post this question so thought it might fit in here! The question is what is the best photo stitching software? I have tried PS CS 4 but wasnt happy with the resut. Have tried a few demos online but they all seemed too complicated. Any ideas? I recently used 11 HDR files (33 images) to make a 360 deg. panorama, the subj was nothing special, i just quickly wanted some images to see if i could do it. I downloaded Microsoft ICE, the 64 bit version to my Vista laptop, and was able to make it all work on my first attempt. I'll just show a short segment below, all the branches seemed to line up fine, i didn't use any nodal equipment, just a tripod and a 28mm lens in portrait mode. I'm not very competent with computers, so this first attempt amazed me :-)

01-20-2010, 01:13 AM	#40
paulelescoces Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Switzerland Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 252	I have previously always done a merge to panorama via photoshop... however downloaded Microsoft ICE a few days ago and much prefer for this purpose... I find ICE faster, less resource hungry and from the examples I was playing with it was also giving better results. Only downside is that it cannot work directly with RAW (DNG or PEF) so you need to convert to TIFF/JPEG before stitching.

01-20-2010, 02:24 AM	#41
LensScribe Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Johannesburg, South Africa Photos: Gallery Posts: 316	Definitely possible without a pano head. The pano below was taken with a compact (Sony W-50), mounted in portrait orientation on a bog-standard tripod - I just set it to night mode and took about 14 shots with varying amounts of overlap (aimed for about 20% though). I used to us Photoshop's photo merge to do them, but having read such positive things about MS ICE in this thread, I'm going to try it out (still without a pano head, but this time with a DSLR - A Pentax, naturally). 180° Panorama - Looking North towards Flinders Walk from Southbank, Melbourne.

01-20-2010, 03:35 AM	#42
marcinski Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Dundee, Scotland Posts: 95	This is my first attempt at panorama. Shot on the way to work with 43mm Ltd and stiched with MICE. It turned out quite well for a quick handheld shot. Marcin

01-21-2010, 03:25 PM	#44
PhilippeG Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Paris, France Photos: Gallery Posts: 345	I've been using PTGui for quite some time and it's automatic stitching has always amazed me. Very accurate with or without tripod, can take care of differences in exposure, lots of output options (including Photoshop format with separate layers, useful for tricky panoramas), can work with RAW files!

01-26-2010, 06:39 AM	#45
rustynail925 Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Philippines Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,551	If you're taking 5 shots do you need to change position every shot or just remain in the same place?

Panorama question.

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