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Panorama software

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Panorama Factory is dead easy to use and gives great results. It only does L-R normal panoramas though, it would be nice to be able to do tall or wide (or both at once) panoramas.
Sugan said:
Anyone have any suggestions on the best panoramic software to use?
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Stephen said:
I'll second the recommendation, and also the caveats. Although tall
panoramas shouldn't be a problem if you lay down the components in
landscape?
Click to expand...
It doesn't work that way, I don't think. The way the panorama is stitched it wouldn't look correct and the software thinks the horizon will be constant across the image. It doesn't work that way in a horizontal picture. I really don't think that would work. If it did, PF could simply do both directions.
 
Sugan said:
Anyone have any suggestions on the best panoramic software to use?
Click to expand...
A lot depends on what you want to do. As suggested, Panorama Factory is quite easy to use and does a very good job. On the other hand, if you need a good deal more versatility, you may want to consider PanaVue Image Assembler which is infinitely more versatile and more powerful. Perhaps the most powerful of all presently available stitching software is Helmut Dersch's PanoTools v2.1 (Panorama Tools). Without a doubt this is the most versatile and powerful of currently available tools. It's also the most frustrating and most difficult to learn. NOT recommended unless you are very well versed in both photography, software and the terminology and nomenclature of the trade. Perhaps going here may help with your decision:

http://www.panoguide.com/software/

Lin
 
Just taken a look at the galleries on PF website http://www.panoramafactory.com and there are examples of vertical stitching in the cityscapes and landscapes section.
Serra said:
Stephen said:
I'll second the recommendation, and also the caveats. Although tall
panoramas shouldn't be a problem if you lay down the components in
landscape?
Click to expand...
It doesn't work that way, I don't think. The way the panorama is
stitched it wouldn't look correct and the software thinks the
horizon will be constant across the image. It doesn't work that
way in a horizontal picture. I really don't think that would work.
If it did, PF could simply do both directions.
Click to expand...
 
I haven't used the others, but I like the panorama feature in Photoshop Elements. It stitches horizontally and vertically, blends segments with different exposures pretty well, and has the option of perspective control and cylindrical mapping. $49 after rebate from a number of online sources.
 
Yes, there are four of them now. Last time I was there, there was Zero! I'm not sure, but I think the manual says that is impossible. I'll give it a try and see what I can come up with. However, if you look at them they seem to be carefully selected panoramas. I'm not sure you could just plop your camera down and shoot one like that.

I'll try it and let you know. I love panorama factory and if it does vertical ones too, with a little trickery even, I'll be very happy!
Stephen said:
Serra said:
Stephen said:
I'll second the recommendation, and also the caveats. Although tall
panoramas shouldn't be a problem if you lay down the components in
landscape?
Click to expand...
It doesn't work that way, I don't think. The way the panorama is
stitched it wouldn't look correct and the software thinks the
horizon will be constant across the image. It doesn't work that
way in a horizontal picture. I really don't think that would work.
If it did, PF could simply do both directions.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
http://www.panoguide.com is a very good resource, however naturally I have some of my own suggestions.

http://www.mgisoft.com supply the excellent and modestly priced Photovista I use and love it. Photovista is best used in tandem with Ulead Photo explorer 6 that digs out the exact lens setting from the Exif information you used when shooting - tricky to later figure out if you've been zooming in and out. Explorer 6 in the version that comes with ads is also free and Photovista works best when you describe your camera's exact focal length at time of shooting.

http://www.fh-furtwangen.de/~dersch is Dersch's site the software is superb, but tough to get to grips with - allbeit free. Someones built a nice front end to Dersch's software for which they charge you, despite this: http://www.easypano.net is a worthwhile buy.

For high resolution spherical try http://www.d-vw.com and http://www.realviz.com - I haven't a clue how effective they are and honestly with a bit of effort Photovista will do the same for about 10th the price.

Photoshop Elements is a great value image editing package, but not really much fun when used to create panoramas.

regards Michael http://www.360sphere.com
Mike M said:
I haven't used the others, but I like the panorama feature in
Photoshop Elements. It stitches horizontally and vertically,
blends segments with different exposures pretty well, and has the
option of perspective control and cylindrical mapping. $49 after
rebate from a number of online sources.
Click to expand...
 
Lin Evans said:
Perhaps the most powerful of all presently
available stitching software is Helmut Dersch's PanoTools v2.1
(Panorama Tools).
Click to expand...
I absolutely agree and after trying out many other packages, this one is my all time favourite. I did give up on it twice before, because it is script based and I just didn't get it, but now it has a wonderful (Windows) frontend called PTGUI (available as shareware at http://www.ptgui.com ). It makes it really easy to use the Panorama Tools by Prof. Dersch. The combination can handle any arrangement of photos, rows, columns, tilted, whatever.... So you don't absolutely have to watch for that horizontal horizon, stitching handheld shots is very successful with this set of tools.

The end result of the stitching process can be a layered Photoshop file, allowing you to change the masks after stitching and adjust each image to compensate for different lighting (if neccessary).

For some tips also check out a small page of tips for PTGUI that I put up at http://www.stmuc.com/digicam
Member said:
NOT recommended unless you are very well versed in
both photography, software ...
Click to expand...
I think if you can use PTGUI, this doesn't apply as strongly as you word it, although I still don't go near the scripts that PTGUI produces :-)

Regards
  • Lutz
 
Sugan said:
Anyone have any suggestions on the best panoramic software to use?
Click to expand...
Image Expert 2000 is a program similar to ACDSee, and has an excellent panorama feature which uses Enroute's software. It's the best I have tried. The downside is that the program is a bit slow compared to some when you first open a folder that has a lot of photos in it. The up side is that you can drag and drop the photos to be stitched into postion, and with a couple of clicks you're on your way. It will do vertical or horizontal.
 
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