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Panorama software advice

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Stoatgobbler

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Hi,

I think this is the right forum for panorama making software questions?

I've just started to use this software, I'm using a (newly bought) Panasonic G1, using RAW, then using their Silkypix software to convert images, into TIFF format (16 bit & 300dpi).

I've then been using Arcsoft's Panaorama Maker 3 (bought from Ebay for £5) to stitch images using automatic settings and set for the highest quality output in again TIFF format.

I then use CS2 to do any image post processing.

My problem is that I've discovered the Arcsoft software highest quality setting for the stitched output file is 72dpi and I'd like to keep using 300dpi to the final product.

One solution would be to buy CS4 but I can't afford it, Arcsofts Panorama Maker 5 is £60 and I could afford this but I can't find what it's output file abilities are and if I'm spending this kind of money I'd like to ensure I'm getting value for money?

I've found a site (panoguide.com) which lists available software but no-one seems to list what the output file sizes are and I don't wish to start downloading trial versions to just see what their output file abilities are (getting rid of them once played with is a pain).

Does anyone have any advice, experience or opinions to offer please?

Stoat
 
Without a doubt the best panorama software is AutopanoPro. It does the best job of blending images and removing any exposure differences. It also fixes problems where an object moves from one shot to the next.

It's relatively expensive but, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

There are quite a few examples of its output at website below. I used it for many of the pan/zoom shots in the North Atlantic Videos too, including the Shutterfly title page. One of the panos I made was from something like 14 images and ended up more than 40,000 pixels wide. This choked my video editor so I had to break it up into 4 separate ones.

To answer your specific question, it renders the final pano at full resolution: whatever your original shots were, that's what the final result is.

Note that the resolution of a digital image and pixels/inch are not related. The resolution of an image is how many pixels it has, period. A digital image has no physical size; the pixels/inch is determined when you print it (or view it) by specifying the size you want. At that time the pixels in the image are spread over the size you specify. For printing you want something like 300 pixels per inch (typically called DPI) so you might need to up-res the image to provide these additional pixels. With most panoramas you have more pixels than needed however.
--
Birk Binnard
http://www.birkbinnard.com/photography
 
Microsoft ICE.

Try it. I have not used every program out there but have tried at least 3 and ICE is the best from what I have tried. And it's free.
 
Hmmm, 300dpi, obviously over Christmas my brain has fried, you are quite right, take the horizontal pixel count and divide by the actual intended width of the image... apologies for being simple, too much Christmas spirit :-)

However, a specific is a stitch of 3 off .TIFF images, each 70.4Mb in size therefore 211Mb in total, assume a 30%-50% overlap then the actual stitched image size should be between 105Mb and 141Mb. The output .TIFF file of these three images (from Arcsofts Panorama Maker 3) is actually 60Mb in size. Simplistic may be but there has to be some information loss here?

Stoat
 
Hmmmm, I've downloaded MS ICE and its stitched together these images resulting in a 93.6Mb .TIFF image.

Is this "better" than Arcsofts 60Mb .TIFF image?

I can't see what criteria the MS software used to generate the .TIFF image (I'm at the limit of my knowledge here but I don't know the settings available for a .TIFF image, 16 bit colour or a lessor quality?)?

Stoat
 
Stoatgobbler said:
Hmmmm, I've downloaded MS ICE and its stitched together these images resulting in a 93.6Mb .TIFF image.

Is this "better" than Arcsofts 60Mb .TIFF image?

I can't see what criteria the MS software used to generate the .TIFF image (I'm at the limit of my knowledge here but I don't know the settings available for a .TIFF image, 16 bit colour or a lessor quality?)?

Stoat
Click to expand...
Have you looked at (or considered) PTGui.

I have used it for several years and get very good results. I have upgraded a couple times but do not know the current version number.
I never cease to be amazed at what this software can do.
--
Vernon...
 
I tried Hugin and found it a bit hard to use. I tried ICE and it was really simple and fast but I couldn't open the tiff's in Capture NX. I tried to save in a couple of different formats of Tiff but still wouldn't work . I saved in jpeg and it worked fine. I like the idea of using tiff's until I'm ready to print or put on web. Ice is really fast and simple.
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porchking
 
Jim,

I don't have CS4. Sorry I can't help you on that. I have tried the stitching software that is in the earlier versions of Photoshop Elements but it was the worst of what I did try. Perhaps newer versions are better. I tried the trial version of Panorama Factory & it was about the same at Canon's Photostitch. Each one had it own defects. I seem to recall trying another product but can't recall which one at this time. Then I found out about Microsoft ICE which is easy to use, blends the sky very nicely (at least for me), and did not create any double image artifacts. So for me ICE is the way to go.

Mike
 
relate22 said:
With Autostitch you just choose the photos you want stitched and the program does it all. You can choose original size and best of all it is free.
http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html#autostitch
--
http://www.pbase.com/reelate2
http://www.pbase.com/relate2
What flying means to me.
http://vimeo.com/2598837

Click to expand...
Will the free version handle BOTH TIF input and output.

Also, have you ever tried to stitch several (for example 15 to 20) images using either JPG or TIF.

I tried it several Months ago and had some issues with several input images but don't remember what release it was at that time.
So, I decided to get PTGui and it has worked without issue.
--
Vernon...
 
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