current best pano stitcher

[Lisa Nikodym]

It's time for me to get a new panorama stitcher.  I haven't done any panos in several years, and used to use Panorama Factory way back then (which wasn't perfect, but sufficient).  I had also tried PT Assembler then, if I remember the name correctly, but it was very slow to manually specify the matching points, and I couldn't manage to get a pano without visible seams when I used it.

I just tried to use Photomerge in CS3 on a pano, and found that I'm getting very obvious seams, even with the Blend option checked.  I've heard some good things about an improved Photomerge in CS4; has anyone here used both, and can they tell whether the one in CS4 is sufficiently better to make it worth upgrading?  Can anyone here recommend any clearly better stitching programs right now?  I'm looking for something that doesn't involve manually specifying the matching points, and can create panos without visible seams or blending problems.  Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Lisa

[Panopeeper]

I'm looking for something that doesn't involve manually specifying the matching points, and can create panos without visible seams or blending problems.

Well, with these parameters you should use some simple stitcher, like Photoshop, and limit your pano creation to "normal", i.e. problem free cases.

Those stitchers, which are based on Panorama Tools (the Father of Stitchers), can solve problem cases as well, but that requires manual intervention. These are PTGui, PTAssembler and Hugin (what else?).

As to the manual selection of the control points: PTAssembler, my favourite, too uses Autopano for setting control points. Still, I have been specifying the control points manually for years, for greater control and better stitching result. Contrary to popular belief, setting the control points is not a simple issue.

[ErikKaffehr]

Lisa,

My favorite tool is Autopano Pro with the "Smart Blend" option. I have some writeup on the issue here:

http://83.177.178.241/ekr/index.php/photoa...a-and-stitching

Best regards
Erik

It's time for me to get a new panorama stitcher.  I haven't done any panos in several years, and used to use Panorama Factory way back then (which wasn't perfect, but sufficient).  I had also tried PT Assembler then, if I remember the name correctly, but it was very slow to manually specify the matching points, and I couldn't manage to get a pano without visible seams when I used it.

I just tried to use Photomerge in CS3 on a pano, and found that I'm getting very obvious seams, even with the Blend option checked.  I've heard some good things about an improved Photomerge in CS4; has anyone here used both, and can they tell whether the one in CS4 is sufficiently better to make it worth upgrading?  Can anyone here recommend any clearly better stitching programs right now?  I'm looking for something that doesn't involve manually specifying the matching points, and can create panos without visible seams or blending problems.  Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Lisa

[JeffKohn]

I find that if you're shooting from a tripod with careful rotation over the entrance pupil of the lens, manually specifying the control points is rarely necessary. The exception might be to delete "false" control points such as in moving clouds, waves, etc. Sometimes manually creating vertical or horizontal control points can also be useful to level the pano, but I rarely need to do so.

Autopano Pro is quick, easy, and relatively full-featured. For most images it will give results nearly identical to PTGui,  or other panotools-based software. One thing I really like about Autopano Pro is that i has an uncanny ability to automatically set the correct centerpoint and level the pano, it will often do a better job of this than PTGui. The downside of Autopano Pro is that there's no support for manual control points, and it's missing a few features of PTGui Pro that I really like.

PTGui Pro is a very capable stitcher, with a lot of manual control. The interface is a bit clunky compared to Autopano Pro, but it has support for manual control points. It also has a projection mode called Vedutismo that I really like for wide to moderately wide landscape panos. Also, the support for exposure blending is very good. These last two features are the reason I tend to prefer PTGui to Autopano Pro, and if I had to pick just one stitcher it would be PTGui Pro.

[Lisa Nikodym]

Thanks, I'll look into Autopano Pro.  That one didn't exist the last time I was looking into pano software.

I do use a tripod with a rail that I've calibrated to get the lens nodal point close to the right place, which is why I was surprised that my first attempt at stitching with CS3 Photomerge didn't work very well; it produced very visible seams.

(Hi Erik!  Thanks for your suggestions on the Dolomites a couple of months ago.  In fact, the pano I'm starting to work on was from that trip, and I have several more panos to be done.  It's a region that really calls out for panoramas!  We liked it so much that we plan to go back in a year or two.)

Lisa

[ErikKaffehr]

I actually don't care about the nodal point, "smartblend" seems to take care of that. Need to do some more testing which may change my mind.

The major reason I use smartblend is that it can take care of things that move between the exposures, like branches. The disadvantage of smartblend is that it may be slow.

Smartblend is a blender option in Autpano Pro, but I think it's also part of PtGui Pro. Jeff explains some of the differences between the two programs. False control points are definitively an issue. Autopano Pro has also a control point edit facility.

Nice to hear that you liked the Dolomites.

Best regards
Erik

Thanks, I'll look into Autopano Pro.  That one didn't exist the last time I was looking into pano software.


(Hi Erik!  Thanks for your suggestions on the Dolomites a couple of months ago.  In fact, the pano I'm starting to work on was from that trip, and I have several more panos to be done.  It's a region that really calls out for panoramas!  We liked it so much that we plan to go back in a year or two.)

Lisa

[Ray]

I'll also confirm that Autopano Pro does the best job for me. But not always. I have come across instances where CS3 Photomerge has done a better job, in fully automatic mode, for some reason which I cannot fathom.

Having attempted stitching for a number of years, even before I got my first digital camera, I often found in those olden days that stitching could be a very frustrating and time-consuming experience.

Not any longer with Autopano Pro. But you have to set up the right parameter choices for the best result, such as enabling Smart Blend. My first experience with the default settings of Autopano was not too good.

I rely totally on an automatic result. I already spend too much time in front of the computer and I'm very pleased that Autopano makes it possible for me to spend much less time on a stitching job than I've been used to in the past.

I also find CS3's 'Free Transform/Warp' tools very useful to pull the stitched image into a final shape in order to avoid excessive cropping.

[Thomas Krüger]

Another stitcher is the open source software Hugin http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Edit: Version 0.8.0 of Hugin compiled for windows can be found here:
http://allardkatan.net/misc/hugin/

[Stephane Desnault]

Realviz Stitcher is still around as Autodesk Stitcher (they were bought about two years ago). It's still the most feature complete tool, with the ability to export and convert between many formats (spherical, cubic, flash, QTVR...). It has a very good interface and a "semi automatic" mode for difficult cases I haven't seen eleswhere. In the last 100 pano I've done, I've never had to set control points manually.

One quirk of Realviz though: You MUST stitch to spherical first - and then convert to your format of choice: Direct stitching to other projections (e.g. cubic) is just NOT on the same level.

I also have PTGUI and Autopano, but I'm finding I'm not using them, except for the odd "compare" urge that usually sends me back to Realviz/Autodesk.

[Christopher]

Realviz Stitcher is still around as Autodesk Stitcher (they were bought about two years ago). It's still the most feature complete tool, with the ability to export and convert between many formats (spherical, cubic, flash, QTVR...). It has a very good interface and a "semi automatic" mode for difficult cases I haven't seen eleswhere. In the last 100 pano I've done, I've never had to set control points manually.

One quirk of Realviz though: You MUST stitch to spherical first - and then convert to your format of choice: Direct stitching to other projections (e.g. cubic) is just NOT on the same level.

I also have PTGUI and Autopano, but I'm finding I'm not using them, except for the odd "compare" urge that usually sends me back to Realviz/Autodesk.

I tried Realviz Stitcher years ago and found it a total disaster. Tried Autodesk and it took AGGGGGES to stitch... Well that was that. I don't know perhaps I did something wrong, but these programs are freaking expensive I expect a lot more from than. I still use PTGui 90% of the time, in my eyes it is just a lot faster than Pano Pro.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Speed is definitively an issue. I feel some urgency to get a fatter computer since I got my Sony Alpha 900. I feel really sorry for all the guys (and dolls) with P65s ;-).
I need to talk to Santa about me needing a MacPro. My iMac is close to retirement age, anyway.

Best regards
Erik

I tried Realviz Stitcher years ago and found it a total disaster. Tried Autodesk and it took AGGGGGES to stitch... Well that was that. I don't know perhaps I did something wrong, but these programs are freaking expensive I expect a lot more from than. I still use PTGui 90% of the time, in my eyes it is just a lot faster than Pano Pro.

[JeffKohn]

Autopano Pro has also a control point edit facility.

APP has a control point editor, but it only lets you delete existing control points, or select an area within two images to generate more automatic control points. Sometimes that's enough, but sometimes you need to manually create a control point and as far as I can tell you just can't do it in APP.

[bill t.]

Speed is definitively an issue. I feel some urgency to get a fatter computer since I got my Sony Alpha 900. I feel really sorry for all the guys (and dolls) with P65s ;-).
I need to talk to Santa about me needing a MacPro. My iMac is close to retirement age, anyway.

My 64bit Vista system handles 4GB, 16 bit, multi-layered pano files with ease.  And 64bit PTGui stitches them in a flash.  But I guess Macs are OK less challenging work.    

But really the best program for any purpose is the one that which bottlenecks your workflow the least, which tends to be the one you know the best.

[Luis Argerich]

Hugin, PtGui and PtAssembler, the holy trilogy.

[Lisa Nikodym]

What is the relationship between PTGui and PT Assembler?  Do they still require you to manually set many matching points, or do they do that automatically now?  (I tried one or the other several years ago, I don't remember which, but found that it took a very long time to define the matching points and still didn't do a very good job of stitching for me.  Maybe I needed more practice with it, but I didn't have the time & patience to try it any longer...)

Lisa

[bill t.]

Both PTGui and PTAssembler automatically generate a set of control points that you can edit if you wish.  On windy days, you may want to flip through the control points and throw out those that were on objects like plants waving in the breeze.  Sometimes curving or very smooth or monolithic architecture presents problems, etc.  But usually you just take the automatically generated set and go with it, I rarely spend more than 1 or 2 minutes tweaking them.  Whatever else, I'm glad for both the auto-generation and the editing capability.  Once a great while the only way to get a good stitch is to do a little editing but for a typical landscape you just can the worst 10 or so flailing branches.

[Lisa Nikodym]

OK, I'm sold on Autopano Pro!  I just downloaded the trial version and tried it on the pano that CS3 Photomerge did a poor job on, a combination of about a dozen 12 mp images.  It was very easy and intuitive to use, and took just a minute or two to set up (though it took about a half hour to do the stitching, but that's OK, I wandered off to do something else in the meantime).   It did all the blending automatically, and produced what looks to me like an absolutely perfect blend.  Here's a small jpg of the whole thing (still with the "Autopano" watermark on it):


Tomorrow night I'll try it on another pano, and if it works as well then I'll buy it.

Thank you all for the suggestions!

Lisa

[bill t.]

Nice image!

But you should really give PTGui a try, I would expect it to process a 12 panel stitch of 12mp images like that from loading the images to saving the blended file in about  5 minutes.  Maybe a two hour learning curve for your first pano.

[ErikKaffehr]

;-) Great ;-)

Erik

OK, I'm sold on Autopano Pro!  I just downloaded the trial version and tried it on the pano that CS3 Photomerge did a poor job on, a combination of about a dozen 12 mp images.  It was very easy and intuitive to use, and took just a minute or two to set up (though it took about a half hour to do the stitching, but that's OK, I wandered off to do something else in the meantime).   It did all the blending automatically, and produced what looks to me like an absolutely perfect blend.  Here's a small jpg of the whole thing (still with the "Autopano" watermark on it):


Tomorrow night I'll try it on another pano, and if it works as well then I'll buy it.

Thank you all for the suggestions!

Lisa

[Jeremy Roussak]

OK, I'm sold on Autopano Pro!  I just downloaded the trial version and tried it on the pano that CS3 Photomerge did a poor job on, a combination of about a dozen 12 mp images.  It was very easy and intuitive to use, and took just a minute or two to set up (though it took about a half hour to do the stitching, but that's OK, I wandered off to do something else in the meantime).   It did all the blending automatically, and produced what looks to me like an absolutely perfect blend.  Here's a small jpg of the whole thing (still with the "Autopano" watermark on it):


Tomorrow night I'll try it on another pano, and if it works as well then I'll buy it.

Thank you all for the suggestions!

Lisa

I use APP and find it excellent. One caveat, though: it loses any colour profile embedded in the components of the panorama. So if you export from Lightroom in Prophoto, as I do, your images will return looking purplish and rather unpleasant. Opening them in Photoshop and assigning Prophoto as the profile solves the problem. It's an irritation, but a minor one. I don't know if PTGui has the same bug.

Nice shot, BTW. Where is it?

Jeremy