Stitching raw digital images

[dreed]

I've been playing around with experimenting more with stitching pictures using Photoshop CS6, PTGui and Autopana Giga.

Of the three, CS6 I've found to be the worst, principally because if it couldn't stitch the images together itself then it wouldn't let me guide it. Maybe I was missing something but with difficult to stitch images, CS6 was a fail. With CS6, images were exported from Lr with a "Merge to Panorama."

Some sets of images PTGui couldn't work out how to stitch but it would let me tell it how to stitch difficult images. Unfortunately there's no export from Lr, so raw images need to be loaded directly and without any Lr adjustments unless there is an export from Lr to TIFF or similar. It is however possible to make some adjustments (such as +/- on exposure) when creating the panorama.

Autopana Giga stitched images together that CS6 couldn't and PTGui could only do with manual assistance. Similarly to PTGui, there is no direct export from Lr into Autopana Giga so the only way to get adjusted raws is via an export to TIFF. Unlike PTGui I could see no way to adjust the exposure when creating the export.

For now, I'm settling on PTGui simply because it lets me control the exposure on panoramic creation (useful when stitching ETTR'd images) but I'd be curious to hear what others use or how they find the various apps compare.

[howardm]

For my last set of pano's (up around the Maine coastline), I just pulled all the raw images into PS CC ACR and processed them into TIFFs which I then fed into PTgui and imported the output of stitching into LR for additional work.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

For now, I'm settling on PTGui simply because it lets me control the exposure on panoramic creation (useful when stitching ETTR'd images) but I'd be curious to hear what others use or how they find the various apps compare.

Hi,

Photoshop uses dated resampling algorithms, and consumes huge amounts of memory. It cannot deal with complex scenarios, like Tilt/Shift lens captures.

I also prefer using PTGUI, amongst others because of its manual control capabilities. It's also very flexible and fast, and doesn't use more memory than needed which allows large projects without running out of memory. When using TIFFs as input, you can already have those corrected for Chromatic Aberrations, and Capture sharpened, and in a colorspace of your liking.

Autopano can be useful to sift through large numbers of images, but it may be harder to tame in difficult situations. I'm also a bit confused with it's colormanagement implementation.

Cheers,
Bart

[Paul2660]

A stitcher since 2003 or so, I have used all of the various software solutions. 

I don't believe CC has updated their code since around CS5 levels, as Bart mentioned.  I find it Ok for single row work but multi row and it tends to get bogged down, and takes way too much ram.  (this is on a 32GB i7 win7 64 bit). 
Many forget the version that was available in CS3, where you could actually move the segments around in the "reposition" selection.  With CS4 this went away at least I have never been able to move them anymore.  The CS3 version (even extended) was limited by total ram available as it was not a 64 bit app, thus using this option on 16 images never worked, as the program choked.

PtGui, has a ton of power and after you get used to the interface and control point layout, does a a good job most of the time.  Make sure you check the advanced tab as it gives you so many more options, and look selection for interpolation as PtGui offers a huge number of them.  CC doesn't give you any options and I have read it still uses nearest neighbor in the panoramic process.  I had hoped this would be improved with CC or CC 2014 as in the standard uprez tab, they did add a new (enlargement preserve details) selection which does very well. 

Kolor's solution also can work wonders. 

I never send raws in, always adjusted tif files, but that's my preference just seems to give me better balance output.  Plus a lot of stuff I am working with is MFD stitched, needing an LCC correction. 

Paul

[Torbjörn Tapani]

When Microsoft ICE works it's really fast. A lot better than PS.

For more demanding stuff I use PTgui. I get the images halfway there in LR and export to TIFF, then sometimes export layers from PTGui that go into PS for tweeks, export to master TIFF that gets final edit in LR.

[dreed]

When Microsoft ICE works it's really fast. A lot better than PS.

I used to use ICE but once I started using the others, I realised that using ICE meant blacks were being clipped when I didn't want, same with highlights.

[PeterAit]

For more demanding stuff I use PTgui. I get the images halfway there in LR and export to TIFF, then sometimes export layers from PTGui that go into PS for tweeks, export to master TIFF that gets final edit in LR.

Can you please explain what you mean by exporting layers from PT GUi?

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Can you please explain what you mean by exporting layers from PT GUi?

Hi Peter,

PTGUI allows to output separate files or a single file with the individual layers, already aligned and warped (with or without masks).

Cheers,
Bart

[Larry451]

Hi,
Just wondering if people are using;  PTgui  pro   or   PTgui personal  I'm on a mac but I don't think that makes much difference.
regards
Larry

[Eyeball]

I would also be interested if anyone has a preference for one of these stitching programs where "Brenizer method" shots are concerned.

I ask because these types of shots typically have a lot of blurry/OOF areas to deal with that seem to make these types of operations even more difficult.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Hi,
Just wondering if people are using;  PTgui  pro   or   PTgui personal  I'm on a mac but I don't think that makes much difference.

Hi Larry,

PTGUI Pro offers more control, masking, viewpoint correction, more exposure and blending options, etc. Here are the differences.

Cheers,
Bart

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I would also be interested if anyone has a preference for one of these stitching programs where "Brenizer method" shots are concerned.

Hi,

PTGUI allows to reposition image tiles by dragging if needed, but even in the Brenizer method the image need to be in focus in a single narrow DOF zone / plane of focus, where all programs should be able to place control points in the overlapping regions.

Cheers,
Bart

[Eyeball]

PTGUI allows to reposition image tiles by dragging if needed, but even in the Brenizer method the image need to be in focus in a single narrow DOF zone / plane of focus, where all programs should be able to place control points in the overlapping regions.

Yes, the in-focus parts are not much of a problem but I have had problems in the past with Photoshop with the OOF areas.  I'll give PTGUI a shot.  Thanks.

[Ellis Vener]

Hi Larry,

PTGUI Pro offers more control, masking, viewpoint correction, more exposure and blending options, etc. Here are the differences.

Cheers,
Bart

PTGui Pro for me. becasue most of my panoramic work is of cities or of other situations where things are moving, I always export from PTGui yusingthe background + layers option.

[Damon Lynch]

I have licenses for both PTGui personal and Autopano Pro. My experience is considerably more limited than other users here. Nonetheless I have a few observations -

Sometimes one program can correctly stitch a scene that the other program fails with.

Personally, I strongly prefer the user interface of Autopano Pro. To me it seems better thought through than that used by PTGui.  In my opinion it looks nicer too, for whatever that's worth.

PTGui 10.0.6 currently has a pretty basic bug -- it doesn't correctly output correct EXIF information (with my files at least). Version 10 currently seems more like a beta product. Hopefully within the next six months they will iron out such issues.

One thing I am pleased by is that with these stitching programs, I can revisit old RAW files of scenes where I took multiple shots without originally having intended to make a panorama. Sometimes I can make a decent enough panorama that gets the job done.

[dreed]

Yes, the in-focus parts are not much of a problem but I have had problems in the past with Photoshop with the OOF areas.  I'll give PTGUI a shot.  Thanks.

For me it wasn't OOF areas but rather I did the top half of a reflection with one shot and the bottom half with the other. This meant that the majority of the overlapping area was rippled water. PS just rejected it outright. PTGui said "find the control points for me" (which I could) and Autopana got it done.

[Larry451]

thanks;       time to buy PTGUI pro,   photoshop CC  just doesn't do it.   I photograph smaller parts of nature not overall scenes,  so I have out of focus parts ( F8 - 11 )  +  I also use focus stacking, so I'm asking for a lot out of my D800e + zeiss 100mm. 
regards
Larry.