Joining pictures to make a panorama.

On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 05:16:25 GMT, "TomS"
wrote:

Is there something like Canon PhotoStitch available for PhotoShop to create panoramic pictures by joining a sequence of photos together, which are taken using a digital camera mounted on a tripod? Prefer a free add-on, because only want to experiment with it at this stage.

Shannon

It is already part of Photoshop v 7 or better. It is also a part of PS Elements.

Why bother with an add-on when you can use Autostitch? Amazingly good (free) software.

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

P

TomS wrote:

Is there something like Canon PhotoStitch available for PhotoShop to create panoramic pictures by joining a sequence of photos together, which are taken using a digital camera mounted on a tripod? Prefer a free add-on, because only want to experiment with it at this stage.

Shannon

Avery wrote:

It is already part of Photoshop v 7 or better. It is also a part of PS Elements.

Look for "photomerge" in the help section.

—
Gregor’s Motorradreisen:
http://hothaus.de/greg-tour/

TomS wrote:

Is there something like Canon PhotoStitch available for PhotoShop to create panoramic pictures by joining a sequence of photos together, which are taken using a digital camera mounted on a tripod? Prefer a free add-on, because only want to experiment with it at this stage.
Shannon

We recently had a presentation at the club about stitching. See: http://www.raphotoclub.ca/rapc/docs/digital/Stitching-semina r-CameraFusion.pdf (size 4.2 MB).
The presenters liked Hugin best. On the last page is a list of links to free tools for this. No photoshop plug-ins though.
I have no peronal experience with stitching.

"bixx" wrote in message

Why bother with an add-on when you can use Autostitch? Amazingly good (free) software.

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

I tried other stitching software but gave up as I was never happy with the results. I did my panoramas in Photoshop manually, took a lot of time and effort but was happy…however, this software you mentioned above just f*****g blew me away. Superb. However, I won’t mention it to my clients so that I can bump up my fee notes…ahem.
Thanks for mentioning this.

Big Craigie

"TomS" wrote in message

Is there something like Canon PhotoStitch available for PhotoShop to create panoramic pictures by joining a sequence of photos together, which are taken using a digital camera mounted on a tripod? Prefer a free add-on, because only want to experiment with it at this stage.
Shannon

As mentioned by Greg N. Photoshop has a built in feature for stitching called "Photomerge".
Open PS, then go to FILE / AUTOMATE / PHOTOMERGE.
You can then browse for the photos you want to "stitch" together. and on most occasions, if you have left enough of an overlap when you took the pics, PS will join them automatically, but if it can’t, it will join what it can, then manually dragging the rest of the pics to roughly the right place is enough for PS to finish it of.
If you have used Canon PhotoStitch, then you should find PS’s Photomerge option much the same.

"Big Craigie" wrote in message

"bixx" wrote in message

Why bother with an add-on when you can use Autostitch? Amazingly good (free) software.

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

I tried other stitching software but gave up as I was never happy with the results. I did my panoramas in Photoshop manually, took a lot of time and effort but was happy…however, this software you mentioned above just f*****g blew me away. Superb. However, I won’t mention it to my clients so that I can bump up my fee notes…ahem.
Thanks for mentioning this.

Big Craigie

I also use autostitch, it is streets ahead of the inbuilt Photoshop one! Harry

bixx wrote:

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

Whoa! I can’t frickin’ believe it. I just downloaded and installed it. Compared to the HOURS I used to spend on a manual 4 piece stitch operation under photoshop, this one does it in the blink of an eye and it’s PERFECT.

What can I say… I can’t frickin’ believe it.

—
Gregor’s Motorradreisen:
http://hothaus.de/greg-tour/

"Greg N." wrote in message

bixx wrote:

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

Whoa! I can’t frickin’ believe it. I just downloaded and installed it. Compared to the HOURS I used to spend on a manual 4 piece stitch operation under photoshop, this one does it in the blink of an eye and it’s PERFECT.
What can I say… I can’t frickin’ believe it.

That’s exactly how I felt. There must be some serious computation going on when it runs, HAL 9000 series stuff.

Big Craigie

Thanks for the link, I downloaded and installed it. Great program and it works quite well.

However have one problem, can’t do a 360deg panorama, it always does something less 180-270 deg:

First we took 11 pictures in landscape to make a 360 deg panorama. When we merged them it did about 240-270 deg, merging about 8 pics only.

Next we took 22 pictures in portait mode, again to make a 360 deg panorama. When we merged them it did about 180 deg, merging about 11 pics only.

In each case all pictures are 5MP resolution and are around 500-1000 kB each in jpg format. In each case I checked the individual pictures carefully and there is always overlap to the next pic

Any reasons or limitation in the program for this to happen? Maybe not enough RAM in the machine (512MB), pictures to large at 500kB, ?? Had a look in the options for the program, but can’t see anything obvious to adjust.

Thanks again for the link, Shannon

"bixx" wrote in message

Why bother with an add-on when you can use Autostitch? Amazingly good (free) software.

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

P

TomS wrote:

Is there something like Canon PhotoStitch available for PhotoShop to create panoramic pictures by joining a sequence of photos together, which are taken using a digital camera mounted on a tripod? Prefer a free add-on, because only want to experiment with it at this stage.
Shannon

On Fri, 06 Jan 2006 01:07:28 +0100, "Greg N." wrote:

bixx wrote:

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

Whoa! I can’t frickin’ believe it. I just downloaded and installed it. Compared to the HOURS I used to spend on a manual 4 piece stitch operation under photoshop, this one does it in the blink of an eye and it’s PERFECT.

What can I say… I can’t frickin’ believe it.

How does it compare to www.photofit4panorama.com. That is also a marvellous program and it is just a test. I do not see any restrictions ?

B.Pedersen Latitude -31,48.21 Longitude115,47.40 Time=GMT+8.00 If you are curious look here http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp

I guess if you’ve taken a number of shots to essentially make a circular image, your actions could simply be throwing the program…the program is looking for key elements in your photos to (stitch!) create a flat 2D image – if you’ve provided elements that the program can’t factor in.

Try leaving one image out maybe and stitch it in manually later. P

TomS wrote:

Thanks for the link, I downloaded and installed it. Great program and it works quite well.

However have one problem, can’t do a 360deg panorama, it always does something less 180-270 deg:

First we took 11 pictures in landscape to make a 360 deg panorama. When we merged them it did about 240-270 deg, merging about 8 pics only.
Next we took 22 pictures in portait mode, again to make a 360 deg panorama. When we merged them it did about 180 deg, merging about 11 pics only.
In each case all pictures are 5MP resolution and are around 500-1000 kB each in jpg format. In each case I checked the individual pictures carefully and there is always overlap to the next pic

Any reasons or limitation in the program for this to happen? Maybe not enough RAM in the machine (512MB), pictures to large at 500kB, ?? Had a look in the options for the program, but can’t see anything obvious to adjust.
Thanks again for the link, Shannon

"bixx" wrote in message

Why bother with an add-on when you can use Autostitch? Amazingly good (free) software.

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

P

TomS wrote:

Is there something like Canon PhotoStitch available for PhotoShop to create panoramic pictures by joining a sequence of photos together, which are taken using a digital camera mounted on a tripod? Prefer a free add-on, because only want to experiment with it at this stage.
Shannon

If you can’t make a 360 degree panorama in one shot, why not divide it into two passes? In your eleven picture example try stitching photos 1 through 6 and save the result. Do the same with photos 6 through 11 and save it. Then stitch the two saved images to make the full panorama.

John Forest wrote:

If you can’t make a 360 degree panorama in one shot, why not divide it into two passes? In your eleven picture example try stitching photos 1 through 6 and save the result. Do the same with photos 6 through 11 and save it. Then stitch the two saved images to make the full panorama.

You still have the problem of stitching both ends at the same time. If the software can’t do that, it doesn’t matter how many pictures are used.

Clyde

Clyde wrote:

You still have the problem of stitching
both ends at the same time. If the
software can’t do that, it doesn’t matter
how many pictures are used.

Clyde

Shirley you jest …..!

Cheers Lee O.

"TomS" wrote:

However have one problem, can’t do a 360deg panorama, it always does something less 180-270 deg:

First we took 11 pictures in landscape to make a 360 deg panorama. When we merged them it did about 240-270 deg, merging about 8 pics only.

What happens if you stitch the pictures in pairs?

Suppose you have 16 pictures. Stitch one and two, three and four, and so on. Then, taking the composite pictures, against each one and two, three and four and so on. Repeat this process until you have one picture only.

If this process breaks down before completion, take the last successful set of composite pictures, and resample them using Photoshop or the like, to half the resolution. If the program can stitch the resultant images the problem is related to file size. Otherwise I could only suggest that there is some problem related to aspect ratio.

James McNangle

"TomS" wrote in message

However have one problem, can’t do a 360deg panorama, it always does something less 180-270 deg:

Take a look at www.panoramafactory.com – it does 360 deg panoramas, but only from 1 row (ie can’t do multi-row).

The demo version puts a water mark on it, although you can either PS it out, or buy the software (it’s pretty cheap).

Word of caution – if you’re taking photos with high quality cameras, you often get a better result by disabling just features as barrel & exposure correction (best to take the photos in manual mode in the first place).

Cheers,

Colin

"TomS" wrote in message

However have one problem, can’t do a 360deg panorama, it always does something less 180-270 deg:

Out of interest, Autostitch says that it’ll do anything up to 360 x 180 deg

3rd "food for thought" – what are you trying to view the completed panorama on – I’d think that you’d need a VR viewer – do the left and right-hand edges actually match up (ie is it a display issue rather than a production issue?)

Thanks to everybody who took time to reply to my query – but we were able to do 360deg panoramas eventually. Don’t know why it did not work at the beginning, but my guess is that we tried it inside a room first and there was not enough detail on some of the walls to allow the software to match adjoining pictures. But that is just a guess.

Also thought about splitting up the pictures into 2 lots and make 2 180deg panoramas and then joining them. But never did the trial, because we succeeded with the outside panoramas eventually.

Have now taken a few outside panoramas with plenty of detail and the 360’s have worked since (however have only done 4 or 5 so far)

In all it is an excellent program and thanks to bixx for providing the original link.

"TomS" wrote in message

Thanks for the link, I downloaded and installed it. Great program and it works quite well.

However have one problem, can’t do a 360deg panorama, it always does something less 180-270 deg:

First we took 11 pictures in landscape to make a 360 deg panorama. When we merged them it did about 240-270 deg, merging about 8 pics only.
Next we took 22 pictures in portait mode, again to make a 360 deg panorama. When we merged them it did about 180 deg, merging about 11 pics only.

In each case all pictures are 5MP resolution and are around 500-1000 kB each in jpg format. In each case I checked the individual pictures carefully and there is always overlap to the next pic

Any reasons or limitation in the program for this to happen? Maybe not enough RAM in the machine (512MB), pictures to large at 500kB, ?? Had a look in the options for the program, but can’t see anything obvious to adjust.

Thanks again for the link, Shannon

"bixx" wrote in message

Why bother with an add-on when you can use Autostitch? Amazingly good (free) software.

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

P

TomS wrote:

Is there something like Canon PhotoStitch available for PhotoShop to create panoramic pictures by joining a sequence of photos together, which are taken using a digital camera mounted on a tripod? Prefer a free add-on, because only want to experiment with it at this stage.
Shannon

Just did another test with a 360deg panorama stiching together 13 pictures at 5 megapixel resolution. This was done on a P4-1.7 with 512MB RAM. We ran it 3 times, scaled at 20%, 50% and 100%. At the 100% scale it generated an image of 22043*2163 pixels (a 3.4MB jpg). The process ran a full 17 minutes – but worked without problems.

Shannon

"TomS" wrote in message

Thanks to everybody who took time to reply to my query – but we were able to do 360deg panoramas eventually. Don’t know why it did not work at the beginning, but my guess is that we tried it inside a room first and there was not enough detail on some of the walls to allow the software to match adjoining pictures. But that is just a guess.

Also thought about splitting up the pictures into 2 lots and make 2 180deg panoramas and then joining them. But never did the trial, because we succeeded with the outside panoramas eventually.

Have now taken a few outside panoramas with plenty of detail and the 360’s have worked since (however have only done 4 or 5 so far)
In all it is an excellent program and thanks to bixx for providing the original link.

"TomS" wrote in message

Thanks for the link, I downloaded and installed it. Great program and it works quite well.

However have one problem, can’t do a 360deg panorama, it always does something less 180-270 deg:

First we took 11 pictures in landscape to make a 360 deg panorama. When we merged them it did about 240-270 deg, merging about 8 pics only.
Next we took 22 pictures in portait mode, again to make a 360 deg panorama. When we merged them it did about 180 deg, merging about 11 pics only.

In each case all pictures are 5MP resolution and are around 500-1000 kB each in jpg format. In each case I checked the individual pictures carefully and there is always overlap to the next pic

Any reasons or limitation in the program for this to happen? Maybe not enough RAM in the machine (512MB), pictures to large at 500kB, ?? Had a look in the options for the program, but can’t see anything obvious to adjust.

Thanks again for the link, Shannon

"bixx" wrote in message

Why bother with an add-on when you can use Autostitch? Amazingly good (free) software.

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

P

TomS wrote:

Is there something like Canon PhotoStitch available for PhotoShop to create panoramic pictures by joining a sequence of photos together, which are taken using a digital camera mounted on a tripod? Prefer a free add-on, because only want to experiment with it at this stage.
Shannon

"Menno" wrote in message

TomS wrote:

Is there something like Canon PhotoStitch available for PhotoShop to create panoramic pictures by joining a sequence of photos together, which are taken using a digital camera mounted on a tripod? Prefer a free add-on, because only want to experiment with it at this stage.
Shannon

We recently had a presentation at the club about stitching. See: http://www.raphotoclub.ca/rapc/docs/digital/Stitching-semina r-CameraFusion.pdf (size 4.2 MB).

Looks like an interesting article and covers the subject in great detail. Forwarded it to a friend who is a graphics designer. I myself found the Autostitch product mentioned above by bixx to work well enough for my needs.

Thanks, Shannon

The presenters liked Hugin best. On the last page is a list of links to free
tools for this. No photoshop plug-ins though.
I have no peronal experience with stitching.