Panoramas

[lurcher]

Hi
I just took 4 mountain shots with the same exposure to create a panorama. I thought merging them together in Photoshop would be easy but they don't fit! I used a tripod to shoot with about a 10-15% overlap so thought it would just be a case of overlapping the images.

For some reason, maybe barrel distortion they don't fit ie. they need distorting and rotating. I use PS a lot but still cannot get them to fit. Surely I can do it in PS and not have to buy a stitcher app? I use OSX and have PScs1.

Thanks

 

[penguinman]

i have been meaning to try to make a panorama in photoshop, but haven't had the time to do it yet.

WHat kind of camera and lense did you use to make the exposures?

 

[lurcher]

I just used my Fuji s7000 in manual mode on the highest Fstop (f8)

 

[G4scott]

I know CS2 has this feature, and CS 1 might. Try going to File > Automate > Photomerge. This is Adobe's built in photo-stitching feature. It is, however, somewhat hard to counter the effects of barrel distortion when creating a panoramic image. I wish you luck, though, and would be interested to see the finished product if it works out.

 

[cr2sh]

kekus.com has a program called PTmac... the fully functional demo has no limitations on export and could easily accomplish what you're asking in a matter of minutes.


There's a little bit of a software learning curve.. but the program is fantastic.

 

[alywa]

PS Elements

I use PS Elements 3... automerge feature.

It works quite well... always use "advanced blending"... I find overlap by 33-50% works the best... just use more images.

-alywa

 

[-hh]

I know CS2 has this feature, and CS 1 might. Try going to File > Automate > Photomerge. This is Adobe's built in photo-stitching feature. It is, however, somewhat hard to counter the effects of barrel distortion when creating a panoramic image. I wish you luck, though, and would be interested to see the finished product if it works out.

I wasn't aware that CS2 had the feature...I'll have to go look for it.

FWIW, I've just used the stitching software that came with our Canon P&S.


Here's two examples...URL's only, since they're pretty big:

http://www.huntzinger.com/photo/2004/peru/machu picchu 5 (799-803).jpg
http://www.huntzinger.com/photo/2004/peru/machu picchu 4 (795-798).jpg

FWIW, what I'd like to do is that I'm not really satisfied with either of these images...I'd like to normalize them and then do an over/under merge on them to get what I really would want to have (no clipped mountain peak).




-hh

 

[whocares]

The problem with stitching panoramas is variation in parallax. Parallax is difficult to correct with software.

To solve most of your problems, you need to mount your camera on a tripod and rotate it around the nodal point of your lens. You can buy expensive rigs to do this, make your own, or just rotate the camera around the optical axis of the lens (this is easy if the tripod mount is centered on the lens axis as it is on most SLRs). This will solve most of your geometrical problems.

I may be mistaken, but wide angle lenses should have fewer parallax issues, so use your widest angled lens. You can always correct any distorsion with software. PT Tools has PS plugins to do that. It also has some stiching software. I'll go look for a link. --> found it

Pros usually build panos using a full-frame fisheye in vertical positions, and correct the lens back into a rectilinear lens.


I hope all this gibberish helps and that I'm not giving you wrong information. Please correct if you know more than I do.

 

[ChrisA]

Hi
I just took 4 mountain shots with the same exposure to create a panorama. I thought merging them together in Photoshop would be easy but they don't fit! I used a tripod to shoot with about a 10-15% overlap so thought it would just be a case of overlapping the images.

For some reason, maybe barrel distortion they don't fit ie. they need distorting and rotating. I use PS a lot but still cannot get them to fit. Surely I can do it in PS and not have to buy a stitcher app? I use OSX and have PScs1.

Thanks

You really do have to "warp" the images to make then stitch. Putting a level on the tripod helps a lot too. The camera must remain level as it pans. I've done panorams the "old Way" using a 35mm SLR with a quality "prime" (non-zoom) lens and then used a razor blade the stich the frames. Still there was some minor distortion.

The simplest way is to buy a comercial product. But you can round up the required free tools. Start here http://panotools.sourceforge.net/ You might want to read that page from the botom up as the support and documentation links are down there. "panotools" really is the most sophisticated of the availabe stitchers and unlike most of the comecial ones allows manual input and control of the process.

 

[whocares]

I wasn't aware that CS2 had the feature...I'll have to go look for it.

FWIW, I've just used the stitching software that came with our Canon P&S.


Here's two examples...URL's only, since they're pretty big:

You big show-off.

I've read really good reviews about the Canon stichting sofware. Unfortunately I shoot Nikon and are left fresh out of the water.

 

[ChrisA]

I've read really good reviews about the Canon stichting sofware. Unfortunately I shoot Nikon and are left fresh out of the water.

The Canon software does not care what kind of camera shot the images. I've used it too and it works fine with scanned paper prints and my wife's Sony P&S camera. The only way to get the software that I know of is to buy a Canon camera but they must sell replacment CDs and software updates. You might try hunting on the Canon web site.

If you do happen to have a Canon P&S and you did use the camera's panoramma setting then the image files are sequence tagged and the software ca put them in the right order but you can use untagged mages from any source and manually order them.

The "panotools" is the most flexable but it has a very steep learning curve too.

 

[savar]

Hi
I just took 4 mountain shots with the same exposure to create a panorama. I thought merging them together in Photoshop would be easy but they don't fit! I used a tripod to shoot with about a 10-15% overlap so thought it would just be a case of overlapping the images.

For some reason, maybe barrel distortion they don't fit ie. they need distorting and rotating. I use PS a lot but still cannot get them to fit. Surely I can do it in PS and not have to buy a stitcher app? I use OSX and have PScs1.

Thanks

Its not barrel distortion, its the fact that each picture is taken from a different perspective. So naturally objects in each one aren't going to perfectly overlap the corresponding objects in the others.

It does take some perspective mapping to create a panorama from disparate photos. No need to pay lots of money for it though -- HP has a software package that among other things can make easy panoramas. Try this link here. If that doesn't work, just search for HP Image Zone. It uses SIFT processing to automatically line up all of your photos and calculate the perspective transforms...basically this means its drop-dead easy to use.

 

[whocares]

The Canon software does not care what kind of camera shot the images. I've used it too and it works fine with scanned paper prints and my wife's Sony P&S camera. The only way to get the software that I know of is to buy a Canon camera but they must sell replacment CDs and software updates. You might try hunting on the Canon web site.

Yeah - that's what I was referring too. But hunting it down may not be a made idea. I'm not too hopeful though - probably against EULA.

 

[whocares]

It does take some perspective mapping to create a panorama from disparate photos. No need to pay lots of money for it though -- HP has a software package that among other things can make easy panoramas. Try this link here. If that doesn't work, just search for HP Image Zone. It uses SIFT processing to automatically line up all of your photos and calculate the perspective transforms...basically this means its drop-dead easy to use.

Downloading right now.

 

[lurcher]

Well thanks for all the help everyone. I have tried the Photomerge in PS and the result is this...



This is saved down to 1280. I had to do some retouching as some of the peaks did not quite line up. Its not a bad start though. I will download the HP app to see if that is better.

 

[G4scott]

Well thanks for all the help everyone. I have tried the Photomerge in PS and the result is this...

View attachment 41974

This is saved down to 1280. I had to do some retouching as some of the peaks did not quite line up. Its not a bad start though. I will download the HP app to see if that is better.

It looks pretty good to me. I didn't notice any of the stitch lines.

 

[sarae]

Wow, very nice. I don't notice any stitching areas. How many pictures were you using originally?

I've long been meaning to try some panoramas... however I haven't any cool mountain-type scenery nearby. One of these days I'll try it out.

 

[lurcher]

Wow, very nice. I don't notice any stitching areas. How many pictures were you using originally?

Thanks for the positive feedback. I used 4 images for this panorama. It was such a beatiful view I had to have a go. I think its the scene that makes it rather than the photo though!

 

[lurcher]

HP has a software package that among other things can make easy panoramas. Try this link here. If that doesn't work, just search for HP Image Zone. It uses SIFT processing to automatically line up all of your photos and calculate the perspective transforms...basically this means its drop-dead easy to use.

Wow I have to say this free app is superb at making panoramas. Much better than PS Automerge. It does all the transformations to make an incredible seamless blend, even if you have a fair bit of distortion. No need to retouch awkward areas in PS afterwards.

Thanks for the tip