Author Topic: Stitching/Panorama software?  (Read 1230 times)

Stitching/Panorama software?
« on: 01 October, 2023, 02:03:52 pm »
What image stitching/ panorama software are people using these days?  I used to like MICE (Microsoft) before they retired it.  Hugin locks up on my Win10 machine.  My current mobile takes better panoramas these days but still relatively low res...
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Stitching/Panorama software?
« Reply #1 on: 01 October, 2023, 02:40:04 pm »
The heavyweight editing apps do panoramas, I use Affinity Photo
It is simpler than it looks.

BrianI

  • Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Lepidopterist Man!
Re: Stitching/Panorama software?
« Reply #2 on: 01 October, 2023, 02:49:42 pm »
What are image stitching/ panorama software are people using these days?  I used to like MICE (Microsoft) before they retired it.  Hugin locks up on my Win10 machine.  My current mobile takes better panoramas these days but still relatively low res...

I use Hugin on my linux box. Might be worthwhile trying a different release of Hugin to see if that locks up on Win 10.

Re: Stitching/Panorama software?
« Reply #3 on: 04 October, 2023, 11:58:58 pm »
There's more to successful panoramas than stitching software.

There is, within a lens, a nodal point. If the lens is rotated around the nodal point, nearby and distant objects remain aligned whether they are on the left, centre, or right side of the image. If the lens is rotated around some other point, such as the camera tripod thread or your feet, the alignment changes, so a nearby object may be to the left of a distant object in one shot of your panorama, but to the right in the next shot.

This is not a situation that lends itself to realistic looking stitching results. In general the less (important) foreground detail there is, the better the stitching results are likely to be, so a landscape panorama is easier than an urban or indoor panorama.

For handheld panoramas, try to move you around a stationary camera rather than staying still and swinging the camera around you.
If tripod mounting, you can get nodal point slide rails to offset the camera tripod mount from the tripod head pivot point (around £30).  Finding the nodal point is a matter of trial and error. In general, it varies with focal length, and is closer to the front of the lens with wide lenses than long ones.

Phone panoramas work much better in terms of alignment because the phone effectively takes a video as it is rotated, and builds up the panorama from a very large number of very narrow central strips, taken from each frame.

Using just software without a slide, you'll get better results mimicing a phone by taking a lot of shots with generous overlaps.

Re: Stitching/Panorama software?
« Reply #4 on: 16 October, 2023, 11:03:45 pm »
Thanks all, useful. Given up on Hugin for the mo.

I'll make an effort to keep my camera or phone (for stills) rotating around a fixed point by moving myself.   :)
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson