For the first time ever, I wanted to stitch several shots into a panorama. I did not use a tripod, so the images did not line up perfectly in Photoshop. After an hour of trying to clone mismatched shots together, I gave up and did a google search for panorama stitching software. Several hits came up, but Panorama Factory sounded familiar, so I took a look at that one. I downloaded the trial version and it made quick work of stitching together my photos... into this:
When I saved the image, then opened it in Photoshop, it had the company's logo planted right in the middle of the image! I was very happy with what it had done, so I went back to their site and paid the $60 to register the software. In the past, I had thought it a waste of money to buy a product like this since I could do it in Photoshop. Well, after an hour of frustration and being nowhere close to done, I now think $60 is well worth the cost for this product...
I'm just starting to mess with panoramics myself. There are several sites - www.epaperpress.com, www.panotools.com, www.panoguide.com, www.ptgui.com which provide a wealth of information.
Currently I'm using PTGui as a front-end to panotools - it seems to produce wonderful results but can be more tedious to use than some other programs.
There's a few tricks I have already learnt (some from reading, some from trying to create panoramics myself):
1) If you can go manual exposure then do that. Expose for the brightest image since it's normally easier to get detail out of underexposed areas. Bracket shots and merge them before stitching if you need to (I haven't yet).
2) Most programs suggest somewhere between 20 and 50 percent overlap between each image.
3) When selecting control points to match images, choose points which don't move - tree branches can sway and make it hard for the software to understand the distortion. Pick points which are fixed.
4) Take your time picking control points (especially for PTGui) - when I was VERY careful to match the points exactly the difference in the result was very noticable. Some stitching programs only need approximate points, PTGui needs exact points.
5) When choosing your first frame to photograph (especially if not using a fish eye lens) choose either an edge of your final image or a border where nothing will change. I recently took a 360degree shot and by the time I got all the way around the clouds had moved - I should have started in the other direction where there were no clouds.
Good luck - I found the process initially slightly awkward, but things are quickly falling into place.
Beautiful panorama Simon! Did you look at the sizes available at DPCPrints? I have had Panos printed in 60 x 12, 30 x 6, 24 x 6 and 24 x 12. A couple of these I have had to enlarge the borders to make the aspect ratio but they were approved and they looked fabulous when I got them.
Beautiful panorama Simon! Did you look at the sizes available at DPCPrints? I have had Panos printed in 60 x 12, 30 x 6, 24 x 6 and 24 x 12. A couple of these I have had to enlarge the borders to make the aspect ratio but they were approved and they looked fabulous when I got them.
Thanks for the tip on DPC Prints. I had tried uploading the print to order before but I didn't adjust the aspect ratio to one that it allowed so I couldn't order, but now I have changed it to 5:1 it will let me put in my order
