Uneven transitions between shots stitched into a ponarama

The Canon G1, probably subsequent versions as well, had a panorama
setting - this took it's settings from the first exposure, and also
showed half the previous frame in the LCD to help lining-up. Always
worked very well - one thing I miss with DSLRs

C J Southern wrote:
Hi all,

Yesterday I took a series of shots with my 20D and turned them into a
parorama with The Panorama Factory software.

I was careful to take them all in manual mode (1/2000 - F5.6 - ISO 200). I
haven't instructed the program to save the pamorama as a single tiff file
yet (so not sure if this will produce a different result), but when I save
the image as a PSD (PhotoShop Data) I end up with 6 image layers and 6
exposure correction layers - and a bunch of VERY obvious brightness
transitions between the shots (even though I instructed the program to make
automatic exposure corrections, and the fact the the shots were taken
seconds apart, with no variation in exposure).

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers,

Colin



The stitching software that I use are Panorama Factory and Canon 360. I
haven't encountered the layers problems you have encountered. Both are
very good programs but the program that I like but don't have yet is
Ulead Cool 360. It's been my understanding that Panorama Factory is the
most popular photo stitcher on the market. Seeing what it can do, it
probably is the most popular. But I have tried Ulead Cool 360 and I
think it's a better program than Panorama Factory or Canon 360. What's
good about Canon 360 is it's the simplest and easiest to use and it's a
freebie. Being the simplest means it doesn't have many of the controls
the other programs have.

BTW, don't process shots individually then do the stitching. Do the
stitching first then process the shot. Yesterday I stitched three wide
angle images of a beach scene using Canon 360. I can post the stitched
image but I can't see you learning anything from image that would help
in solving your problem. No Problems encountered in the stitching
process; total time maybe two minutes or less.

Thanks for your help everyone. I think "Just Plain Bill" hit the nail on the
head - I had the program set to automatically adjust exposure etc - when I
turned off a lot of the automatic stuff I instantly got perfect results.

Thinking about it, I guess the program is written to encompass all sorts of
images from all sorts of cameras - including P&S models that will suffer
from exposure / vignetting (etc) issues - it never occured to me until now
that many of these adjustments aren't needed with "L" glass, and still other
adjustments are better done in PS. So definately a case of "less is more" in
this circumstance.

I did download the PTGui demo and had a play - it too looks like a powerful
piece of software - however I came unstuck when it merged the images, but
then presented me with controls to set the horizontal and vertical angles
(?) and I got hopelessly lost from there (also crashed the program with a
divide by zero error with one of the horigontal control set to the extreme
left). I'm sure it's a simple case of reading the instructions - just
haven't had the time to invest in that get.

Thanks again for all your help.

Cheers,

Colin

"sierra" wrote in message
oups.com...
The Canon G1, probably subsequent versions as well, had a
panorama setting - this took it's settings from the first
exposure, and also showed half the previous frame in the
LCD to help lining-up. Always worked very well - one thing
I miss with DSLRs

Don't know if the G1 functions similar to the G3 (I know that one from
personal experience), but the pano mode fixes exposure on the first
image during the taking of the subsequent shots for that pano. That is
simple to do with any (DSLR) camera that has a full manual exposure
mode.

Bart

nick c wrote:

C J Southern wrote:
Hi all,

Yesterday I took a series of shots with my 20D and turned them into a
parorama with The Panorama Factory software.

I was careful to take them all in manual mode (1/2000 - F5.6 - ISO 200).
I haven't instructed the program to save the pamorama as a single tiff
file yet (so not sure if this will produce a different result), but when
I save the image as a PSD (PhotoShop Data) I end up with 6 image layers
and 6 exposure correction layers - and a bunch of VERY obvious brightness
transitions between the shots (even though I instructed the program to
make automatic exposure corrections, and the fact the the shots were
taken seconds apart, with no variation in exposure).

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers,

Colin


If money isn't an issue try PTGui 5.5 and or Panorama Maker by Arcsoft or
Autostitch (free) or Panowizard (also free). I personally feel that PTGui
is the best out there and have made great improvments over the past year.
Panorama Maker by ArcSoft is also pretty darn good for quick accurate
stitches.

Richard

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 16:32:45 -0700, Richard Carlson
wrote:



If money isn't an issue try PTGui 5.5 and or Panorama Maker by Arcsoft or
Autostitch (free) or Panowizard (also free). I personally feel that PTGui
is the best out there and have made great improvments over the past year.

Not tried them, can't comment...


Panorama Maker by ArcSoft is also pretty darn good for quick accurate
stitches.
I can confirm (and recommend) Panorama Maker - I does a great job.
Certainly matches up the tonal range between images to the point I
cannot define the stitching area, even though I know where it is!

See some of my panos:
www.websilk.co.uk/digital scroll down to bottom of page & click on the
thumbnail

They were all taken hand held and as such some of them exhibit a
curvature distortion from pointing camera down. (You try taking a pano
of the Grand Canyon from the rim and NOT point the camera down!)

[For the Kiwis & Ozzes: there some panos of Godzown!]

I've tried MANY different stitching software and PTGui is really the
best. I ended up buying it and very happy with the results.

Highly recommended.



nv wrote:
In ,
C J Southern scribed:
Hi all,

Yesterday I took a series of shots with my 20D and turned them into a
parorama with The Panorama Factory software.

I was careful to take them all in manual mode (1/2000 - F5.6 - ISO 200). I
haven't instructed the program to save the pamorama as a single tiff file
yet (so not sure if this will produce a different result), but when I save
the image as a PSD (PhotoShop Data) I end up with 6 image layers and 6
exposure correction layers - and a bunch of VERY obvious brightness
transitions between the shots (even though I instructed the program to
make automatic exposure corrections, and the fact the the shots were taken
seconds apart, with no variation in exposure).

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers,

Colin


I understand that PTGui5.5 is the current standard bearer for stiching
software. At least, according to this guy it is. Check this out:
http://www.pbase.com/apy_jr/image/52786746/original
Albert is also very amenable to helping out with tips and guidance, so why
not drop him an email. Alternatively, he can be found frequenting our Kodak
SLR forum at dpreview.com under the handle 'APY_Jr'.

hth

Nigel