Panorama shots

FIGHT ON

I have a nikon d70 and want to make some panorama shots. I've seen some youtube videos on free software that you download to create them.
Can it be done for free? Or should I pay for something?
Any advice would be great!
Thank you very much!

Andy

Do you have Photoshop? The built-in photomerge function of Photoshop is pretty darn awesome.

Cuong

Try Autostitch if you don't have Photoshop. It's free.

Cuong

FIGHT ON

Andy wrote:

Do you have Photoshop? The built-in photomerge function of Photoshop is pretty darn awesome.

Don't laugh, (too hard) I don't know what PhotoShop is. I have a macbook so how do I find out if I have it?
I SAID DON'T LAUGH!

kdog

Cuong wrote:

Try Autostitch if you don't have Photoshop. It's free.

Cuong

Definitely the best of the free pano tools. However, it doesn't run native on Mac OSX. You have to run it under WINE.

-joel

ziggy53

FIGHT ON wrote:

Don't laugh, (too hard) I don't know what PhotoShop is. I have a macbook so how do I find out if I have it?
I SAID DON'T LAUGH!

Photoshop is an Adobe product and a professional image editing software. It is unlikely to have come with your computer.

Google for "Photoshop" for more information and tons of links.

FIGHT ON

kdog wrote:

Definitely the best of the free pano tools. However, it doesn't run native on Mac OSX. You have to run it under WINE.

-joel

Thank you. I tried to download it and it didn't work. What do you mean run it under WINE?
THANKS
FIGHT ON

FIGHT ON

ziggy53 wrote:

Photoshop is an Adobe product and a professional image editing software. It is unlikely to have come with your computer.

Google for "Photoshop" for more information and tons of links.

THANKS ziggy.
Someone on another forum said that photoshop is complicated and that autostitch is simpler. Of course I tried it and can;t get past the first step. Because it doesn't download!

W.W. Webster

FIGHT ON wrote:

Don't laugh, (too hard) I don't know what PhotoShop is. I have a macbook so how do I find out if I have it?

Don't look in your MacBook, look in your cheque book (you may know it as a 'check book')!

kdog

FIGHT ON wrote:

Thank you. I tried to download it and it didn't work. What do you mean run it under WINE?
THANKS
FIGHT ON

It's a utility for the Mac that allows you to run Windows apps. http://www.winehq.org/

FIGHT ON

kdog wrote:

It's a utility for the Mac that allows you to run Windows apps. http://www.winehq.org/

OH YEAH? I'LL CHECK IT OUT!
THANKS!:D

cmason

FIGHT ON wrote:

OH YEAH? I'LL CHECK IT OUT!
THANKS!:D

A bit more polished version of wine is known as Crossover mac.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/ They offered the basic version for free some time ago, not sure if it is still available. The other option is to run Windows on your Mac, either with Boot Camp (Apple) or with a virtual machine environment like VMWare Fusion or VirtualBox (free)

FIGHT ON

cmason wrote:

A bit more polished version of wine is known as Crossover mac.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/ They offered the basic version for free some time ago, not sure if it is still available. The other option is to run Windows on your Mac, either with Boot Camp (Apple) or with a virtual machine environment like VMWare Fusion or VirtualBox (free)

I tried to download wine, but It asks to open with disk, and I don't know if they are asking me to download to "a" disk or is there a place called disk.
I saw something called disk and tried to select it but it refuses to be selected.
. Cmason isn't free any more.
Any advice?

Thanks.

cmason

I took a peek at installing wine for mac, and YUCK.

If you really want to do this, here are some instructions:

http://davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/wine-mac/

while Autostitch appears to be supported: ( http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=2520 ), my recommendation is find a different app, rather than spend all that time trying to get wine to work.

On the Mac, I use Hugin. An open source stitching program, that is powerful but probably too powerful, as there are billions of controls. But it works well:

http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

FIGHT ON

cmason wrote:

I took a peek at installing wine for mac, and YUCK.

If you really want to do this, here are some instructions:

http://davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/wine-mac/

while Autostitch appears to be supported: ( http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=2520 ), my recommendation is find a different app, rather than spend all that time trying to get wine to work.

On the Mac, I use Hugin. An open source stitching program, that is powerful but probably too powerful, as there are billions of controls. But it works well:

http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Thanks CMASON.
I was able to down load hugin... and load my images BUT... I got stuck after that. I tried to follow the tutorial but it doesn't match what I downloaded. Instead of one I get two of each image. side by side.
Unlike the tutorial which has one of each image side by side where you are supposed to install the control points.

At least I'm making progress!

Thanks a whole lot!

FIGHT ON.

Ohiohiker

Use the Assistant
If you are using Hugin for just basic side by side shots, use the Assistant tab. Click the load images tab, load your images, then use the align button. This will create the control point automatically, align the images and give you a preview. If your preview looks good then just click the create panorama button and post the results so we can see.:D

Another great Hugin resource is the Flickr Hugin Users Group.

If you need more help just post or PM.

FIGHT ON wrote:

Thanks CMASON.
I was able to down load hugin... and load my images BUT... I got stuck after that. I tried to follow the tutorial but it doesn't match what I downloaded. Instead of one I get two of each image. side by side.
Unlike the tutorial which has one of each image side by side where you are supposed to install the control points.

At least I'm making progress!

Thanks a whole lot!

FIGHT ON.

FIGHT ON

Ohiohiker wrote:

If you are using Hugin for just basic side by side shots, use the Assistant tab. Click the load images tab, load your images, then use the align button. This will create the control point automatically, align the images and give you a preview. If your preview looks good then just click the create panorama button and post the results so we can see.:D

Another great Hugin resource is the Flickr Hugin Users Group.

If you need more help just post or PM.

Thank you Ohiohiker,
I had to download Hugin again because I couldn't find were it was on my computer. When it was finished downloading I saw where my first one was. In Downloads! But this one is different. The first one was called "hugin-mac-2009.2.dmg" with "38.8 MB - sourceforge.net" beneath. The new one is called "hugin-mac-2009.4.0.dmg" with "39.4 MB - soureforge.net" beneath.
I tried it and still get stuck somehow.
I cliked the Assistant tab. Cliked the Load images button and selected just two of the four images that I want to stitch together.
Then I click the Align button two things happen.
First a little window appears which states "Finding corresponding points". This widow disappears after about 5 seconds and is replaced by another one which says "The application Hugin quit unexpectedly after it was relaunched." And gives options to Ignore, Report or Relaunch. I relaunched it a few times with the same result.
Any ideas?

Thanks for you help btw...

FIGHT ON

Ohiohiker

Version 2009.4.0 was just released. If you have 2009.2.0 still on available try it. I am not sure about Mac but the PC version of this is very stable. Hugin uses another program called Autopano-SIFT to create the control points. It may not be able to find adequate control points causing a crash. Maybe post a screen shot of the error and I will see what I can find.

Are you able to post a link to your individual images? I will give it a try and make some screen shots of my process so you can duplicate it.

FIGHT ON wrote:

Thank you Ohiohiker,
I had to download Hugin again because I couldn't find were it was on my computer. When it was finished downloading I saw where my first one was. In Downloads! But this one is different. The first one was called "hugin-mac-2009.2.dmg" with "38.8 MB - sourceforge.net" beneath. The new one is called "hugin-mac-2009.4.0.dmg" with "39.4 MB - soureforge.net" beneath.
I tried it and still get stuck somehow.
I cliked the Assistant tab. Cliked the Load images button and selected just two of the four images that I want to stitch together.
Then I click the Align button two things happen.
First a little window appears which states "Finding corresponding points". This widow disappears after about 5 seconds and is replaced by another one which says "The application Hugin quit unexpectedly after it was relaunched." And gives options to Ignore, Report or Relaunch. I relaunched it a few times with the same result.
Any ideas?

Thanks for you help btw...

FIGHT ON

WillCAD

For years I've been taking pano shots - turning around and taking pics in a circle - but I never actually stitched them together until today.

I used the automatic pano function built into Photoshop Elements 6 and put together three pano shots out of circular series' of pics I took today, and earlier this year on vacation. Two sets worked perfectly, but one had exposure differences in the individual frames that made the seams painfully apparent in the finished product. I was able to get rid of the seams in the sky by replacing the whole sky with a simple gradient fill pattern, but the seams on the ground are pretty ugly.

[Click the pics to see the gigantic full-size versions]

18 April 2009 - Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area


19 April 2009 - Valley of Fire State Park Nevada


19 December 2009 - my apartment complex in Cockeysville, MD


Fight On, Photoshop Elements is a consumer-grade photo editing and organizing application from a company called Adobe. Elements is a slimmed-down version of Adobe Photoshop, which is the #1 professional photo editing application on the planet. The Mac version of Elements retails for $99, but you can get it for only $70 right now at the page I linked (a terrific bargain).

Besides panoramic photos, Photoshop Elements is capable of all sorts of photo editing. If you plan on taking lots of photos with your new camera, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of Elements. It is the software most commonly used by folks on this board for photo editing and can do just about anything you will need to do with your digital pic, from color adjustment to red-eye removal to the automatic panorama stitching you asked about.

FIGHT ON

WillCAD wrote:

For years I've been taking pano shots - turning around and taking pics in a circle - but I never actually stitched them together until today.

I used the automatic pano function built into Photoshop Elements 6 and put together three pano shots out of circular series' of pics I took today, and earlier this year on vacation. Two sets worked perfectly, but one had exposure differences in the individual frames that made the seams painfully apparent in the finished product. I was able to get rid of the seams in the sky by replacing the whole sky with a simple gradient fill pattern, but the seams on the ground are pretty ugly.

[Click the pics to see the gigantic full-size versions]

18 April 2009 - Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area


19 April 2009 - Valley of Fire State Park Nevada


19 December 2009 - my apartment complex in Cockeysville, MD


Fight On, Photoshop Elements is a consumer-grade photo editing and organizing application from a company called Adobe. Elements is a slimmed-down version of Adobe Photoshop, which is the #1 professional photo editing application on the planet. The Mac version of Elements retails for $99, but you can get it for only $70 right now at the page I linked (a terrific bargain).

Besides panoramic photos, Photoshop Elements is capable of all sorts of photo editing. If you plan on taking lots of photos with your new camera, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of Elements. It is the software most commonly used by folks on this board for photo editing and can do just about anything you will need to do with your digital pic, from color adjustment to red-eye removal to the automatic panorama stitching you asked about.

The bottom one with the snow is very cool. The top one is nice as well but the middle one looks strange.
The top and the bottom one are worth 100 bucks each imho.
So I install it and can do that? At this point I think I will.
Why doesn't Smugmug have a feature like that?
Anyway that seems like the way to go.
Thanks for your advice.
And again nice pictures..
FIGHT ON

WillCAD

FIGHT ON wrote:

The bottom one with the snow is very cool. The top one is nice as well but the middle one looks strange.
The top and the bottom one are worth 100 bucks each imho.
So I install it and can do that? At this point I think I will.
Why doesn't Smugmug have a feature like that?
Anyway that seems like the way to go.
Thanks for your advice.
And again nice pictures..
FIGHT ON

Although I've had Photoshop elements for a couple of years, and I've been taking those multi-shot panos for years, this was my first time using the automatic stitching tool in Elements. I was shocked at how well it works and how easy it is to use - I simply chose the shots I wanted to stitch, and Elements did the rest. It took a few minutes, and I wound up with a large file with ragged edges, which I cropped down to an even rectangle.

The reason that the middle one looks strange is that as I turned around taking the shots, the bright, directional sunlight caused the camera to use different exposure values as I shot in different directions, making the pics have different looks, so when they stitched together, you can see the seams. The bendy road is also a result of taking the shots from the side of the road instead of the middle, as I did with the snow pic.

Now that I have tried this tool, I think I'll be doing more panos.

FYI: Here is an excellent tutorial on the Photoshop Elements Photomerge utility.

FIGHT ON

WillCAD wrote:

Although I've had Photoshop elements for a couple of years, and I've been taking those multi-shot panos for years, this was my first time using the automatic stitching tool in Elements. I was shocked at how well it works and how easy it is to use - I simply chose the shots I wanted to stitch, and Elements did the rest. It took a few minutes, and I wound up with a large file with ragged edges, which I cropped down to an even rectangle.

The reason that the middle one looks strange is that as I turned around taking the shots, the bright, directional sunlight caused the camera to use different exposure values as I shot in different directions, making the pics have different looks, so when they stitched together, you can see the seams. The bendy road is also a result of taking the shots from the side of the road instead of the middle, as I did with the snow pic.

Now that I have tried this tool, I think I'll be doing more panos.

FYI: Here is an excellent tutorial on the Photoshop Elements Photomerge utility.

Ok. I bought it. (I'm pretty sure I did) Is it supposed to be downloaded from the receipt site? Or is this something that is shipped and then downloaded from a disk?
I cliked the download button on the receipt page and it's downloading something. And it's very VERY slow... Like 1% every two minutes.
Does this sound familiar?
Thanks Again.
FIGHT ON THE PANO WANNABE

WillCAD

FIGHT ON wrote:

Ok. I bought it. (I'm pretty sure I did) Is it supposed to be downloaded from the receipt site? Or is this something that is shipped and then downloaded from a disk?
I cliked the download button on the receipt page and it's downloading something. And it's very VERY slow... Like 1% every two minutes.
Does this sound familiar?
Thanks Again.
FIGHT ON THE PANO WANNABE

Can't advise you on the online purchase; I bought my copy retail from a local brick and mortar store (you can do that with Windows software!)

It is a pretty large application, so it's liable to take quite some time to download. At a rate of 1% every two minutes, that's 200 minutes total download time, or about 3hrs 20 mins, so have some coco and relax till it's done.

As soon as the download is complete, however - BACK UP THE DOWNLOADED FILE TO CD or DVD! You don't want to have to sit through the download again.

FIGHT ON

WillCAD wrote:

Can't advise you on the online purchase; I bought my copy retail from a local brick and mortar store (you can do that with Windows software!)

It is a pretty large application, so it's liable to take quite some time to download. At a rate of 1% every two minutes, that's 200 minutes total download time, or about 3hrs 20 mins, so have some coco and relax till it's done.

As soon as the download is complete, however - BACK UP THE DOWNLOADED FILE TO CD or DVD! You don't want to have to sit through the download again.

So ya think this is it?
I don't have to wait for it to come in the mail?
That would be great!
its at 95% now.
I'll give it a go and let ya know!
Thanks again.
next stop, panorama city!

FIGHT ON

Numbers Guy

I've played with panoramas quite a bit in the past year and found that Photoshop Elements built in function works exceptionally well. You can get a Mac version of Elements for under $100, and probably more like $60 if you find a copy of version 6 (just released v8... was no v7 for the Mac). Other than that, a sturdy tripod (preferably with index marks) and a shutter release cable are the two best tools you can have. Have fun!!!

FIGHT ON

I'm to the point where I have used the rectangular marquee tool to create a border around the stitched images. What do I do then. How do I save the cropped panorama? I found a lesson on this but it's for elements 7, not 8. She says to clik some green check mark but I can't find it.
Please help
Thank you.
FIGHT ON

cmason

Have you gone thru these tutorials on Adobe's web site?:

http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-photoshop-elements-8/

There are several for 'photomerge' which seems to be what they call the panorama feature.

FIGHT ON

cmason wrote:

Have you gone thru these tutorials on Adobe's web site?:

http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-photoshop-elements-8/

There are several for 'photomerge' which seems to be what they call the panorama feature.

cmason:

Thanks for that link. I could only find one with panoramas on it.
And it was the same one that I had already viewed.
I'm hoping that I am simply missing a step but what is in her tutorial is not the same as on elements 8.
I'll look for some link to contact a person.

(Those merge videos show how to do some amazing stuff with three images.)

Thank you.

FIGHT ON

WillCAD

FIGHT ON wrote:

I'm to the point where I have used the rectangular marquee tool to create a border around the stitched images. What do I do then. How do I save the cropped panorama? I found a lesson on this but it's for elements 7, not 8. She says to clik some green check mark but I can't find it.
Please help
Thank you.
FIGHT ON

There are two ways to use the Crop tool in Elements.

First way is the way you're using - you just don't know the next step - and it's the way I use, as well. After placing your rectangular marquee, click the Image menu, then click Crop; the whole file will crop down to the outer limits of the selected area. FYI: This method will work with non-rectangular marquees, as well, including odd selections or ovals, but the cropped file will always be a rectangle.

The second way is to click Image|Crop before you select an area. The Crop tool will then place a marquee in the file, and will show a few settings boxes (Aspect Ratio, Width, Height, Resolution) just under the pull-down menus. When using this mode, the marquee will have a green check mark and a red Ghostbusters logo in the lower-right corner; when you finish selecting the crop area, you click the check mark to crop the file, or cligk the Ghostbusters logo to abort the command.

FIGHT ON

WillCAD wrote:

There are two ways to use the Crop tool in Elements.

First way is the way you're using - you just don't know the next step - and it's the way I use, as well. After placing your rectangular marquee, click the Image menu, then click Crop; the whole file will crop down to the outer limits of the selected area. FYI: This method will work with non-rectangular marquees, as well, including odd selections or ovals, but the cropped file will always be a rectangle.

The second way is to click Image|Crop before you select an area. The Crop tool will then place a marquee in the file, and will show a few settings boxes (Aspect Ratio, Width, Height, Resolution) just under the pull-down menus. When using this mode, the marquee will have a green check mark and a red Ghostbusters logo in the lower-right corner; when you finish selecting the crop area, you click the check mark to crop the file, or cligk the Ghostbusters logo to abort the command.

Great WILLCAD!
That worked!
So I tried to add it to Smugmug and it won't accept it. I mean I can't drop the file into the Smugmug upload space and then to a gallery. I want to share it and I usually select the image and then clik share and get a link. It was five images, Is it too big? How did you share yours?
Thanks for your help.
FIGHT ON

WillCAD

FIGHT ON wrote:

Great WILLCAD!
That worked!
So I tried to add it to Smugmug and it won't accept it. I mean I can't drop the file into the Smugmug upload space and then to a gallery. I want to share it and I usually select the image and then clik share and get a link. It was five images, Is it too big? How did you share yours?
Thanks for your help.
FIGHT ON

Can't help you with Smugmug, I don't use it. I keep all of my pics on my own web space.

But I suspect that you're saving the file in Photoshop format (.PSD). For online use, you need to do a Saveas and save the pic in .JPG format.