Moving between Panorama Stitching, Projection, Display and Viewing Programs

It's useful to be able to move from one software program to another. I was delighted to access the capabilities of PTGui by savng AutoPano Giga, (APGiga), fles as .pt, the format native to PTGui.

Puzzle #1 is that, going the other way, from PTGui to AP giga, doesn't appear to work, which is a pity.

Puzzle #2: When APGiga renders a PSD or(PSB) file, all the stacked layers can be immediately seen by switching them on. PTGui files, however, have to have their masks filled with white first. So it's nice to be able to do a final rendering in APgiga.

Puzzle #3: APGiga acquires links so easily. Everyone should love the easy way one can select common areas in two pictures, an voila, the points are selected and can be refined. However, if one needs to get links where it's fussy, PTGu allows these to be done so simply by hand. I miss that in APGiga.

Puzzle #4: PTGui allows rendering to a Quicktime spherical pano .MOV and so one can have one's client explore a pano for the view they want to request in detail. This is missing, it seems from APGiga.

So what are you favorite moves from one software program to another and is there a way back to APGiga from PTGui?

Asher

hi Asher,

hello friend

Regarding the stitching software, I believe the best one is ... the one you know.

I'm using to PTGUI, PANO2VR and so on and my workflow is predictable in terms of time and result. About 2 years ago I used hugin (on a different setup and was really happy with it) and this goes for the post processing too: Photoshop is not the single image processing software: I had good results with The Gimp; for the same I am now using a software made by a colleague that has the controls and fulfills my expectations named "Topsoft Magic" (unfortunately for now available only in Romanian).

It is very unlikely to be able to import projects from one program to another (obvious); in my experience I suppose the best quality is obtained when exploiting every pixel of the sources and the smaller amount of intervention will diminish the alteration and the artificial sensation that extreme views may induce.

In PTGUI one can stitch precisely the preferred projection and thus interventions are maintain to minimum

Asher

I prefer to know one app good and intuitivly than two apps soso....

therefore: even having a license of a APP, after I while I switched to the one Valentine is mentioning, and I never looked back. So why would you switch the app when stitching?

Michael Fontana said:

Asher

I prefer to know one app good and intuitivly than two apps soso....

therefore: even having a license of a APP, after I while I switched to the one Valentine is mentioning, and I never looked back. So why would you switch the app when stitching?

Click to expand...

Michael,

What's really fantastic about APPro is that it allows selection and optimization faster than a speeding bullet. However, PTGui is perfect for making specific links. So it's especally useful for those parts of images which happen to project on to another in a minor way and have no links.This can tidy up mismatches in handheld pano stitching.

So AP Giga is a better starting point and PTGui gives more options n types of projections like transverse Mercator, which is very useful.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Puzzle #4: PTGui allows rendering to a Quicktime spherical pano .MOV and so one can have one's client explore a pano for the view they want to request in detail. This is missing, it seems from APGiga.

Click to expand...

APG comes with a companion program called AutoPano Tour. APT allows to output to Flash and it functions as a GUI for the KRPano utility which does the actual conversion to flash. To fully unlock the resolution limitations of KRPano, an additional licence is required.

Alternatively you can have a look at Pano2VR, which adds amazing functionality to the creation process. It also allows to create one's own "droplets", onto which one can drag/drop a pano to automatically create a Flash file with predefined settings. Its licence is cheaper than the one for KRPano.

There are also free Java based viewers (e.g. PTViewer) which can be incorporated into a webpage or used standalone, they don't need prior conversion of e.g. the equirectangular projection input file, but they need to uploaded to the website to view in an HTML page.

There may also be free Pano to Flash converters, e.g. on SourcForge.com, but I have no information about those.

Cheers,
Bart

So, Bart,

That's very useful information. Thanks! Do you have any suggestions of utilities besides Zoomify for flat images, what we should use for embedding panos in OPF?

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

So, Bart,

That's very useful information. Thanks! Do you have any suggestions of utilities besides Zoomify for flat images, what we should use for embedding panos in OPF?

Click to expand...

Well, that depends on the possibilities in the vBulletin software. For a regular website, I'd opt for a Flash based solution since we're slowly moving to more content-rich / interactive images, and a Flash plugin is commonly installed on most browsers. It also doesn't require a complete file directory structure like Zoomify. It also allows to zoom in on 'flat' images and pan around in them if they are larger than the viewport, but it does consume bandwidth at the moment the (larger) file is downloaded.

Zoomify also offers a Flash output version, but I'm not familiar with the ramifications involved.

Cheers,
Bart

Bart_van_der_Wolf said:

Well, that depends on the possibilities in the vBulletin software. For a regular website, I'd opt for a Flash based solution since we're slowly moving to more content-rich / interactive images, and a Flash plugin is commonly installed on most browsers. It also doesn't require a complete file directory structure like Zoomify. It also allows to zoom in on 'flat' images and pan around in them if they are larger than the viewport, but it does consume bandwidth at the moment the (larger) file is downloaded.

Zoomify also offers a Flash output version, but I'm not familiar with the ramifications involved.

Cheers,
Bart

Click to expand...

Hi Bart,

The issue, as I understand it, is that flash content is not logged by the roaming gents of the search engines and also that flash requires HTML and that means security problems. However, there may be answers today for all these issues.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

...and also that flash requires HTML and that means security problems.

Click to expand...

Hi Asher,

What exactly do you mean by this?

Cheers,

Cem_Usakligil said:

Hi Asher,

What exactly do you mean by this?

Cheers,

Click to expand...

Did I write that? Hmm! Sean says in our forum is apparently a security issue.

A lot has happened since this thread started. We have Autopano Giga which I love to use for speed but I must admit the PTGUI is more and more attractive.

December 2010 gave us of PTGui Pro, 9.0. Of the the new features, one I am really excited about, and that's a good masking tool built in, obviating the need for extra work in Photoshop for selectively hiding or showing features only present in one image of the pano: masking capability. This allows one to force an elements or person to be either selectively hidden by adjacent overlap or else selectively shown by masking out the overlapping area that would hide or ghost the feature or people you want to show. let me introduce you to the easy to follow tutorial. It's so simple in concept and execution that it deserves special mention.

Here's a common problem: getting rid of the tripod and wondering to keep or remove that extra person!


Well that is readily tackled with a patch.


But part of the lady is still there! We want all of her!

"Since the lady is completely visible in one of the source images, we can use a green mask to make her visible in the panorama (step4): "



Now one can hide features by painting red.



.... continued

Then with all the unwanted folk marked red and the person to be shown in green, one can control the content of a Pano even though a lot is going on. It just requires that there's overlap of empty architecture for the feature that needs to be hidden.

Here's the result:



This entire tutorial with source files and free trial copy of PTgui can be downloaded here.

Now we don't have to mask in an in Photoshop first or work with layers afterwards as in Autopano, another favorites of mine.

I must say I've been wanting this for a long time!

Has anyone found this and other new features of PTGui Pro especially useful?

Asher

Autopano is a software that is respected and known all over the planet. I suppose the questions have sollutions on their platorm too, only you have to address the problems on their forum so people with experience may offer solutions.

Regarding masking in PTGUI - that is very nice and convenient; nevertheles when you have movement and changing conditions, you'd better take a longer series of images and when back at the office decide patiently what better combination fits your purposes.

The same happens when using a larger overlap of 50%

Valentin Arfire said:

Autopano is a software that is respected and known all over the planet. I suppose the questions have sollutions on their platorm too, only you have to address the problems on their forum so people with experience may offer solutions.

Click to expand...

Of course, but a specific tool and then exporting directly to the web is an advantage. PS is not an absolute necessity.

Valentin Arfire said:

Regarding masking in PTGUI - that is very nice and convenient; nevertheles when you have movement and changing conditions, you'd better take a longer series of images and when back at the office decide patiently what better combination fits your purposes.

Click to expand...

Valentin,

"you'd better take a longer series of images and when back at the office decide patiently what better combination fits your purposes"

So true! I am surprised at the persistent stubbornness folk can show in never getting coverage of adjacent areas! That's so true of a lot of photographers. There's a built in religious approach to exact framing that comes from working with a precious sheet of film. There it's part of the art and discipline of real photography. One has few sheets of film, a limited number of film holders and the gear is bulky and awkward to schlepp. The result of craft and planning, (with just the perfect lens for that perfect scene), gives images that are still appreciated for their special "presence".

However, with today's convenient and compact digital cameras, we still see only "half" a magnificent cloud in an otherwise wonderful landscape, or just part of the surroundings to a great waterfall! With just a few overlapping, seemingly redundant image, one lens can now do wonders. What's really marvelous is the experience of being able to rethink design and intent once one sits before a magnificent screen and reviews all the new possibilities that the human eye cannot take in with just a few glances. Panorama stitching has really revolutionized the ability of humans to view our world in new ways.

Asher

on the first photographers we shouldn't forget they were actually painters with a serious solid school, so their images naturally become expresive portrais or memorable images.

Why else would they do the huge amount of laboratory work that followed?

Valentin Arfire said:

on the first photographers we shouldn't forget they were actually painters with a serious solid school, so their images naturally become expresive portrais or memorable images.

Why else would they do the huge amount of laboratory work that followed?

Click to expand...

Put on your favorite jazz or blues and get lost in the dim red light watching pictures magically appear on prints moving in open trays, magic! The pressure of work, the reality of rank or success is gone. No nagging spouse or noisy kids or impossible mother in law! No one dared disturb this sanctuary.

That was and is for some, Shangri-la! The computer hardly has that but does smell better!

Asher

Sometimes Autopano Giga is able to recognize links in far more images than PTGui. However, PTGui has a better interface for systematically showing the software where links should be put. The PTGui interface with two sets of "film strips" one to left and one to the right allows one to look at any two pictures together and find links in common.

So I think that for very complex panos with confusingly similar sub-units, for example paving stones, while AP Giga gets a great jump start, for refinement, PRGui might be far better.

Asher

Well folks, it's not that simple. Having stitched my Music School courtyard picture in Auto Pano giga, I thought I'd like to refine it with the nice side by side windows in PTGui. To my surprise, PTGui made a disastrous mess!

So I now wonder if Autopano Giga is exporting in the right format! sometimes, when software is updated, lesser used functions can get forgotten and something is wrong here!

It could be my fault. I must admit that I checked the Fisheye setting to stitch the pano in Autopano giga as it did a far better job that using the parameters for an ordinary rectilinear 50mm lens. so I'll try stitching another set of images without breaking the rules and try to see if PTGui can digest what Autopano Giga feeds it!

Asher