Photo Stitching Software
Panorama stitching technology has evolved to the point that it can be very useful. However it can generate huge files that may be difficult to view in a meaningful way (Easy Pan and zoom maybe helpful, particularly if you are using a computer to view the panorama).
MS now has some mature technology for rendering the panoramas, effectively dealing with the pan and zoom issue and it’s free. Recently they have released SW that allows the photographer to create a huge panorama that is pan and zoomable. One of these new releases is Stitching SW, but they even have a plug in for photoshop, though I haven’t tried that yet.
I had to search long and hard to find some photos I could use. This lack of photos comes from not being a fan of panoramas due to the difficulty in viewing in a meaningful way.
I haven’t played around with it enough to get an appreciation for the aesthetics of these new capabilities but they definitely are worth investigating. Even if pan and zoom do not offer a pleasing aesthetic it will still serve other purposes.
These stitches all have moving subjects that are difficult for stitchers to deal with. These are done with a MS stitcher, that’s still in the research stage, but it is free to use with no limitations.
Girls on Rideau River Three shot panorama
Examine how the stitcher deals in both cases with the moving water.
The MS stitcher decided to eliminate the middle shot. You would have seen the girls three times in the stitched panorama. Notice that the stitch line is not straight.
Vancouver panorama
Another problem is viewing these large panoramas on-line.
Here are several solutions for these issues.
Free stitching software MS Stitch Home Page. In addition to creating the large panoramas MS stitch will also generate two different types of browser code to allow pan and zoom using your browser as the image rendering tool. MS now has two different browser technologies for these large panoramas. The older less powerful technology is called HD View while the latest is called Deep Zoom or Silverlight. Both of these add on capabilities are added to your browser as free plug ins.
MS Stitch generated the browser files to render my two panoramas above, but I have yet to figure out how to port those files for internet use. They do run fine from the local computer.
See the comments section below for a more detailed description of the operations and issues.
MS also has a free file hosting server for your Silverlight media.
MS even has a free Photoshop plugin that will generate the necessary browser code to view large images.
Online HD View examples of a stitched panoramas.
Good demo of Silverlight panoramas.
Online examples of Silverlight.
Example of Silverlight Panoramas.
MS HD View Home Page – Plug in for IE that adds capability to view large images with convenient zoom and scroll. “Cameras now produce 8, 10, even 16 Megapixel images. These are generally too large to want to ask a browser to download in a single shot. In addition, most monitors can only display 1-2 million pixels so this is wasteful. Turning your high resolution image into an HD View pyramid can be done with this simple tool. The result is a hierarchy of small jpeg files, and a web page and XML file to host the data. Simply drop the result on your server, and point people at the HTML. They can then explore your image and see all the detail, while making it very difficult to download the full resolution image.”
“Once stitched they are often very large, and more importantly they cover a very wide field of view. HD View provides the means to view such images both as wide angle imagery in cylindrical or spherical projections and with perspective projections when zoomed in. Simply use this tool to convert your panorama to an HD View data set and you are ready to host it.”
“HD View is the camera for the web. Its goal is to create the best picture given (a) a source with high resolution, arbitrary dynamic range, any field of view & color gamut; (b) the user’s interaction; and(c) the display being used.”
HD View plug in for FireFox.
MS Silverlight Home Page – Plug in for IE that adds capability deep zoom.
“Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. By using Silverlight’s support for .NET, High Definition video, cost-effective advanced streaming, unparalleled high-resolution interactivity with Deep Zoom technology.”
“Microsoft’s free Silverlight is a browser plug in that allows web applications to be developed with features that characterize a rich internet application: animation, vector graphics and audio-video playback. Silverlight competes with products such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, Adobe Shockwave, Java FX, and Apple QuickTime. Version 2.0 brought improved interactivity and allows developers to use .NET languages and development tools when authoring Silverlight applications.”
Cnet’s description of Silverlight.
Wikipedia description of Silverlight.
Photoshop plugins – Allow photoshop to export images in the formats for HD View and Deep Zoom files
MS Auto Collage Home Page – “AutoCollage allows you to create beautiful collages of your favorite pictures in a few clicks of a mouse”. 30 Day Trial version only, they want money for the real deal.
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