Panorama Stitching

DxO PhotoLab Feature requests
1

Is their a plan to integrate a stitching functionality into Photolab?

BG Pummi

2

Hello @Plummi1,

Nope, we do not have it in plans and there were no requests from the users on this feature.

P.S. Btw, when you create a request you can vote for it by yourself as well.

Regards,
Svetlana G.

3

I’m using Photoshop Elements (15) to stitch panoramas - it does a pretty good job, with a simple interface, and includes ability to “auto-fill” un-mapped areas.

BUT, it handles 8-bit files only - - which is a serious limitation, in my view.

Can anyone suggest any better alternative(s) ?

John M

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4

Take a look at Microsoft ICE. Free and has some useful features, including auto-fill for edges of panoramas. Accepts raw files (although it doesn’t provide many tweaking options for raw file conversion).

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5

Another solution: Ptgui which is not free but very powerful.

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6

Another not free is Affinity, I used the MS program but found Affinity much better. Convert in PL and open in Afinity.

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7

I’ve used Panorama Studio Pro for many years and it works very well indeed.

https://www.tshsoft.com/en/panostudiopro_index

8

Thanks for that recommendation, John … I tested all the suggestions provided herein, with a complicated set of 4 images - and found that Affinity did the best job (to my requirements, at least) … So, I’ve purchased Affinity to replace Elements.

One handy feature I was using with Elements was that I could export multiple images to it, from PL, and Elements would auto-accept them all as images to use with it’s Pano-stitcher tool … That does not seem to be possible with Affinity - it seems I need to open them all manually (after selecting New Panorama) … Am I missing something ?

John M

1 Like
9

No you’re right, you need to click create pano in AP menu and select your images in the pop-up window.
Would be nice to be able to select from PL those you need and export them to AP.

10

Many of us have been saying for a long time PL needs to integrate better with Affinity. Its RAW conversion isn’t very good (though cameras are added mush faster than with PL!) but as a bit processing program its very good esp. for the cost. Their support is fairly good, and updates VERY good, something PL could very well learn from!

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11

Agree, software always refer to be use as plugin for Ps, would be nice to see a change and work with Serif and have it work with AP.

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12

I can certainly get behind panorama stitching, it would certainly be preferable to futzing with exporting/importing to/from yet another tool.

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13

Hello,
at the moment I’m on testing http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Looks well for first try :wink:

14

I once tried Hugin but experienced less stitch faults with Microsoft ICE.

My workflow with DXO-PL and ICE only:

  1. take reference picture e.g. with my Nikkor 10-24 in Auto-Mode. This should look similar to the later stitch (not a must but helps)
  2. carefully analyse exposure and highlights
  3. set camera to Manual-Mode and set exposure settings from reference picture
  4. If something in foreground or multiple (>2) row stitch, a well calibrated pano-head is a must (I do not have one). A well balanced tripod in general is an advantage but it works also without one.
  5. Set focus manually to required value (check DOF) on needed lens (e.g any prime from 35 to 85 mm) and finally re-check exposure at an example picture
  6. take required pictures quickly, about 30% overlapping (lens edge sharpness?), pan the camera (usually) in portrait-format around the central axis of the lens. Be generous at the top and bottom for later cutting
  7. take another 1 or 2 sets just to be sure (motion blur, wind, clouds, people, cars etc.)
    That was the shooting part, it’s easier than it reads….

Back at home:

  1. Develop reference picture with DXO to taste (color, contrast, exposure, shadows, highlights whatever) so that it looks (about) how the later stitch should look like.
  2. copy these correction settings to one set of to be stitched pictures
  3. if not already applied, add other corrections like vignetting, distortion, CA (size as necessary but all equal). For referencing maybe take one picture and then copy correction settings again. Easy!
  4. develop pictures, output=TIF
  5. load TIFs into ICE and stitch, output again TIF
  6. Load resulting image to dxo again and check whether some volume deformation corrections and final corrections (horizon, straight lines, final cut) need to be applied. Develop again to jpg
  7. Smile!
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15

I agree. ICE is wonderful, simple, easy and fast. And free.

George

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16

Would love to see panorama RAW stitching so that I can make my panorama not leaving DxO PL and only then adjust for WB, exposure, etc. while viewing the whole panorama and keeping the flexibility to work with a RAW (DNG) file. That’s why it’s a must-have feature and is the superior solution to using external softwares relying on import/export (thus breaking the RAW process)

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17

The problem is that stitching is not a RAW operation, it is a bitmap operation. Even Photoshop doesn’t perform stitching at a RAW level; it might allow you to select RAW files but it converts them all to bitmap before doing the merge.

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18

I want to add to that, there’s no way to fall back on the RAW data since your composed image is made from 2 or more images.

George

19

Here’s a different workflow to achieve the same results using ICE:

  1. Confirm all files of the series were shot in manual mode (to avoid problems with exposure, focus, etc.)
  2. In PL, right click the first file of the series<Show input file in Windows Explorer.
  3. In WE, Press and hold Shift, select the last file in the series highlighting all the files in the series.
  4. Right click<Stitch using ICE. ICE will launch.
  5. Create the panorama and Save.
  6. Open the panorama in PL and edit to your taste.
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20

An alternate way of doing this with ICE is:

  1. Confirm all files of the series were shot in manual mode (to avoid problems with exposure, focus, etc.)
  2. Adjust in PL as desired.
  3. In PL, click the ‘Export to application’ button, set up ‘Export to’ to use ICE and click the Export button.
  4. Create the panorama and Save.
  5. Open the panorama in PL and edit to your taste.

Either way, the downside of doing this kind of export to ICE is the creation of a set of JPG files that (usually) need to be deleted because they’re no longer needed. Just an extra workflow step, from one way of looking at it, but I think that’s the attraction of having this function integrated into PL. On the other hand, the last time I used Nik plugins, the same problem of ‘extra’ temporary files existed…

1 Like