PBase

Last Last night I took some photos of a city skyline and tried to stitch them together. I have the basic stitching program that came with my Canon Digital Rebel. The photos stictched together effectively from a composition point of view, but the minor lighting differences in the sky (across the pan) resulted in a difference that lets the viewer see where the images were stitched.

Do any of the better stitching programs fix this? Can anyone provide helpful hints to fix this using a photo editing program?

Thanks for your help!

Most good photo programs have good panorama stitching ability. Its pretty basic for them to do because of the demand for it. The most common error I have encountered is that most cameras will suggest that you change the settings as the ambient light changes with changes in position or direction facing. Then any differences become very obvious at the edges where they join. You/I must remember to keep the settings the same as you rotate so that the edges match, even if the exposure is wrong (according to the camera readings). Other wise they will stand out like a sore thumb if you change the exposure setting. Hope that helps.

Arc Soft Panorama Maker 3 is a cheap and easy stitch program that doen't leave the stitch lines like the Canon program. I have a few panoramas on display at http://www.pbase.com/rileypm/04 Check them out and see what you think of the stitch.

I tried Photoshop CS Photomerge on this image and did not like the results. You can see the stitching in the original.


Link to image
http://upload.pbase.com/image/67239822

I then downloaded the 15 day trial of ArcSoft Panorama Maker 4. And, it is easy and I think so much better.



Link so you can see ORIGINAL SIZE
http://www.pbase.com/halesr/image/67096776

Here is a link to the software
http://www.arcsoft.com/products/panoramamaker/

May I suggest Autostitch...it's free. I've since dumped every other program as they can't touch it. It was developed by two students at the University of British Columbia and you can download it from this site:

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

Phenomenal program

Pinemikey, thanks for the tip and the link. I will check it out.--Rene

If your serious about the end results of your panoramic pictures, then take the time to read about Photo Stiching. It will answer all your questions about panoramic picture taking. http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/digital-panoramas.htm

I use Photshop CS2 and manually stitch the image together. If there are those slight changes in color in the sky I have the ability to alter the brightness and contrast to match the desired image. When stitching them together I am constantly switching between the Spot Healing tool and the Clone Stamp tool. The spot healing tool works wonders on grass, leaves and sky and makes the process very fast. When using the clone stamp tool, I an constantly swithing the size, shape and opacity of the brush. Some image take many many hours but I find the results to be amazing, and so do many other photographers when they see the images printed and in front of them.


Check out this photo.I used the above techniques to erase a car that was just to the Left of the SUV. I had to reconstruct the base of the tree, weed line, driveway line and the grass. It is alittle bit soft in those areas but when printed in and framed, you cannot tell that it was touched up unless I told you.[/img]

I also can recommend "autostitch" . It is easy to use and has very good results.Most of my panos are stitched with "autostitch".
http://www.pbase.com/bauer/panorama

Some few are made by "photostitch" ,the appended program of Canon digital cameras.This one is faster but has not so good results.
FBauer

I for Arcsoft Panorama Maker 3.

Try Panorama Factory. I have been using it for some time now and find it very good....http://www.panoramafactory.com/





HTH

I use ArcSoft Panorama Maker 4. It's better than Photoshop CS3 --> Check my Website about Panoramas:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/ligh ... panoramas/

I use PTAssember (30 days free trial and inexpensive) : http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr.htm
Max Lyons Forums : http://www.tawbaware.com/forum2/
It uses enblend for the output format "Blended TIFF" : http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr_help.htm#step5

Enblend : http://enblend.sourceforge.net/

Some panorama softwares : http://www.pbase.com/philway/links

A night panorama using enblend with PTAssembler : http://www.pbase.com/philway/image/72377086
A detail with the same photos : http://www.pbase.com/philway/image/73148284
A very high resolution daylight photo using enblend with PTAssembler : http://www.pbase.com/philway/image/73121804

I didn't used enbled with all panoramas so you can see lighting differences in some of them : http://www.pbase.com/philway/panoramas

Philippe