PanoTools.org Wiki - User contributions [en]

FDRTools

2007-12-21T04:19:37Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''FDRTools''' is {{Glossary|a software for assembling [[bracketing|bracketed]] photos to [[HDR]] and [[tone mapping]] HDR files|1}}. See [[HDR compression]] for a comparison of FDRCompressor with [[Photomatix]] and [[HDR Software overview]] for a general comparison.

== External links ==
* [http://fdrtools.com/ FDRTools]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]

Template talk:Glossary

2007-12-21T04:15:12Z

Imroy: What is this trying to achieve?

== What is this trying to achieve? ==

Just what is this template trying to do? Looking at it, the thing that strikes me is the use of of an <nowiki>#ifeq</nowiki> statement to produce documentation if a first argument isn't given. You really should use <nowiki><includeonly>...</includeonly></nowiki> and <nowiki><noinclude>...</noinclude></nowiki> tags to isolate documentation (shown here on the template page) from the contents to be transcluded in articles.

Apart from that, it only seems to add an article into the [[:Category:Glossary|Glossary category]]. If that is the only purpose, surely adding <nowiki>[[Category:Glossary]]</nowiki> to the bottom of an article would be easier. Or are you planning on doing more with this template? --[[User:Imroy|imroy]] 05:15, 21 December 2007 (CET)

Unix software

2007-12-21T03:49:46Z

Imroy: move 'overview' text to the top as an introduction, copyedit

For a full list of Unix/Linux tools, see the [[:Category:Software:Platform:Linux|Linux category]] page.

== Hugin ==

There isn't much competition here, [[Hugin]] is currently the most sophisticated and easy to use tool for stitching photos and assembling panoramas on Unix/Linux systems (also available for Windows and OS X).

[[Hugin]] is a standalone [[GUI front-ends|GUI program]] which depends on [[Helmut Dersch]]'s [[pano12]] library to perform much of the hard work.

There are some optional tools that can be used in conjunction with [[hugin]], but none of these are actually required to produce high quality results:

* [[autopano-sift]] - Save time by automatically generating control-point pairs, requires the mono .NET runtime.
* [[autopano]] - Similar to autopano-sift (Freeware).
* [[enblend]] - Perform sophisticated blending of seams when overlapping photos have varying brightness.
* [[PTStitcher]] - Freeware alternative to [[nona]], the internal [[hugin]] stitcher.
* [[PTmender]] - Open Source replacement for PTStitcher, part of the [[pano12]] package.

== Tools ==

* [[dcraw]] and [[UFRaw]]: Convert camera [[RAW]] images.
* [[PTblender]] - Match image brightnesses, part of the [[pano12]] package.
* [[ImageMagick]]: Optionally batch process images before using [[Enblend]], e.g. when you have large black areas because of a [[pitch]] angle.
* [[PanoCube]]: Converts [[equirectangular]] panoramas to [[QTVR]] cubic movies.
* [[clens]] command-line version of [[PTLens]]

== Panorama viewers ==

* [[PTViewer]]
* [[panoglview]]
* [[freepv]]
* <strike>[[panoviewer]]</strike> superseeded by [[panoglview]]
* [[Quicktime]] can be [http://www.frankscorner.org/index.php?p=qt651 installed via wine]

== Plugins for the Gimp ==

The [[Gimp]] is a sophisticated image editor.

There are several [[Gimp#Panoramic photography related gimp plugins|panoramic photography related gimp plugins]] that can be used to manipulate panoramas.

== Other Software ==
* [[PanoPoints]]: Perl-Based control point picker for use with [[Panorama Tools]]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]

Full 16 bit workflow

2007-12-21T03:45:39Z

Imroy: remove section headers at the start to give a proper introduction, adjust section levels, minor copyedit

One of the biggest problems in panorama creation is [[dynamic range]]. In order to save both maximum number of levels and maximum dynamic range it is recommended to use a 16 bit workflow. 16 bit refers here to the single channel bit depth. However, some applications and tutorials use the term '48 bit' or '64 bit' which refers to the complete bit depth for all channels and is essentially the same.

== Requirements ==
This tutorial is for the advanced user only. It assumes you are familiar with shooting, stitching, blending 8 bit images and with basic and advanced editing techniques in photoshop like using image layers, adjustment layers and masks.

=== Image source===
To use 16 bit workflow you need a camera capable of saving [[RAW]] files or a scanner plus application that allows to save 16 bit. See [[RAW dynamic range extraction]] on how to extract the full dynamic range from a RAW file into a single 16 bit per channel document.

=== Software ===
A recent version of the [[pano12]] library supports 16 bit as well as the usual [[GUI front-ends]]. If you want to use [[autopano]] you might need a tool to batch convert images to 8 bit (f.e. IrfanView) since autopano currently has a bug that causes an error message for some types of 16 bit [[TIFF]]s. Some camera's (e.g. Nikon D70) save a [[JPEG]] file together with the RAW file. You can use that JPEG file to use with autopano. After the control point generation, replace the JPEG with its 16 bit variant.

If you want to edit the layered stitching result you will need Adobe [[Photoshop]] CS or above. This is not needed if you use [[enblend]] for blending the images.

== Photographing the panorama ==
=== Using a digital camera ===
To get maximum [[dynamic range]] with a digital camera expose for the brightest highlight you want to have details in. In a sunlit landscape these are usually the clouds but could as well be a white building. Digital cameras clip the highlights but not the shadows. Check the histogram to see if clipping is a problem. A good article about correct exposure with digitals is found at http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

Shooting in [[RAW]] allows you to later generate 16 bit [[TIFF]]s from these files, with precisely adjusted exposure and white balance, or even different exposure and white-balance settings to assemble the images again in a more favoring way, eg another white-balance for the windows of interior-panos.

With Adobe raw-plugin it should be possible to find settings in order to extract at least much of the available [[dynamic range]]. Try to find a value for 'Exposure' that does not clip the highlights below camera clipping and set 'Shadows', 'Brightness' and 'Contrast' to the lowest values. This will probably preserve most dynamic range.

If you don't use Windows or Mac OS or if you simply want to use a command line tool that is capable of extracting full dynamic range there is always [[dcraw]].

Speeding up the workflow with [[photoshop]] CS can be easily done with dr.browns image-processor (for photoshop CS2 it is not longer needed). A detailed tutorial-movie and the image-processor is available here: http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html

=== Using film ===
==== Shooting ====
With color negative film expose for the darkest shadow you want to have details in. A tripod is recommended, since the exposure times might get very long especially if stopped down. I use a typical exposure of 1/15s at f/16 in bright sunlight with Fuji Reala. Color negative film clips the shadows but not the highlights. It is a good idea to shoot an extra image containing some color chart or at least a grey card plus a white piece of paper and something entirely black. This will help to white balance later.

==== Scanning ====
Avoid any clipping while scanning. Switch off any automatics in your scanning software that influences white balance or exposure. Save as 16 bit [[TIFF]] (sometimes refered to as 48 bit [[TIFF]]). You have to experiment with your scanning software.

With Vuescan use advanced workflow (see manual). Set color balance to 'None' on color tab. Don't worry about the results being dull and having a color cast - you can correct anything in the ready stitched panorama. Save as '48 bit [[TIFF]]'

== Stitching ==
If you want to use [[autopano]] it is a good idea to work with 8 bit copies of your images for control point generation. Autopano should work with 16 bit images but currently refuses to work with certain types. Once you are finished with autopano you can revert to the 16 bit originals.

Older versions of [[PTGui]] silently degraded images to 8 bit if you choose a cropping frame outside the image bounds or if you use a filter.

The most recent versions of PTGui have an own control point finder and stitcher, both of which deal with 16 bit images very well. If you choose PTGui stitcher you can set bit depth to either 8 or 16 bit for output formats that support it.

== Blending ==
Basically there are three possible ways to blend your images:
* Let panotools do anything by choosing any single image output format like [[TIFF]], [[JPEG]] or [[PSD]].
* Output multiple [[TIFF]] files and blend manually in an image editor using layers. 16 bit layers are currently handled by very few programs. One of them is Adobe [[Photoshop]] CS or higher and another apparently [[Cinepaint]].
* Using [[enblend]]
* Using [[SmartBlend]]
* Using [[PTGui]] internal blender (recent versions only).

=== Enblend ===
[[Enblend]] handles 16 bit images well. Do what you ever did using enblend and you finish up with a blended 16 bit [[TIFF]]. However, be aware of the additional [[alpha channel]] [[enblend]] puts into the image.

=== SmartBlend ===
[[SmartBlend]] is able to work with 16 bit images from version 1.2.2 on. It works just like enblend with the major difference that it attempts to remove [[ghosts]] from the seams.

=== Photoshop CS ===
==== Importing images ====
Choose multi image [[TIFF]] as output, either with feather (TIFF_mask) or without (TIFF_m). Use the 'Import TIFF files with [[alpha channel]] to masked layers' action you can download from [http://www.erik-krause.de/ttt http://www.erik-krause.de/ttt] to assemble the single images (usually named <yourimage>0000.tif, <yourimage>0001.tif a.s.o) into a layered Photoshop document.

==== Correcting colors ====
If you have shot a greycard previously, load this image as a separate file and place a levels adjustment layer above. Use the grey eyedropper to get neutral mid tones but don't use the white or black eyedropper as they might cause clipping.

Open the Info palette. Set a color sample point (5x5 average) to the black and white image detail and adjust input white and black point for the color channels manually in order to get equal color values for all channels. Check the RGB values for the black, the white and the grey sample frequently.

Try to get the minimum common color value for the white point (by not changing the channel with the highest value) and the maximum common color value for the black point (by not changing the channel with the lowest value). Most probably you will have to repeat these steps until you get neutral black, white and grey since any adjustment influences the others.

Once you're done drag the adjustment layer from the layers palette to your pano on top off all other layers. If you used a grey wedge you can make an even finer adjustments using curves instead of levels and adjusting several shades of grey to be neutral.

If you didn't shoot a greycard, simply place a levels or curves adjustment layer on top of the image layers and adjust colors to look natural.

Use additional adjustment layers to adjust contrast and / or brightness. It might be a good idea to use an s-shaped curve in order to increase mid tone contrast. Save the document prior to flatten to be able to correct without loss of levels.

After that edit the individual layer masks to avoid visible seams and eventually use additional adjustment layers grouped with single image layers to adjust color or brightness differences.

If you want to make the image look more brilliant, flatten to background and use [[sharpening|unsharp mask]] with threshold 0, amount from 20% to 50% and a radius between 70 and 250 pixels (depending on image size). It's a good idea to reduce to intended output size prior to this step since it is very slow on large images.

If there is still much detail hidden in the shadows or you are not satisfied with the contrast you might want to try some more sophisticated [[tone mapping]] operators, f.e. one of those compared at [[HDR compression]] which work on 16 bit images, too.

== Patching ==
=== Extracting Views ===
Extracting Views in order to patch the tripod or some holes or mismatches in Zenith is a bit of a problem, if you want to do it in full 16 bit. The most convenient possibility - [[PTEditor]] - reads 16 bit [[TIFF]]s but writes only 8 bit.

The only possibilities to achieve the task in 16 bit is either to use [[PTStitcher]] (with one of the [[GUI front-ends]] or with script) or the [[Photoshop]] compatible [[Panorama Tools Plugins]] in the 16 bit version provided by [http://epaperpress.com/ptplugins/index.html Thomas Niemann]

The different possibilities are described on [[Extracting and inserting rectilinear Views]]

=== Inserting tripod caps ===
Another way to cover the tripod is to insert some other image like a logo or a mirror ball. This should be no problem for 16 bit if it is done either with the 16 bit Plugins (as mentioned above) or with [[PTStitcher]]. Many possibilities are described on [[Tutorials#Tripod_Caps|Tripod Caps]]

[[Category:Tutorial:Specialised]]

Aspect Ratio

2007-09-26T14:07:40Z

Imroy: copyedit, add info on 35 mm film

'''Aspect ratio''' is the ratio (proportion) between width and height of an image. It doesn't matter whether the image is measured in cm, inch or pixels. However, measurement in digital imaging depends on resolution (and this can be different for width and height) hence always pixel values are used to calculate the aspect ratio.

If an image is 200 pixels wide and 100 pixels high it has an aspect ratio of 2:1 as well as if it is 600 pixels wide and 300 pixels high.

Digital cameras often produce images with a 4:3 ratio, for example: 640×480 (VGA), 800×600, 1600×1200, 2048×1536 (3 megapixel), 2592×1944, 3264×2448, etc. The common frame size used with still photography on 35 mm film is approximately 36×24 mm, giving an aspect ratio of 3:2.

[[Category:Glossary]]

SPi-V

2007-09-26T14:03:48Z

Imroy: copyedit

The '''Shockwave Panorama Viewer''' (shortened to '''SPi-V''', pronounced "spiffy") is a hardware accelerated panoramic viewing engine created by ''fieldOfView''. The engine is build on Macromedia's [[Shockwave]] 3D.

Supported input formats are [[cylindrical]], [[cubic]] or [[equirectangular]]. It is also possible to use [[QTVR]] with the help of the PHP based [http://www.fieldofview.com/spv-dev/projects/qtparser QuicktimeVR parser].

== Features ==

* High fidelity, anti-aliased graphics
* Full screen, smooth navigation
* Fully interactive user interface and hotspot capabilities
* Higly customisable branding options
* Full, 8 bit transparency support
* Compatible with Microsoft Windows (98 and up) and Apple MacOS (9.X and OSX)

SPi-V can be used online in a web browser and offline integrated in a Powerpoint presentation or played back inside the standalone SPi-V viewer application. There is also a [http://fieldofview.com/flickrtools/ SPi-V tool for Flickr] available.

For its panoramic scene and virtual tour description SPi-V uses [[wikipedia:XML|XML]] files with its [http://www.fieldofview.com/spv-dev/docs own format].

== See also ==
* [[Plugin detection]]

== External links ==
* [http://fieldofview.com/spv FieldOfViews' SPi-V homepage]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]

Cylindrical Projection

2007-09-26T14:01:00Z

Imroy: copyedit

[[image:big ben cylindrical.jpg|right|Cylindrical projection, with permission from Ben Kreunen]]

A '''cylindrical projection''' is a type of [[Projections|projection]] for mapping a portion of the surface of a sphere to a flat image. It can be envisioned by imagining wrapping a flat piece of paper around the circumference of a sphere, such that it is tangent to the sphere at its equator. Shining a light from the center of the sphere then projects the spherical surface onto the flat paper.

In panoramic imaging, the cylindrical projection is most often used for prints of wide panoramas which occupy large range (>120 degrees) of longitude. Like the [[Equirectangular Projection]], the cylindrical projection also preserves verticals, but it cannot represent data near the poles ([[nadir]] and [[zenith]]), which are distorted and stretched further and further to infinity.

Straight lines which are not vertical in reality become curved (other than the horizon). The horizon is mapped to a straight line across the middle of the image. Of course this only applies if the axis which the camera was rotated around was strictly vertical. If not the horizon is curved.

Cylindrical projection is the native output format of a rotating (scanning) panorama camera (like panoscan, spheron and others) with rectilinear lens or from a swing lens camera (Horizon, Noblex...)

Other forms of cylindrical projections which can represent the poles, such as the [[Mercator Projection]] common in map-making, are not typically used in panoramic imaging.

== External links ==

* [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/CylindricalProjection.html Cylindrical projection at Mathworld] shows an example and gives details on the mathematics

[[Category:Glossary]]

Nadir

2007-09-26T13:58:26Z

Imroy: copyedit

The '''nadir''' is the point directly below the person viewing or below the camera (set a [[Pitch]] of -90 degrees in PanoTools). The opposite (above) point is named [[Zenith]] and has a [[Pitch]] value of (+)90 degrees. The horizon or equator is in-between and has a Pitch of 0 degrees.

The Nadir is streched to a line in [[Equirectangular Projection]], making it hard to edit directly. However, a [[Rectilinear Projection|rectilinear]] view can be [[Extracting and inserting rectilinear Views|extracted]] for editing.

The Nadir usually gives much more problems than the Zenith because there either is a tripod to cover or there are [[Parallax]] errors to edit. Objects at the nadir tend to be much closer to the lens and therefore errors in the setup will more likely be detectable in this part of the picture. One possible way to solve this problem is to use [[Tutorials#Tripod Caps|tripod caps]].

== Related articles ==

* [[Stitching Nadir Shots]]
* [[Adding a nadir cap (mirror ball)]]
* [[Adding a nadir logo with text]]
* [[How to use enblend for patching zenith and nadir images]]
* [[Edit zenith and nadir in one go with PTGui]]
* [[Edit zenith and nadir in one go with Adjust filter]]
* [[Zenith and Nadir editing overview]]
* [[Using enblend to fill the "Hole in the floor"]]
[[Category:Glossary]]

Zenith

2007-09-26T13:57:15Z

Imroy: copyedit

The '''Zenith''' is the point directly above the person viewing or above the camera. The opposite (below) point is named [[Nadir]].

The Zenith is stretched to a line in [[Equirectangular Projection]], making it hard to edit it directly. However, a [[Rectilinear Projection|rectilinear]] view can be [[Extracting and inserting rectilinear Views|extracted]] for editing.

== Related articles ==

* [[How to use enblend for patching zenith and nadir images]]
* [[Edit zenith and nadir in one go with PTGui]]
* [[Edit zenith and nadir in one go with Adjust filter]]
* [[Zenith and Nadir editing overview]]
[[Category:Glossary]]

Unusual remappings

2007-09-26T13:01:48Z

Imroy: copyedit

The possibilities of panotools go far beyond mere panorama stitching. Due to its flexibility and modular design there are some remappings possible that (may be) were not intended originally. It is possible to perform these (and other unusual) remappings using the [[Panorama Tools Plugins]]. There is a Photoshop action by Flemming V. Larsen which uses the plugins: [http://www.fvlmedia.dk/temp/remappano.htm].

I prefer to use one of the [[GUI front-ends]], since they allow for a more convenient control. I've used [[PTGui]] here but it should be possible with [[hugin]], [[PTAssembler]] or [[PTMac]] in a similar way.

== Little planet ==
[[Image:little planet.jpg|thumb|250px|Little planet remapping result © Erik Krause]]
This is a remapping already used by Helmut Dersch as a thumbnail for his virtual Marburg tour on [http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~dersch/] (scroll down on the page). It remaps an [[equirectangular]] full spherical panorama to a virtual 360 degree fisheye image with the [[nadir]] in the center and the [[zenith]] at the circle border. Unfortunately neither PTGui nor hugin support this remapping directly, hence we have to modify the [[PTStitcher]] script.

=== Steps ===
* Open PTGui, choose '''Advanced mode''' and load your equirect image on '''Source Images''' tab page.
* On '''Lens Settings''' tab page choose '''Equirectangular''' from the '''Lens type''' list, set '''Hor. Field of View''' to 360 degrees and click '''Restore defaults''' in the '''Advanced''' frame in order to set all lens correction parameters to 0.0.
* On '''Panorama Settings''' tab page choose '''Projection: Equirectangular''' and set '''Field of View''' to 180 x 180 degrees. This is for convenience only. The values will be changed later.
* On '''Image parameters''' tab page click the '''Pitch''' field for your image and set it to 90 in order to view straight down.
* On '''Create Panorama''' tab page set the width and file format you want for your output image. One single image is created hence any single image format is good. Don't forget the image name. Choose '''Stitch using: Panorama Tools (PTStitcher)''' from the '''Advanced''' frame and check '''Show script'''.
* Click '''Create panorama'''. The script will be shown.
* In the line beginning with the letter p change '''f2''' to '''f3''' and '''v180''' to '''v360'''. Click Ok.

The resulting image is supposed to be a "Full Frame Fisheye", hence you need to crop it to a circular frame in your image editor.

=== Tweaks ===
[[Image:little planet tweaks.jpg|thumb|250px|Pano editor tweaks in PTGui]]
If you don't like the rotation of the result image you use '''Numerical transform''' from the PTGui panorama editor (Ctrl+E). Enter a step value for '''Roll''' (f.e. -10) and press '''Apply''' button repeatedly until you like the roation. The display in pano editor will be in equirect, not in "little planet" of course.

You can change "Little planet" to "Tunnel view" (same projection with the [[zenith]] in the center and the [[nadir]] on the outer side) if you put -90 in the '''Pitch''' field on '''Image tab''' in order to view straight up.

{{clr}}
== Orientation plate (arc) ==
[[Image:orientation-plate.jpg|thumb|250px|Arc formed panorama © Erik Krause]]

On some places with wide panoramic vistas you can find orientation plates. Arc formed prints of the panorama. Panotools can make this remapping from a cylindrical panorama to an arc formed one, too. No need to edit scripts here but a pocked calculator might be of some use and you should know the approximate horizontal [[Field of View]] (here abbreviated as '''hFoV''') of your panorama. This works even for 360 degree panoramas.

=== Steps ===
[[Image:pano-editor-settings.jpg|thumb|250px|Pano editor and pano settings in PTGui]]
[[Image:pano-editor-settings-360.jpg|thumb|250px|Pano editor and lens settings for 360 degree in PTGui]]
[[Image:orientation-plate-360.jpg|thumb|250px|Arc formed 360 degree panorama © Erik Krause]]

* Open PTGui, choose '''Advanced mode''' and load your cylindrical image on '''Source Images''' tab page. Note down the pixel sizes. In our example these are 4254x400 pixels.
* On '''Lens Settings''' tab page choose '''Cylindrical''' from the '''Lens type''' list, set '''Hor. Field of View''' to the field of view of your panorama (120 degrees in our example). Click '''Restore defaults''' in the '''Advanced''' frame in order to set all lens correction parameters to 0.0. Get your calculator. Use the following formula (provided by Rik Littlefield - many thanks):
<math>r=\frac{imageWidthInPixels*360}{hFoV*2*pi}</math>
In the example case this is
<math>r=\frac{4254*360}{120*2*3.14}=2031</math>
Enter the result as a negative value in the '''vert.(e)''' Image shift field (-2031 in the example case).
* On '''Panorama Settings''' tab page choose '''Projection: Rectilinear''' and set '''Field of View''' to 120 x 120 degrees. This will probably be changed later.
* On '''Image parameters''' tab page click the '''Pitch''' field for your image and set it to 90 in order to view straight down.
* On '''Create Panorama''' tab page set the width and file format you want for your output image. One single image is created hence any single image format is good. Don't forget the image name. Choose '''Stitch using: Panorama Tools (PTStitcher)''' from the '''Advanced''' frame and uncheck '''Use fast transform'''.
* Open panorama editor (Ctrl+E) and adjust panorama width and height using the sliders such that it contains the whole arc. Occasionally PTGui fails to display the arc correctly in pano editor. In this case you need to calculate the appropriate values. See below for details.
* On '''Create Panorama''' tab page check the output size and click '''Create panorama'''.

You might want to crop the result image in your image editor in order to get rid of the black space.

=== Tweaks ===
Since the source panorama is arched, the pixels have to be compressed at the inner side and stretched at the outer side. There is a line in the middle where there is no stretching or compression. In most cases it is desirable that this line is the horizon which is assumed to be half way between upper and lower edge of the panorama. If you want this line to be somewhere else simply use a different image shift (e) value. For example -2231 will shift 200 pixels further down (nearer to the center of the result image) than -2031 and create a smaller and narrower arc.

The above calculation
<math>r=\frac{imageWidthInPixels*360}{hFoV*2*pi}</math>
actually calculates the virtual radius (half of the diameter of the cylinder it is projected on) of the cylindrical source image in pixels. We will need this value '''r''' for the following calculation.

Result images might get very large large since they have to be symmetrical to the center point of the arcs circle, which requires a lot of black space especially if the source panorama HFoV is low. Occasionally PTGui pano editor doesn't show the correct result image (although PTStitcher will create the arc correctly) making it impossible to adjust the panorama size manually.

In both cases it might be interesting to create the minimum possible size that covers the whole arc. Since '''Fit Panorama''' (in PTGui pano editor) fails in this case we need to calculate the values ourselves.

The minimal vertical FoV value that will cover the whole arc can be calculated by
<math>rvFoV=2*arctan\left(\frac{r}{e-\left(\frac{ImageHeight}{2}\right)}\right)</math>
where '''e''' is the positive Image shift you entered in the '''vert.(e)''' Image shift field as a negative value and '''r''' is the radius from two paragraphs above. In our example:
<math>rvFoV=2*arctan\left({\frac{2031}{2031-\frac{400}{2}}}\right)=95.93^\circ</math>
'''rvFoV''' (for result vertical Field of View).

If your source FoV is lower than 180 degree like in our example the resulting horizontal Field of View ('''rhFoV''') can be lower than the vertical FoV (rvFoV). This can be calculated by
<math>rhFoV=2*arctan\left(sin\left(\frac{hFoV_{source}}{2}\right)*tan\left(\frac{rvFoV}{2}\right)\right)</math>
In our example
<math>2*arctan\left(sin\left(\frac{120}{2}\right)*tan\left(\frac{96}{2}\right)\right)=87.77^\circ</math>
It is advisable to choose slightly larger values for both horizontal and vertical result FoV in order not to loose any pixels.

--[[User:Erik Krause|Erik Krause]] 16:09, 13 Dec 2005 (EST)

[[Category:Tutorial:Specialised]]

HDR Software overview

2007-09-26T05:13:44Z

Imroy: copyedit, including big simplification of tables

Certainly one of the most interesting upcoming technologies for photographers is High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI), allowing work with the full real world levels of illumination. While standard image formats utilizes 8 or 16 bits with applied gamma and color space, the HDR image format extends the bit depth up to 96bit in a linear color space.

On this overview we will focus on the currently available Windows GUI-based software packages that are able to create and process HDR images. I want to thank all authors of the respective software packages for their support during the creation of the overview, especially Geraldine Joffre, Andreas Schömann, Paul Nolan, and Thomas Lock. Aside from the windows based GUI packages Bernhard Vogl has evaluated, command line tools are also available and have been added to the table below.

The following software packages have been tested:

==Software overview==

{| border="1" cellpadding="5"
|- style="background-color: #000000; color: #F5F5F5; font-size: small;"
! Software
! Homepage
! Version
! Platforms
! Price
! Comments
|-
! Artizen
|
[http://www.supportingcomputers.net/ supportingcomputers.net]
| 2.5.6
| Win
| 59.99 CDN
| -
|-
! EasyHDR
|
[http://www.easyhdr.com easyhdr.com]
| 1.22
| Win
| 25 EUR
| -
|-
! FDRTools Basic
|
[http://fdrtools.com/ fdrtools.com]
| 1.8.2
| Win, Mac
| free
| -
|-
! FDRTools Advanced
|
[http://fdrtools.com/ fdrtools.com]
| 1.8.2
| Win, Mac
| 39.00 EUR
| -
|-
! HDRShop
|
[http://gl.ict.usc.edu/HDRShop/ gl.ict.usc.edu/HDRShop]
| 1.0
| Win
| free for non-commercial and educational use (commercial license: HDRShop 2 (399.00 USD))
| no further development, superseded by the commercial version 2.0
|-
! hugin
|
[http://hugin.sf.net/ hugin.sf.net]
|nowrap| 0.7 beta 4
| Linux, Win, Mac
| free, open source
| All in one panorama creation program. See [[hugin]]
|-
! Photogenics HDR
|
[http://www.idruna.com/ idruna.com]
| 7.0
| Win, Linux
| 699.00 USD
| focuses on 3D workflow and film editing
|-
! Photomatix Pro
|
[http://www.hdrsoft.com/ hdrsoft.com]
| 2.3.1
| Win, Mac
| 99.00 USD
| -
|-
! Photoshop
|
[http://www.adobe.com/ adobe.com]
| 9.0 (CS2)
| Win, Mac
| 649.00 USD (US download) 1042.84 EUR (Europe boxed)
| -
|-
! Picturenaut
|
[http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/ hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/]
| 2.11
| Win
| free
|
|-
! pfstools
|
[http://www.mpi-sb.mpg.de/resources/pfstools/ mpi-sb.mpg.de]
| 1.5
| Unix, Mac, (Win)
| free, open source
| Command line tools and two GUI (pfsview and [http://theplaceofdeadroads.blogspot.com/2006/07/qpfstmo-hdr-tone-mapping-gui-for-linux_04.html qpfstmo]) for creation and processing of hdr images.
|-
! PTGui Pro
|
[http://www.ptgui.com/ ptgui.com]
| 7.2
| Win, Mac
| 149 EUR
| All in one panorama creation program. See [[PTGui]]
|-
! Qtpfsgui
|
[http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/ qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net]
| 1.8.12
| Win, Mac, Linux
| free, open-source
| QT based GUI for pfstools, now including an automatic image alignment
|}

As you can see,there is a wide variety of fees you have to pay for the different software packages. This is partly justified by the features and the editing functions the various programs offer.

== HDR creation and tonemapping ==

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" style="text-align: center;"
|- style="background-color: #000000; color: #f5f5f5; font-size: small;"
! rowspan="2" | Software
! rowspan="2" | measure camera response curve
! colspan="4" | create HDR from bracketed images
! rowspan="2" | create HDR from camera RAW image (*1)
! colspan="5" | tonemap image to LDR
|- style="background-color: #000000; color: #f5f5f5; font-size: small;"
! single HDR image creation
! batch mode
! LDR image alignment
! ghost removal
! number of different operators
! single image via GUI
! batch mode
! parameters save-/restoreable
! panoramic mapping (correct border and zenith/nadir blending)
|-
! align="left" | Artizen
| <big>○</big> (histogram)
| √
| √
| automatic & freehand & numeric
| ?
| √
| 11
| √
| √
| √
| √
|-
! align="left" | EasyHDR
| ?
| √
| √
| manual ?
| ?
| √
| 1
| √
| during creation
| √
| –
|-
! align="left" | FDRTools Basic
| √ & modify-able histogram
| √
| <big>○</big> (via command line)
| √
|
| √
| 2
| √
| <big>○</big> (via command line)
| –
|
|-
! align="left" | FDRTools Advanced
| √ & modify-able histogram
| √
| <big>○</big> (via command line)
| √
| √
| √
| 3 (also supports compression & contrast bracketing)
| √
| <big>○</big> (via command line)
| –
| √
|-
! align="left" | HDRShop
| √
| √
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
|-
! align="left" | hugin
| √
| √
| -
| √ (by standard control points)
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
|-
! align="left" | Photogenics HDR
| –
| √ (relies on EXIF data)
| –
| ?
| ?
| – (tethered shooting with Canon cameras possible)
| 3
| √
| –
| –
| –
|-
! align="left" | Photomatix Pro
| √ (selectable)
| √
| √
| √ (selectable)
| √
| √
| 2 + 2 LDR blending methods
| √
| √
| √
| <big>○</big> (no zenith/nadir possible)
|-
! align="left" | Photoshop
| √ (supposedly automatic)
| √ (relies on EXIF data)
| –
| √ (selectable)
| ?
| –
| 4
| √
| –
| √
| –
|-
! align="left" | Picturenaut
| √ (selectable)
| √
| <big>○</big> (via command line)
| √ (selectable)
| ?
| –
| 2
| √
| command line (HDRI2LDRI - adaptive logarithmic only)
| √/– (can read MKHDRI-curves)
| not necessary, global operator
|-
! align="left" | pfstools
| √ (pfscalibration, pfstmo with qpfstmo GUI)
| √
| <big>○</big> (via command line)
| -
| -
| √
| 7
| √ (qpfstmo)
| √
| -/– (command line)
| –
|-
! align="left" | PTGui Pro
| √
| √
| √ (via Batch Stitcher)
| √ (by standard control points)
| -
| -
| 1
| √
| √ (via Batch Stitcher)
| √
| √
|-
! align="left" | Qtpfsgui
| <big>○</big> pfstools calibration can be used
| √
| √
| √
| √
| √
| 8
| √
| √
| –
| –
|}

<nowiki>*1</nowiki>: Most software relies on DCRaw for RAW conversion. Some cameras with extended DR capabilities are not converted correctly (e.g. Fuji's S3 camera: Although DCRaw could theoretically read all photosensors, it would need one conversion call for every photosite which is not implemented in the tested software packages.)

== HDR image manipulation ==

There are basically 3 types of appications available:
* Converter software: This type of software will assist you in generating and tonemapping HDR images
* Image editors: These are full-flagged image manipulation programs that will also give you the possibility of HDR generation and tonemapping
* Panorama creation programs with the additional possibility of HDR generation and tonemapping

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" style="font-size: small;"
|- style="background-color: #000000; color: #f5f5f5;"
! rowspan="2" | Software
! File formats (*1) EXR/HDR: 96bit TIFF: 32bit
! rowspan="2" | software type
! rowspan="2" | full image editing capabilities
! colspan="2" | manipulation essentials
! rowspan="2" | no. of builtin panoramic transformations
! colspan="3" | filters
! rowspan="2" | plugins possible
|- style="background-color: #000000; color: #f5f5f5;"
! read/write
! resize, crop, rotate
! white balance
! approx number
! HDR capable
! scriptable
|-
! align="left" | Artizen
| EXR, HDR, TIFF, PFM
| image editor
| √
| √
| <big>○</big> (color adjust)
| 4
| >40
| √
| √
| Tone Mapping Operator SDK included
|-
! align="left" | EasyHDR
| HDR, TIFF
| converter
| –
| –
| √
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
|-
! align="left" | FDRTools Basic
| EXR, HDR, TIFF
| converter
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
|-
! align="left" | FDRTools Advanced
| EXR, HDR, TIFF
| converter
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
|-
! align="left" | HDRShop
| HDR, TIFF
| converter
| –
| √
| √
| 6 (+ 3D rotation)
| ~15
| √
| –
| √
|-
! align="left" | hugin
| EXR, HDR, TIFF
| panorama creation program
| –
| <big>○</big> (panorama related transformations and cropping)
| –
| 12
| -
| -
| -
| n/a
|-
! align="left" | Photogenics HDR
| EXR, HDR, TIFF
| image editor
| √
| √
| <big>○</big> (color adjust)
| 4
| >40
| √
| –
| √ (beta)
|-
! align="left" | Photomatix Pro
| EXR, HDR, TIFF
| converter
| –
| √
| –
| 1
| –
| –
| –
| –
|-
! align="left" | Photoshop
| EXR, HDR, TIFF (always assumes 32bit)
| image editor
| √
| √
| <big>○</big> (white point adjust)
| –
| >40
| ~15
| √
| √
|-
! align="left" | Picturenaut
| HDR, TIFF
| converter
| –
| √ (resize)
| –
| –
| –
| –
| –
| HDRShop plugins
|-
! align="left" | pfstools
| EXR, HDR, JPEG-HDR (read only), PFM, TIFF
| converter
| –
| √
| –
| 4
| ~11
| √
| √
| n/a
|-
! align="left" | PTGui Pro
| EXR, HDR
| panorama creation program
| –
| <big>○</big> (panorama related transformations and cropping)
| –
| 10
| -
| -
| -
| n/a
|-
! align="left" | Qtpfsgui
| JPEG, PNG, PPM, PBM, TIFF, EXR, HDR, PFS
| converter
| –
| √
| –
| 4
| ~11
| √
| -
| n/a
|}

<nowiki>*1</nowiki>: TIFF: 32 bit floating point TIFF. Please note that the TIFF file format is an abstract container for various encoding methods. This may result in incompatibility when exchanging TIFF files between various applications. This is also true to some extent for .hdr files. Though, all applications in this overview use the most recent file format.

== UI functionality and large image processing ==

The best HDR software is not of much use if it lacks of an intuitive user interface. We will now have a look on some key functionality and UI design. We will also have a look if the applications utilize a clever memory management. The test file is a HDR panorama stitched by Hugin with a size of 8000x4000 pixels (32 Mpix), converted to the Radiance (.hdr) format. (This is tested using a standard Windows XP setup w. 1GB of RAM, swapping to HDD allowed)

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" style="text-align: center;"
|- style="background-color: #000000; color: #f5f5f5; font-size: small;"
! rowspan="2" | Software
! colspan="2" | drag & drop operation from operating system possible
! colspan="2" | large image processing
|- style="background-color: #000000; color: #f5f5f5; font-size: small;"
! drop JPEG LDR images → generate HDR image
! drop HDR image
! load 32Mpix HDR file
! tone map 32Mpix image
|-
! align="left" | Artizen
| yes / yes
| yes
| √
| √
|-
! align="left" | EasyHDR
| no / no
| no
| runtime error
| –
|-
! align="left" | FDRTools Basic
| no / no
| no
| √
| <big>○</big> (very slow)
|-
! align="left" | FDRTools Advanced
| no / no
| no
| √
| <big>○</big> (very slow)
|-
! align="left" | HDRShop
| yes / no (will open multiple images for editing)
| yes
| √
| n/a
|-
! align="left" | hugin
| no / no
| yes
| √
| -
|-
! align="left" | Photogenics HDR
| yes / no (will open multiple images for editing)
| yes
| √
| <big>○</big> (very slow)
|-
! align="left" | Photomatix Pro
| yes / yes
| yes
| √
| √ (only in batch mode)
|-
! align="left" | Photoshop
| yes / no (will open multiple images for editing)
| yes
| √
| √
|-
! align="left" | Picturenaut
| yes / no (will open multiple images for editing)
| yes
| √
| √
|-
! align="left" | pfstools
| no / no
| no
| n/a (no GUI)
| √ (depends on algorithm)
|-
! align="left" | PTGui Pro
| no / no
| yes
| √
| √
|-
! align="left" | Qtpfsgui
| no / no
| no
| √
| √ (depends on algorithm)
|}

== See Also ==

* [[HDR and Tonemapping dialogs in detail]]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Survey]]

Immervision

2007-09-26T04:27:28Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''Immervision''' makes a free java applet with directional sound, animation and other advanced features which work with all JVM since version 1.1 (including IE and Netscape ones). At this time this viewer is in Beta test version.

== External links ==
* [http://www.immervision.com/multimedia/products/viewerG2java_us.php Applet page]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]

Krita

2007-09-26T04:26:23Z

Imroy: copyedit, mention that it's slow with big images

'''Krita''' is an image editor and paint program similar to the [[Gimp]], [[photoshop]] or [[cinepaint]]. It is part of the KOffice suite and is currently only available for Linux.

Notable functionality is 16bit and floating-point [[HDR]] capability in multiple colour spaces and full colour management. However it does not handle images efficiently and can be rather slow with large images.

== External links ==
* [http://www.koffice.org/krita/ Krita home page]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]

Photoshop limitations

2007-09-26T04:23:51Z

Imroy: copyedit

This article covers bugs and limitations of the widely used application [[Photoshop]] and hopefully their workarounds. Some problems are '''system''' specific (different flavours of Mac OS and Windows), some are found in a certain '''program version''' (like Photoshop Elements, 7.x, 8.x aka CS or 9.x aka CS2) or '''file type''' specific (e.g. 16 bit TIFF files with [[alpha channel|alpha masks]]). Some of the workarounds might advise to use a different application for a certain task.

== Opening large TIFFs with Photoshop ==

'''Photoshop CS for Windows''' has a bug when opening [[TIFF]] files that exceed a certain size and are compressed using the ''packbit'' format. If you try you get the error message "Could not open ... because of a program error". When this error occurs, it is possible to open the images if they are compressed using a different algorithm. Adobe developer Chris Cox is said to have claimed that a Microsoft
compiler bug in the CS version is the reason for this error. It should be partly solved in CS2.

Defining the exact size of a file that produces this kind of error is difficult. According to Erik Krause the bug has something to do with a wrong type cast from 16 to 32 bit integer, watch out for layer size, channel size, pixel size...

Changing the compression can be done with any program that can open the file and save it back (caution! some image viewers - IrfanView f.e. - silently degrade 16 bit [[TIFF]]s to 8 bit). A more convenient choice is to use [[ImageMagick]] together with Erik Krauses batch file [http://www.erik-krause.de/ttt/index.htm] for [[TIFF]] conversion.

There might be problems using LZW compression due to patent issues - although the patent should have expired in all countries by now (see [http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw/] for details). If this is the case, try no compression or ZIP compression. Newer versions of [[ImageMagick]] are not limited anymore.

== Resizing introduces a visible seam line ==

Up to Photoshop CS 2 this is a common problem on both platforms. It only happens when a file is not reduced to the background layer (or flattend) prior to resizing. Before flattening make sure you have saved a copy of your layers file (normally a [[PSD]] or [[PSB]]) when you think you might need those layers again.

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]

ImageMagick

2007-09-26T04:19:34Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''ImageMagick''' is a set of tools for image manipulation and conversion. It consists of a set of command line programs as well as of a library that can be interfaced from own applications. It can do almost any image manipulation from a batch file or shell script and even brings its own scripting language. Besides this, it serves well to circumvent a known Photoshop bug that prevents it from [[Photoshop limitations#opening large TIFFs with Photoshop|opening large TIFF images]].

== External links ==
* [http://www.imagemagick.org/ ImageMagick site]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]

Gimp wideangle plugin

2007-09-26T04:15:59Z

Imroy: copyedit

The '''wideangle plugin''' for the [[Gimp]] image manipulation program can be used to correct [[barrel distortion]] in photographs. Unlike the [[Panorama Tools Plugins]], it has a simple interface where you can play with the results until they look right.

== External links ==

* [http://members.ozemail.com.au/~hodsond/wideangle.html wideangle plugin page]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]

Gimp stitchpanorama plugin

2007-09-26T04:14:56Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''stitchpanorama''' is a plugin for the [[gimp]] that allows you to merge two photographs together into a partial [[rectilinear Projection]] panorama.

You can add [[control points]] which are automatically fine-tuned (much like the various [[GUI front-ends]] for [[Panorama Tools]]). The photos can then be merged into a final output, one image remains unaltered, the other is rotated, blended and distorted to fit (similar to [[xmerge]]).

It's simple to use, though it doesn't do correction of [[barrel distortion]] - You could use the [[gimp wideangle plugin]] or the [[Panorama Gimp plug-in]] to correct this first.

Since the output is limited to [[rectilinear Projection]] ''stitchpanorama'' isn't suitable for creating immersive images such as [[equirectangular Projection]] images.

== External links ==

* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/stitchpanorama stitchpanorama sourceforge page]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]

Gimp phfluuh plugin

2007-09-26T04:13:05Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''phfluuh''' is a plugin for the [[gimp]] that helps assemble some kinds of panoramic mosaics.

With phfluuh you can insert multiple photographs into a single multilayer image, though you have to do the final alignment manually - This is very similar functionality to the [[Gimp pandora plugin]].

phfluuh also has methods to correct [[barrel distortion]] and convert [[Rectilinear Projection|rectilinear]] photographs to [[cylindrical Projection]].

Note that the [[Panorama Gimp plug-in]] also has methods to correct [[barrel distortion]] and convert between [[projections]].

== External links ==

* [http://www.acc.umu.se/~janlert/phfluuh/ phfluuh page at Umeå University]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]

Gimp pandora plugin

2007-09-26T04:06:28Z

Imroy: copyedit

''Pandora'' is a plugin for the [[Gimp]] image manipulation program. It can be used to assemble panoramic multilayer images:

Call it up from '''Xtns -> Make Panorama''' give it a list of files, in order, and an average overlap, and it will give you an image big enough to hold all the pieces, with all the component pieces overlapped to the specified amount, and with gradient layer masks so they fade into each other.

Pandora doesn't have methods to correct [[barrel distortion]] or remap between different [[projections]].

== External links ==

* [http://www.shallowsky.com/software/pandora/ Pandora plugin page]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]

Fulla

2007-09-26T03:56:07Z

Imroy: /* Command-line usage */ spelling of 'coefficient'

'''fulla''' is a command-line tool distributed with [[hugin]] 0.6 and later. It is suitable for batch correction of:

;[[Chromatic aberration]]: See tutorial in [[#External links|external links]].
;[[Lens correction model|Lens distortion]]: [[Barrel distortion|Barrel]] or [[pincushion distortion]] can be corrected using the same a, b, c and d parameters as other [[Panorama Tools]] derived programs.
;[[Vignetting]]: Polynomial correction by division, addition or flatfield images. [[hugin]] contains a vignetting calculator that can use a series of overlapping photographs to determine the likely polynomial required to correct common vignetting problems.

fulla can work with the same range of image types as [[nona]], including 8bit and 16bit [[TIFF]] and 32bit floating-point [[HDR]] TIFF data.

== Command-line usage ==

Usage: fulla [options] inputfile(s)
option are:
-g a:b:c:d Radial distortion coefficient for all channels, (a, b, c, d)
-b a:b:c:d Radial distortion coefficients for blue channel, (a, b, c, d)
this is applied on top of the -g distortion coefficients,
use for TCA corr
-r a:b:c:d Radial distortion coefficients for red channel, (a, b, c, d)
this is applied on top of the -g distortion coefficients,
use for TCA corr
-p Try to read radial distortion coefficients for green
channel from PTLens database
-m Canon Camera manufacturer, for PTLens database query
-n Camera Camera name, for PTLens database query
-l Lens Lens name, for PTLens database query
if not specified, a list of possible lenses is displayed
-d 50 specify focal length in mm, for PTLens database query
-s do not rescale the image to avoid black borders.
-f filename Vignetting correction by flatfield division
I = I / c, c = flatfield / mean(flatfield)
-c a:b:c:d radial vignetting correction by division:
I = I / c, c = a + b*r^2 + c*r^4 + d*r^6
-a Correct vignetting by addition, rather than by division
I = I + c
-i value gamma of input data. used for gamma correction
before and after flatfield correction
-t n Number of threads that should be used during processing
-h Display help (this text)
-o name set output filename. If more than one image is given,
the name will be uses as suffix (default suffix: _corr)
-v Verbose

== Windows batch usage ==

Once you have calculated fulla parameters as described above, you can create a custom ''droplet''
for batch correcting photos like so:

* Create a ''Shortcut to fulla.exe'' by dragging the ''fulla'' icon to another directory in Windows explorer
* Edit ''properties''
* Change the ''target'' to include your correction parameters:
"C:\Program Files\hugin\fulla.exe" -r 0:0:0.00056:1.00015 -b 0:0:-0.00026:1.0011 -c 1:0.20:-0.51:0.2
* Rename the shortcut to something descriptive like ''fulla-peleng''
* Now you can correct photos by dragging and dropping them onto the icon

Expanding on the above example is to create a batchfile in the hugin directory called "fulla.bat" containing the line:
FOR %%I IN (%1) DO C:\Program Files\hugin\fulla.exe -p -v -l Standard %%1
Assuming the name of the lens in the PTLens Database (see below) is "Standard" (as most are). Now, upon calling from any directory containing pics you can run "C:\Program Files\hugin\fulla.bat *.jpg" having fulla correcting all pics using the parameters retrieved from the PTLens Database mentioned below (don't forget to SET PTLENS_PROFILE)

== PTLens database lookup ==

fulla will look-up your camera in a [[PTLens]] database and try to automatically determine [[Lens correction model|Lens correction parameters]] for your pictures. An older free version of the database is required which can be downloaded from sourceforge (see [[#External links|external links]]).

Use the PTLENS_PROFILE environment variable to specify the location of the PTLens database, for example on Linux or OS X:

PTLENS_PROFILE=$HOME/.ptlens/profile.txt

On Windows something like this (untested) should work:

set PTLENS_PROFILE=%HOMEPATH%\PTLens\profile.txt

== External links ==

* [http://hugin.sourceforge.net/tutorials/tca/en.shtml Correcting TCA with hugin and fulla]
* [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=77506&package_id=187932 PTLens database download]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Hugin]]

Fulla

2007-09-26T03:55:09Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''fulla''' is a command-line tool distributed with [[hugin]] 0.6 and later. It is suitable for batch correction of:

;[[Chromatic aberration]]: See tutorial in [[#External links|external links]].
;[[Lens correction model|Lens distortion]]: [[Barrel distortion|Barrel]] or [[pincushion distortion]] can be corrected using the same a, b, c and d parameters as other [[Panorama Tools]] derived programs.
;[[Vignetting]]: Polynomial correction by division, addition or flatfield images. [[hugin]] contains a vignetting calculator that can use a series of overlapping photographs to determine the likely polynomial required to correct common vignetting problems.

fulla can work with the same range of image types as [[nona]], including 8bit and 16bit [[TIFF]] and 32bit floating-point [[HDR]] TIFF data.

== Command-line usage ==

Usage: fulla [options] inputfile(s)
option are:
-g a:b:c:d Radial distortion coefficient for all channels, (a, b, c, d)
-b a:b:c:d Radial distortion coefficents for blue channel, (a, b, c, d)
this is applied on top of the -g distortion coefficients,
use for TCA corr
-r a:b:c:d Radial distortion coefficents for red channel, (a, b, c, d)
this is applied on top of the -g distortion coefficients,
use for TCA corr
-p Try to read radial distortion coefficients for green
channel from PTLens database
-m Canon Camera manufacturer, for PTLens database query
-n Camera Camera name, for PTLens database query
-l Lens Lens name, for PTLens database query
if not specified, a list of possible lenses is displayed
-d 50 specify focal length in mm, for PTLens database query
-s do not rescale the image to avoid black borders.
-f filename Vignetting correction by flatfield division
I = I / c, c = flatfield / mean(flatfield)
-c a:b:c:d radial vignetting correction by division:
I = I / c, c = a + b*r^2 + c*r^4 + d*r^6
-a Correct vignetting by addition, rather than by division
I = I + c
-i value gamma of input data. used for gamma correction
before and after flatfield correction
-t n Number of threads that should be used during processing
-h Display help (this text)
-o name set output filename. If more than one image is given,
the name will be uses as suffix (default suffix: _corr)
-v Verbose

== Windows batch usage ==

Once you have calculated fulla parameters as described above, you can create a custom ''droplet''
for batch correcting photos like so:

* Create a ''Shortcut to fulla.exe'' by dragging the ''fulla'' icon to another directory in Windows explorer
* Edit ''properties''
* Change the ''target'' to include your correction parameters:
"C:\Program Files\hugin\fulla.exe" -r 0:0:0.00056:1.00015 -b 0:0:-0.00026:1.0011 -c 1:0.20:-0.51:0.2
* Rename the shortcut to something descriptive like ''fulla-peleng''
* Now you can correct photos by dragging and dropping them onto the icon

Expanding on the above example is to create a batchfile in the hugin directory called "fulla.bat" containing the line:
FOR %%I IN (%1) DO C:\Program Files\hugin\fulla.exe -p -v -l Standard %%1
Assuming the name of the lens in the PTLens Database (see below) is "Standard" (as most are). Now, upon calling from any directory containing pics you can run "C:\Program Files\hugin\fulla.bat *.jpg" having fulla correcting all pics using the parameters retrieved from the PTLens Database mentioned below (don't forget to SET PTLENS_PROFILE)

== PTLens database lookup ==

fulla will look-up your camera in a [[PTLens]] database and try to automatically determine [[Lens correction model|Lens correction parameters]] for your pictures. An older free version of the database is required which can be downloaded from sourceforge (see [[#External links|external links]]).

Use the PTLENS_PROFILE environment variable to specify the location of the PTLens database, for example on Linux or OS X:

PTLENS_PROFILE=$HOME/.ptlens/profile.txt

On Windows something like this (untested) should work:

set PTLENS_PROFILE=%HOMEPATH%\PTLens\profile.txt

== External links ==

* [http://hugin.sourceforge.net/tutorials/tca/en.shtml Correcting TCA with hugin and fulla]
* [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=77506&package_id=187932 PTLens database download]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Hugin]]

Dcraw

2007-09-26T03:47:20Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''dcraw''' is an ANSI C program written by Dave Coffin to decode any raw image from any digital camera on any computer running any operating system. Thousands of people use dcraw without knowing it, as Bibble, BreezeBrowser, IrfanView, Conceiva, and the Adobe Camera Raw plugin all contain source code from dcraw.

Thanks to Dave Coffin the usage of digital cameras is no longer limited to computers running Windows and MacOS, and thanks to him there is a unique way to extract the full [[dynamic range]] from [[RAW]] files in one go.

dcraw can write 16 bit per channel image files (on windows [[PSD]] files are supported) which contain all the image information of the [[RAW]] file in a linear ([[gamma]] 1.0) color space.

== Alternatives ==

[[UFRaw]] is an easy to use GUI that incorporates dcraw. Levels can be adjusted and previewed before saving.

== Usage ==
=== Windows ===
You shouldn't be afraid of the command line if you want to use dcraw directly. If you simply call it, it gives you a short syntax help. However, it is easy to integrate it in windows explorer right click menu, once you found your favourite parameter settings:

Create a batch file (prefferable in the folder where dcraw is installed) with the dcraw call looking like this:
dcraw -w -3 %*
pause

Actual parameters may vary according to your needs. Call dcraw at the command line to get a parameter overview. You might consider using the -n and -m switch and play with the -b setting (values below 1.0) in order to get maximum dynamic range.

Create a link to that batch file and move it to the 'Send to' folder (a subfolder of your user folder on "C:\Documents and Settings" - may be hidden, hence you first must [[Enable_windows_file_extensions#Unhide_files_and_folders|unhide]] it)

==== 16 bit files with Photoshop ====
[[Photoshop]] users can use this files simply by assign a gamma 1.0 color space (and then convert to working space if needed). A [[gamma]] 1.0 color space can be created with following steps:
* Choose '''Color Settings''' from '''Edit''' menu.
* Check '''Advanced Mode'''
* Choose '''sRGB IEC61966-2.1''' from the '''RGB''' droplist under '''Working Space'''.
* Choose '''Custom''' from the same droplist (very top).
* In the '''Custom RGB''' dialog set Gamma to 1.0 - leave all other values as they are.
* Enter appropriate name (f.e. '''sRGB Gamma 1''') and leave dialog by pressing '''Ok'''.
* In the '''Color Settings''' dialog choose '''Save RGB''' from the RGB dropdown list.
* Give an appropriate name (f.e. '''sRGB Gamma 1.icc''') and save (this might be slightly different for Mac users).
* Close the '''Color Settings''' dialog by pressing '''Cancel''' (in order not to choose the new profile as working space.

Even after conversion into a gamma 2.2 working space the images might look dull. Don't worry. If you use them with [[full 16 bit workflow]] for panorama creation you wont loose anything. You can adjust levels and contrast in your ready stitched panorama.

=== Other OS ===
(someone volunteer?)

==== 16 bit with other image processors ====
Users of other operating systems or other image processores can apply a gamma of 2.2 to those linear gamma files produced by dcraw in their favourite 16 bit per channel capable image processor (e.g [[Cinepaint]] on Linux).

== External links ==

* [http://www.cybercom.net/~dcoffin/dcraw/ dcraw]


[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]

Clens

2007-09-26T03:39:43Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''clens''' is an Open Source, command-line tool that reads the [[EXIF]] information in [[JPEG]] photographs and uses the [[PTLens]] database to correct [[barrel distortion]] using the [[PTStitcher]] or [[nona]] engines. As a command-line tool, '''clens''' is suitable for batch processing of large numbers of images and various other automated tasks.

== External links ==
* [http://panotools.sourceforge.net/ Panotools Sourceforge site]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]

Create a custom ptviewer jar file

2007-09-26T03:37:46Z

Imroy: /* Elements that can be packed in a jar */ JPEG, not 'jpg'

Sometimes the simple way by showing your panoramas using the PTViewer Java applet leads to problems, e.g. firewalls at the client side disallow a .jar file to load other files. Then your panoramic won't show at all. Another reason to create custom PTViewer [[JAR]] files might be the need to include a subset of classes to enable special functions and at the same time don't use the full featured applet with a bigger file size.

This article will try to explain for users of different platforms how to build such a jar step by step. A jar is basically a zip archive with a certain structure of elements. Feel free to edit and improve this page.

== Elements that can be packed in a jar ==
* Panoramic image in equirectangular projection as [[JPEG]]
* A small preview image that is shown while the panoramic image is loaded and decompressed
* Classes
* What else?

== Useful hints ==
=== How to detect the Java version on MacOS X ===
open Terminal and type
java -version
press return and you should get something like
java version "1.4.2_09"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_09-233)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2-56, mixed mode)
If you get an error message please [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106704 update] your Java version
=== Other hints ===

== External links ==
* [http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/jar/basics/build.html sun.com tutorial "Creating a JAR File"]
* [http://webuser.fh-furtwangen.de/%7Edersch/PTVJ/helpers.html Helmut Dersch "How to Bundle Extensions"], very basic

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Tutorial:Specialised]]

PTLens

2007-09-26T03:36:48Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''PTLens''' is a shareware add-on for [[Panorama Tools]] that automatically corrects for [[vignetting]], [[pincushion distortion]] and [[barrel distortion]]. It has received rave reviews from professionals around the world and is available as a [[Photoshop]] plug in, as a stand alone program for Windows and as a command line utility for windows.

There is an Open Source, command-line version called [[clens]] that uses the same database of lenses and which is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

It supports a wide range of prosumer and SLR cameras and if you do not find your camera/lens combination in PTLens, you are invited to forward calibration pictures to the author Thomas Niemann.

== External links ==
* [http://www.epaperpress.com/ptlens/ PTLens homepage]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]

Create a custom ptviewer jar file

2007-09-26T03:32:35Z

Imroy: copyedit

Sometimes the simple way by showing your panoramas using the PTViewer Java applet leads to problems, e.g. firewalls at the client side disallow a .jar file to load other files. Then your panoramic won't show at all. Another reason to create custom PTViewer [[JAR]] files might be the need to include a subset of classes to enable special functions and at the same time don't use the full featured applet with a bigger file size.

This article will try to explain for users of different platforms how to build such a jar step by step. A jar is basically a zip archive with a certain structure of elements. Feel free to edit and improve this page.

== Elements that can be packed in a jar ==
* Panoramic image in equirectangular projection as jpg
* A small preview image that is shown while the panoramic image is loaded and decompressed
* Classes
* What else?

== Useful hints ==
=== How to detect the Java version on MacOS X ===
open Terminal and type
java -version
press return and you should get something like
java version "1.4.2_09"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_09-233)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2-56, mixed mode)
If you get an error message please [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106704 update] your Java version
=== Other hints ===

== External links ==
* [http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/jar/basics/build.html sun.com tutorial "Creating a JAR File"]
* [http://webuser.fh-furtwangen.de/%7Edersch/PTVJ/helpers.html Helmut Dersch "How to Bundle Extensions"], very basic

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Tutorial:Specialised]]

PTViewer L2

2007-09-26T03:19:31Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''PTViewer 2.7L2''' is a version of the original [[PTViewer]] [[Java]] applet with many improvements. Some of them are: sharper image, faster panning, progressive image loading, integrated toolbar.

== External links ==

* [http://www.fsoft.it/panorama/ptviewer.htm PTViewer 2.7L2]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]

XMP

2007-09-26T03:15:26Z

Imroy: copyedit

The '''Extensible Metadata Platform''' (XMP) is a standard developed and promoted by Adobe. This is an attempt to develop a single, flexible model for storing arbitrary metadata related to digital media files. Typically, XMP is embedded within the file itself, but there are instances where XMP is stored in standalone files, called sidecar files, alongside the media file.

XMP is composed of several related specifications:

* The XMP packet format itself. XMP packets are XML documents using RDF constructs to encode metadata. Using RDF/XML-based packets provides both machine- and human-readable metadata that requires little preknowledge of the XMP format itself, whereas legacy metadata standards are typically not human-readable.
* The file format specifications. For common file formats, XMP is stored in well-defined locations within the file, enabling XMP-aware software to easily read, modify and inject XMP into the file where it will be most accessible to other applications. Because of certain properties of the XMP packet format (an easily identifiable plaintext header), it is possible to easily read metadata from other, undocumented file formats, though injecting new metadata in such cases is not advised.
* The schema. XMP itself defines the structure for how to encode and store metadata, but it also includes a large number of schema developed by Adobe which define standard metadata elements, or fields, in a way that allows users and vendors to cooperate and interoperate. It is possible, and within the "spirit" of the standard, to define custom schema for storing metadata where existing schema are not suitable.

XMP enables a number of useful applications:

* Inserting descriptive metadata into files so that they contain identifying information - captions, titles, copyright statements, and more - without relying on external databases.
* Managing version control of media files - each XMP-containing document contains a variety of globally unique identifiers that are useful for describing the relationship between different versions of files, files which incorporate elements of other files, and more.
* Synchronizing disparate metadata formats - such as IPTC and EXIF - into a single, easily human- and machine-readable format.

Few, if any, current stitching products are XMP aware. As a result, output from common stitchers will not contain any of the XMP present in the original source file(s). Adobe Photoshop and ExifTool can both be used to synchronize XMP metadata from source images into stitched output files.

== External links ==

* [http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/ Adobe XMP]

[[Category:Glossary]]

Freepv

2007-09-25T14:28:10Z

Imroy: copyedit

__NOTOC__
'''freepv''' is an open source panorama viewer, development is at an early stage, but features already include:

* Hardware acceleration
* [[Cubic Projection]] and [[Cylindrical Projection]] panoramas
* [[QTVR]] support
* Mozilla/Firefox plugin for Windows and Linux
* Standalone viewer (Windows, Unix/Linux and probably compilable on Mac OS X as well)
* Inertial motion similar to [[SPi-V]]

== Links ==

* [http://freepv.sourceforge.net/ freepv page on sourceforge]
* [https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freepv-devel freepv-devel mailing list]

== Test pages ==

These are some example panoramas that should all eventually work with freepv:

=== Good ===
* http://www.bruno.postle.net/photos/whinfell-quarry-garden/whinfell-redwoods-quicktime-panorama.mov
* http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp606/fullscreen/PeterODonnell.html
* http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp604/html/ShujiInoue.html
* http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp1204/html/EricRougierAndCecileBrand.html
* http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp905/html/KlausVoigt.html
* http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp604/fullscreen/ShujiInoue.html
* http://www.bruno.postle.net/photos/whinfell-quarry-garden/whinfell-petals-quicktime-panorama.mov
* http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp606/html/PeterODonnell.html
* http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp305/html/ClaudioLanconelli.html
* http://www.bruno.postle.net/photos/hardwick-hall/hardwick-hall-quicktime-panorama.mov
* http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp905/html/TroyWard.html
* http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp905/html/KrzysztofWojciechowski.html

=== Bad ===

* http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou/panorama/p041/p041m.htm

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]

EXIF

2007-09-24T13:46:40Z

Imroy: copyedit

The '''Exchangeable Image File Format''' (EXIF) allows camera, lens, exposure information, image description, copyright, etc. to be embedded in standardized fields within JFIF ([[JPEG]]) or TIFF image files. EXIF is a de facto standard promoted by the camera industry as a means to store metadata recorded by a digital camera, and is not intended as a general-purpose metadata storage mechanism. [[XMP]] is a more generalized format for storing arbitrary metadata in a variety of media file formats.

EXIF metadata is used by stitching products such as [[PTGUI]] to make assumptions about the camera (sensor) and lens used to shoot a given image. This information is used to set defaults for the [[Field of View]] and [[Cropping Factor]] for stitching projects. These defaults are typically used only as a starting point, and are refined through the [[optimization]] process.

As you'll note from the ExifTool pages below, there are many redundant fields due to different manufacturers defining unique fields for semantically identical information, as well as fields which are intended to store manufacturer-specific metadata. Many of these fields are undocumented, at least as far as the public is concerned, and so there is much energy in the industry devoted to decoding these unique fields, their semantics and their constraints.

While EXIF is not generally intended to be user editable, there are a large number of tools that are capable of editing EXIF metadata with varying degrees of support for the huge variety of fields found in real-world EXIF files.

''ExifTool'' is free software that allows manipulation of EXIF and related data in many different kinds of files. ExifTool is one of the most comprehensive EXIF editors available, and continues to grow the number and depth of support for undocumented EXIF metadata, as well as adding support for other (non-EXIF) file formats and metadata structures.

[[photomolo]] is a free tool for lossless rotation of [[JPEG]] images and updating the EXIF tags appropriately.

== External links ==

* [http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/ ExifTool]
** Tables of [http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/TagNames/index.html ExifTool Tag Names]
** Tables of [http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/TagNames/EXIF.html EXIF Tags]

[[Category:Glossary]]

The Panorama Factory

2007-09-24T13:42:07Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''Panorama Factory''' is a pretty robust program for creating panoramic images. Like other programs, you can use a guided step by step, pretty foolproof method, or do it all manually. The program can automatically detect camera rotation, focal length, falloff, plus warp, align and fine tune the image, blend, [[sharpening|sharpen]] and automatically crop.

Like most wizards, Panorama Factory's wizard works best if everything is as close to perfect as possible (level tripod, etc.). If not, you'll have to play around and try different combinations of settings. I have a hard time getting good results from "neckstrap" panos.

It's one of the less expensive programs available (Windows based only) and pretty speedy. You can create partial or 360 degree single row panos.

You can add hotspots and create virtual tours (see their website for examples). The [[hotspots|hotspot]] editor is one of the nicer ones I have seen to date. It's simple to use and has a lot of options including target frame - rare to find!

You can also create your pano in a variety of formats:

* [[Quicktime]]
* [[iSeeMedia]]
* [[PTViewer]]

or create one of the following file types for further manipulation:

* Layered [[Photoshop]] image
* Single images: [[TIFF]], [[PNG]], [[JPEG]]

The Panorama Factory is shareware and comes in different languages, a trial version is available but places watermarks in the output files. The older version 1.6 (much less in the feature department) is free.

== External links ==
* [http://www.panoramafactory.com/ Panorama Factory]

--[[User:Add360.com|Add360.com]] 02:40, 30 Oct 2005 (EST)

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]

Cylindrical panorama

2007-09-24T13:34:46Z

Imroy: swap paragraphs (?!), copyedit

A '''Cylindrical panorama''' uses the [[Cylindrical Projection]] and is the format used by the original [[Quicktime]] plugin.

Most aspects of cylindrical panorama are the same as for partial panoramas. You find anything you need in the article about [[high resolution partial panoramas]] except that for web presentation you don't need very high resolution.

[[Category:Glossary]]

Autopano

2007-09-24T13:33:33Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''Autopano''' is software for Windows and Linux by Alexandre Jenny which automatically generates [[control points]] from groups of photographs. It works with [[Hugin]], [[PTAssembler]], [[PTGui]] and stand alone.

The functionality is very similar to that of [[autopano-sift]], which is actually a different program.

== External links ==

* [http://autopano.kolor.com/ Autopano Project Page]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]

Panoweaver

2007-09-24T13:31:40Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''Panoweaver''' is a good fisheye stitcher at a reasonable price, sold by Easypano.

It uses 2 or 3 full frame [[Fisheye Projection|fisheye]] images to stitch a full [[Equirectangular Projection|spherical]] panorama. You can choose the output between [[JPEG]] and [[Quicktime]] ".mov" and it also generates the html for embeding the pano in your web page.

Easypano also promises [[Shockwave]] output with the release of Panoweaver 4.0 (currently available version 3.1 - as of 03.2005)

== External links ==
* [http://www.easypano.com EasyPano]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]

Cubic Projection

2007-09-24T13:28:43Z

Imroy: copyedit

[[image:big ben cubic.jpg|right|Cubic projection, source image courtesy Ben Kreunen]]

'''Cubic''' is a type of [[Projections|projection]] for mapping a portion of the surface of a sphere (or the whole sphere) to flat images. The images are arranged like the faces of a cube and are each one in the [[Rectilinear Projection]]. This cube is viewed from it's center.

Four cube faces cover front, right, back and left, one the [[zenith]] and one the [[nadir]], each of them having 90°x90° [[Field of View]]. In each cube face all straight lines stay straight, hence it is very good for editing. See [[extracting and inserting rectilinear Views]] on different possibilities how to extract cube faces from an [[Equirectangular Projection|equirectangular]] image and inserting them again.

Images in the Cubic projection are commonly used as the image source by several spherical [[Panorama Viewers|panorama viewers]], including [[SPi-V]] and [[Quicktime]].

[[Category:Glossary]]

Rectilinear Projection

2007-09-24T13:27:14Z

Imroy: copyedit

[[image:big ben rectilinear.jpg|right|Rectilinear projection, with permission from Ben Kreunen]]

'''Rectilinear''' is a type of [[Projections|projection]] for mapping a portion of the surface of a sphere to a flat image. It is also called the "gnomic", "gnomonic", or "tangent-plane" projection, and can be envisioned by imagining placing a flat piece of paper tangent to a sphere at a single point, and illuminating the surface from the spheres' center. Mathworld's page has an example and describes the mathematics underlying this projection.[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GnomonicProjection.html]

The is a fundamental projection in panoramic imaging, because most ordinary (non-fisheye) camera lenses produce an image very close to being rectilinear over their entire field of view. Pin-hole cameras, in fact, provide exactly a tangent-plane mapping of the sphere onto their detector planes, and most simple imaging systems (consumer cameras with non-fisheye lenses among them) approximate this quite well. Thus it is the most common source image projection for partial panoramas.

The rectilinear projection also has the fundamental property that straight lines in real 3D space are mapped to straight lines in the projected image. This property makes the rectilinear image very useful for printed panoramas which do not cover an excessively large range of longitude or latitude (e.g. <120 degrees). Many [[Panorama Viewers]] which show only a portion of a scene at a time do so using the rectilinear projection (regardless of what projection the full sphere source image was in).

The [[Cubic Projection]] is a special sub-case of the rectilinear projection, in which 90 by 90 degree rectilinear sub-projections are made onto 6 faces of a cube.

[[Category:Glossary]]

SmartBlend

2007-09-24T13:25:19Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''Smartblend''' is an application for seamless image blending by Michael Norel. He can be reached at minorlogic{at}yahoo{dot}com

The main goal of smartblend is panoramic image blending, though it can be used for other applications, such as creation of seamless textures, montage of photos or collage. Smartblend allows stitching of many problematic shots (parallaxed, with moving objects or with differing exposure).

For example see the parallax picture below (from http://www.htu.at/~sascha/ptguide/01.htm described as "impossible to stitch" )
[[Image:SB_Parallax.jpg|left]]{{clr}}

Just put one picture into another and note the great difference.
[[Image:SB_Parallax_overlapped.jpg|left]]{{clr}}

Picture below is blended by smartblend.
[[Image:SB_Blended.jpg|left]]{{clr}}
Another smartblend example: http://www.liamphoto.com/subwebs/flam-chen/flamchen.htm

If you don't know what is a "command line application" it can not be useful for you. But you still can use a frontend for smartblend:

* [[PanoWizard]]
* [[EnblendGUI]]
* [[PTGui]]
* [[PTAssembler]]

Download SmartBlend, current version [[Media:Smartblend_1_2_5.zip|Smartblend_1_2_5.zip]]

== How it works ==

It finds the visual error on overlap region and searches for a seam line with minimal visual error. Than it blends pictures using an algorithm similar to a multiresolution spline.

To study algorithms and options use “–SeamVerbose” and “-PyramidVerbose” commands.

There is a [http://qtvr.by.ru/NewQTWR/sm/smartblend.htm good tutorial], but it's available only in Russian. Anyone to translate it?

Welcome to anyone who wants to improve this smartblend, write a tutorial and other.

== External links ==

* [http://smartblend.panotools.info Smartblend home page]

--[[User:Erik Krause|Erik Krause]] 15:39, 20 July 2006 (CEST) (Text taken from original smartblend home page)

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]

Yaw

2007-09-24T13:23:04Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''Yaw''' is the horizontal rotation angle of the camera.

If shooting a panorama you rotate the camera horizontally (around a vertical axis). You will treat one image as an [[anchor image]] which is considered to have yaw = 0. The angle you rotated your camera relatively to this image is its Yaw value.

For a typical 360° panorama the yaw difference from one image to the next can be estimated by dividing 360 by the number of images.

[[Category:Glossary]]

HDR compression

2007-09-24T13:21:35Z

Imroy: copyedit

With [[Photoshop]] CS2 it has become very easy to create true [[HDR]] (high [[dynamic range]]) images from [[Bracketing|bracketed]] exposure series. There is a nice tutorial by Brian Greenstone on how to assemble multiple exposures into one HDR file: [http://www.panomundo.com/panos/howto/workflow_expbracketing.html]

He describes the necessary steps to compress the high dynamic range with photoshop built in "Local Adaption", too. However, sometimes it is very hard to get decent results this way. Two HDR compression plugins are now available for this purpose. '''[[Photomatix]] Tone Mapping''' plugin from HDRSoft and '''FDRCompressor''' from [[FDRTools]].

Both plugins can be used on 16 or 8 bit per channel images, too. See [[RAW dynamic range extraction]] on how to extract the full dynamic range of a RAW file into a single 16 bit file.

I just played a bit with both plugins, so please don't expect the best possible results. May be someone with more experience can give better instructions.

Both plugins are currently only available for Windows, both have announced a Mac OSX version very soon. And both are available as stand alone programs for both Mac OSX and windows.

Many thanks to Raanan Fattal for letting me use his Belgium House HDR image: [http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~danix/hdr/results.html]

== FDRCompressor ==
[[Image:fdr-dialog.jpg|thumb|300px|FDRCompressor plugin]]
[[Image:belgium-fdr.jpg|thumb|300px|FDRCompressor result - Image courtesy of Raanan Fattal]]
The plugin opens with a dialog where 9 parameters can be adjusted. However, according to [http://fdrtools.com/documentation/compress_dynamic_range_e.php#5] only 5 of them are relevant for most images (text taken from the page):
* '''Compression''' controls the strength of tonal value range compression and is most important among all parameters. Higher dynamic range requires stronger compression. Values between 1 and 5 work best for RAW images while HDR scenes may require values up to 10.

* '''global Contrast''' provides a possibility to influence image contrast in excess of what 'Compression' already does. For scenes with extreme dynamic range 9 is the right value. Otherwise the default value 8 is very good. '''Note:''' scenes with large areas of equal intensity do not really profit from this contrast boosting. Here values above 8 are not useful.

* '''Exposure''' acts like setting the exposure of a camera. The right value for this parameter is determined from the zoom view (right pane). It should be adjusted so that the lighest image areas do not appear overexposed.

* '''Black''' determines the black point setting. The value should be gradually increased until the preview (left pane) does not show further substantial dimout. In normal cases good values lie between 1 and 10. '''Note:''' values too high are bad as this maps too many pixels to the same value which results in loss of detail.

* '''360°Pano''' wraps the image around in order to avoid seams at the 0°/360° boundary if checked.

If the image comes out a bit flat with low contrast, this is because it is still 32 bit per channel and has to be reduced to 16 or 8 bit and the black and white point have to be set. The black and white point adjustment is best done in L*a*b color space in order to preserve color saturation.

In this case no white and black point setting was necessary. The general appearance is good. No visible [[halo]]s, detail contrast is ok, no reversed gradients, no artifacts.{{clr}}

== Photomatix Tone Mapping ==
[[Image:photomatix-dialog.jpg|thumb|300px|Photomatix Tone Mapping]]
[[Image:belgium-photomatix.jpg|thumb|300px|Photomatix result - Image courtesy of Raanan Fattal]]

The [[Photomatix]] plugin opens with a dialog where 8 parameters can be adjusted. From the help file:

* '''Luminosity''' Adjusts the brightness of the shadows and the amount of local contrast enhancement. Moving the slider to the right has the effect of boosting shadow details and brightening the image. Moving it to the left gives a more natural look to the tone mapped image. The optimal value depends on the dynamic range of the image.

* '''Strength''' Controls the strength of local contrast enhancements. A value of 100% gives the maximum increase in local contrast. The optimal value depends on the image and the effect you want to achieve.

* '''Color Saturation''' Controls the saturation of the RGB color channels. The higher the saturation, the more intense the color. The value affects each color channel equally. The optimal value is a matter of taste. You may need a different value to achieve the same color intensity depending on the image (the dynamic range has an influence on color saturation).

* '''White Clip - Black Clip''' Both sliders control how the minimum and maximum values of the output image are set. Moving the sliders to the left increases global contrast. Moving them to the left reduces the clipping at the extremes. The White Clip slider sets the value for the maximum (pure white or level 255). The Black Clip slider sets the value for the minimum (pure black or level 0). The optimal values depend on the image. You can use the histogram as a guide to the effects of those sliders.

* '''Smoothing''' Controls the amount of smoothing of luminance variations. Setting a lower value increases sharpness. The optimal value depends on the image.

* '''Microcontrast''' Sets how much local details are accentuated. The default value (High) is the optimal value in most cases. However, a lower value may be useful in the case of a noisy image or when the accentuation of local details is not desirable (e.g. seams of a stitched pano in a uniform area may become visible when local details are too much enhanced). In those cases, it is recommended to move the "Luminosity" slider to the left once you have set a lower value for the Microcontrast.

* '''360° image''' This option needs to be checked when the image processed is an equirectangular image set to be viewed as a 360° panorama. Given that the tone mapping takes into account local contrast, the 360° seams of an equirectangular image will be assigned different tonal values, which will result in a visible seam once the tone mapped image is rendered in a panorama viewer. Checking this option will correct for this. This option should only be checked for equirectangular 360° images. Checking it in other cases may produce less optimal results.

The image comes out with good contrast - white and black point settings are apparently done by the '''White Clip''' and '''Black Clip''' values. It is in 32 bit per channel mode too and has to be reduced to 16 or 8 bit. "Equalize Histogram" does not give better results here.

The general appearance is pretty good at the first glance, with good contrast for the outside scene and no reversed gradients.

At a closer look it shows little artifacts and some [[halo]]s - the door frame is too dark where the bright column is behind. If you look at http://www.hdrsoft.com/ this could be a general problem of photomatix. The result resembles a bit the [http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~danix/hdr/pages/belgium.html original Gradient Domain HDR compression result] of Fattal, Lischinski and Werman.
{{clr}}

== Conclusion ==

The two plugins are very powerful tools for compression of real high dynamic range images like it would not have been possible only short time ago. They can compete with the most recent research on that topic.

The results are very similar, both have been sharpened slightly (the source images are a bit blurry). It is meaningless to compare the differences in contrast in my example - they most likely can be avoided or enhanced by choosing better parameters. More experience is needed here.

What is hardly avoidable by parameters are [[halo]]s and artifacts. The Photomatix result shows some of them: Dark [[halo|halos]] around the door and on the door frame. Light halos around the plant leaves left and above the window in the opposite wall. A coarse structure in uniform areas of the inside wall, especially left and above the door.

The FDRCompressor result does not show those flaws. The only critics from my side would be that it is harder to master than photomatix. The response if you change values is slow and the values are not intuitive. Preview is too small and does often not resemble the final result.

For your convenience here a side by side comparison of the result images:

[[Image:belgium-photomatix.jpg|400px|Photomatix result - Image courtesy of Raanan Fattal]][[Image:belgium-fdr.jpg|400px|FDRCompressor result - Image courtesy of Raanan Fattal]]
{{clr}}
--[[User:Erik Krause|Erik Krause]] 16:06, 9 Dec 2005 (EST)

[[Category:Tutorial:Specialised]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Glossary]]
[[Category:Software:Survey]]

User:Imroy

2007-09-24T11:34:30Z

Imroy: Add info about what I'm doing and link to some of my photos

I've been a Wikipedia editor for a few years. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Imroy my user page there].

For now I'm cleaning up the formatting of pages here. Until someone tells me otherwise, I'm using Wikipedia's general formatting rules.

== Photos ==

I have some old panoramas I created with my old Kodak DC240 camera and my dad's newer Olympus C-750 camera: [http://ian.testers.homelinux.net/wiki/view/Ians_panoramas] (hosted on the family's ADSL link, so be gentle)

I also have a deviantART account and occasionally use Hugin and Panotools to manipulate the photos I post there: [http://imroy.deviantart.com/]

RAW

2007-09-24T10:40:09Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''RAW''' refers to a group of some hundred [[Image format|image formats]] proprietary to the respective camera manufacturers.

They all have in common that they contain the unprossesed data as it comes from the analog/digital (A/D) converter. This files need to be processed - at least interpolated, since the color information for most of them is located in different pixels - and converted to a common [[image format]] to be viewed or otherwise used. They might contain additional data comparable to the [[EXIF]] information.

== RAW converters ==

There are numerous RAW converters but only few that can convert most or all RAW formats, most of them based on [[dcraw]] written by David J. Coffin. Most of them offer sophisticated ways to control [[white balance]], tonal range, contrast, shadow detail, exposure etc. Some even allow for correction of [[chromatic aberration]] or noise.

You can always try and find out how to extract more [[dynamic range]] from RAW files in these converters, but in order to get 16 bit per channel output files with full [[dynamic range]] follow the tutorial about [[RAW dynamic range extraction]].

== External links ==
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_raw Camera raw] at Wikipedia
* [http://www.photo.net/learn/raw/ RAW, JPEG and TIFF] by Bob Atkins on Photo.net
* [http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/RAW-file-format.htm Advantages and disadvantages of the RAW format and more basic information]

UFRaw

2007-09-24T10:36:44Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''UFRaw''' is a GUI for reading [[RAW]] files from digital cameras and compressing them to 8bit per channel low [[dynamic range]] images. UFRaw is based on the [[dcraw]] command-line tool and has the same capabilities.

There are two tools provided with UFRaw:
* A plugin for the [[gimp]] image editor allowing interactive opening of [[RAW]] files.
* A standalone GUI application, [[RAW]] files can be opened, levels adjusted and previewed before saving.

== External links ==

* [http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/ UFRaw]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]

TIFF

2007-09-24T10:36:32Z

Imroy: copyedit

The '''Tagged Image File Format''' (TIFF) is a widely used and open [[image format]] used to store and exchange digital images of all kinds. For general information see the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIFF TIFF Wikipedia page]

TIFF is a very versatile file format with many flavors. TIFF files typically have a ''.tif'' file extension. If you can't see file extensions, you may want to [[enable windows file extensions]] as you will have great difficulty editing and manipulating image files otherwise.

== Compression issues ==
TIFF can contain almost any image data. However, there are some common forms of image data compression found inside a TIFF file:
* '''No compression''' is the most compatible form but results in the largest files.
* '''JPEG''' Simply a [[JPEG]] file stored inside a TIFF tag, lossy compression.
* '''LZW''' is a very common, lossless compression scheme resulting in smaller files. LZW was patented in most countries until 2004 and hence was not found in many freeware distributions.
* '''ZIP''' ('''Deflate''') is lossless too but not very common although it usually results in smaller files than LZW and was not patented.
* '''PackBits''' A not very common, lossless compression scarcely supported by image editing software. [[Photoshop]] for example can read PackBits compressed TIFFs but not write them.
* '''G3''' and '''G4''' compression is used for 1-bit FAX documents only.

PTStitcher (and hence all the [[GUI front-ends]] that use it) outputs PackBits compressed image files if the output format is TIFF. There is a bug in [[Photoshop]] prior to Version 9 (CS2) that prevents to open PackBits compressed files beyond a certain size. See [[Photoshop limitations#opening large TIFFs with Photoshop|opening large TIFFs with Photoshop]] for details.

== Bit depth ==
TIFF can contain data of varying bit depth but for photographic purpose only 8-bit or 16-bit per channel are of interest. However, there is a specification that contains 32-bit data per channel floating point format for high [[dynamic range]] images.

There can be any number of channels. Common examples are
* a single channel specifying a black-and-white image
* three channels specifying a color image in [[RGB]] color space
* four channels specifying a color image in [[CMYK]] color space.
* any number of additional channels (called alpha channels) specifying masks, selections, additional color channels or what ever.

All channels in an image have the same bit depth, hence a [[RGB]] image with 16-bit per channel often is reffered to as a 48-bit image, with 8-bit per channel as a 24-bit image.

The Panotools main applications process 8-bit as well as 16-bit per channel images. Details see [[Full 16 bit workflow]]

== Alpha channels and masks ==
[[Alpha channel]]s are used by panotools to store masks. A mask contains information to which extent the image should be used. For this purpose the alpha channel contains a black-and-white image where the pixel value determines the transparency of the corresponding image pixel.

A white alpha channel pixel causes the corresponding image pixel to be seen to 100%, a black alpha channel pixel indicates a totally transparent image pixel. A alpha channel pixel with 50% gray indicates 50% transparency.

This is particularily useful to blend between images. [[PTStitcher]], the main stitching application of the [[Panorama Tools]], is capable of reading and writing masked TIFF image files in RGB color space. A mask in the source image is treated as image border and remapped to the output image accordingly.

* If the output type 'without feather' (TIFF_m) is used, a mask is created that reflects the remapped input image borders.
* For the 'with feather' (TIFF_mask) output the mask is calculated to give a seam between adjacent images that lies more or less in the middle of the overlap area. There is a 'feather' parameter to control the width of a grayscale gradient to allow for smooth blending between the images. See PTStitcher sample script on Jim Watters page for details: [http://photocreations.ca/panotools/stitch.txt]

In any case there is a problem to use this alpha channels as intended in [[Photoshop]], since Photoshop does not know about the intended use. It loads the alpha channel but doesn't use it to control transparency. This can be achieved manually by loading the alpha channel as selection and creating a mask with 'reveal selection'. Erik Krause provides a Photoshop action set on his page that can be used to automate this for all images in a panorama: [[Stitching actions]]

== Layers ==
Standard TIFF doesn't support layers. If a [[Photoshop]] document with layers is saved as TIFF Photoshop creates a flat TIFF image file (for compatibility) and the layer data in a separate TIFF tag. This separate TIFF tag can be compressed using RLE (run length encoding) or ZIP compression. ZIP usually results in smaller files, smaller even as if saved as [[PSD]] (where you can't choose the compression format).

Some applications (like for example [[nona]], the [[PTStitcher]] replacement in the [[hugin]] package) can write single files that contain multiple TIFF images. If these TIFF files are loaded into [[Photoshop]] only the first image will be visible. They can be split into single images with '''tiffsplit''' from the TIFF tools package or [[ImageMagick]] (See [[#Tools and sources|Tools section]]).

Current versions of the [[Gimp]] image editor can read these TIFF files with multiple images, though they are flattened to one image when saved - A workaround is to save these layers as separate files using the [[Multi-Layer TIFF editing with the Gimp|save-layers-tiff]] plug-in.

[[nona]] and [[PTmender]] can create [[cropped TIFF]] output where the image data is just a small area within the final image dimensions. This is a useful way to save resources when assembling many images into a final panorama. Cropped TIFF input files are also supported by [[enblend]].

== Non-image data ==
Since TIFF is a tagged format it can contain additional non-image data either comparable to the [[EXIF]] data in [[JPEG]] files or other. [[Photoshop]] for example inserts XML formatted data that causes warning messages in some programs based on the common TIFF libraries. At least some of the EXIF tools can be used to view and/or manipulate the corresponding data in TIFF files, too.

TIFF supports embedded [[color profile]]s. Unfortunately [[PTStitcher]] discards the profile information when it saves TIFF files (the [[nona]] stitcher doesn't have this bug). Hence the appropriate profile should be assigned to PTStitcher result images when loaded into a color management aware image editor.

== Tools and sources ==
Although the major image processors and viewers cope very well with TIFF it might be necessary from time to time to use some other tools - for batch processing, for conversion of scarcely supported TIFF flavors or simply to get enhanced information.
* '''TIFF tools''' - A free package available from libtiff.org: [http://libtiff.org/] Windows executables at the Gnu Win32 Project: [http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/libtiff.htm]
* '''[[ImageMagick]]''' command line image processing package.
* '''TIFF libraries''' and specification from libtiff.org: [http://libtiff.org/]
* '''[[lcms|Little CMS]]''' provides a tool called '''tifficc''' for applying an ICC [[colour profile]] to a TIFF file.

== BigTiff ==

One approach to overcome the current file size limitations of the format is a [http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/BigTIFFProposal.html proposal] for a new TIFF specification called ''BigTiff'' for the free libTIFF library. Thanks to [http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/bigtiffpr.html sponsors like Leica Geosystems] developers of open source software like PanoTools can plan to use LibTiff 4.0 from August 2007. More information is available from [http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff.html AWare Systems].

[[Category:Glossary]]

Hugin

2007-09-24T10:28:33Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''Hugin''' is an opensource graphical user interface (GUI) for [[Panorama tools]].

Like other [[GUI front-ends]], '''hugin''' provides an easy-to-use unified point-and-click interface to a whole range of other command-line tools including:

* [[autopano-sift]], [[autopano-sift-C]] or [[autopano]] for automatic creation of [[control points]].
* [[nona]] or [[PTmender]] for remapping input images and rendering output images.
* [[enblend]] for seamless blending of output images.

The Hugin project's mission is not only to provide a powerful GUI, but also to provide opensource replacements for the small number of closed source components of [[Panorama tools]], especially [[PTStitcher]].
A [[PTStitcher]] replacement, called [[nona]] has been developed, supporting its most important features.

Among the many flexible Hugin workflow options, it is possible to use increased tonal range data in a [[16bit workflow with hugin]] or work entirely with high [[dynamic range]] images such as floating-point [[TIFF]] from start to finish in a [[HDR workflow with hugin]].

== Hugin components ==

The following tools are part of the hugin suite:

* [[hugin]] the gui front end.
* [[nona]] a command-line replacement for [[PTStitcher]].
* [[fulla]] correction of [[barrel distortion]], [[chromatic aberration]] and [[vignetting]].
* [[nona_gui]] a version of [[nona]] with simple gui progress dialogs, similar to the windows version of [[PTStitcher]].
* [[autooptimiser]] an experimental tool with the same interface as [[PTOptimizer]] except using pairwize optimization which doesn't require any manual pre-placement.
* [[align_image_stack]] a tool to automate the process to [[align a stack of photos]].
* [[vig_optimize]] command line tool to estimate photometric parameters.
* [[zhang_undistort]] a tool for correcting [[barrel distortion]].
* [[color_correct_tiff]] an experimental tool for correcting colour and brightness differences between overlapping images.
* [[panoglview]] OpenGL panorama viewer stored in sourceforge CVS alongside [[hugin]] which must be built separately.

More information, documentation and tutorials are available on the project website.

== User interface ==

* [[Hugin Main window]]
* [[Hugin Assistant tab]]
* [[Hugin Images tab]]
* [[Hugin Camera and Lens tab]]
* [[Hugin Crop tab]]
* [[Hugin Control Points tab]]
* [[Hugin Optimizer tab]]
* [[Hugin Exposure tab]]
* [[Hugin Stitcher tab]]
* [[Hugin Preferences]]
* [[Hugin Preview window]]
* [[Hugin Control Points table]]
* [[Hugin Keyboard shortcuts]]

== See also ==
* [[hugin FAQ]] Frequently asked questions about hugin

== External links ==
* [http://hugin.sourceforge.net hugin homepage] for Screenshots, Tutorials, Documentation and Links.
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/hugin hugin sourceforge project] for Downloads, Bug database and Feature requests.
* [http://hugin.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/hugin/ sourceforge SVN] to browse the hugin sourcecode.

== Supported operating systems ==
* [[windows software|Windows]]
* [[Unix software|Linux and Unix]]
* [[Mac software|Mac OS X]]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]
[[Category:Software:Hugin]]

Enblend

2007-09-24T09:55:43Z

Imroy: copyedit

'''Enblend''' overlays multiple [[TIFF]] images so as to make the seam invisible. It works with 8, 16 or 32 bit (HDR floating point) per channel images.

Enblend can work as a plug-in for [[PTGui]], [[Hugin]], [[PTMac]] or [[PTAssembler]] or standalone from the command line or by [[Enblend Front End]].

New in version 3.0:
* Adjusts the seam line to avoid areas of mismatch between source images such as [[parallax]] errors
* Supports saving and loading masks
* Includes various other performance improvements.

Enblend is available for Windows and Linux from the project site. A Mac OS X port, ''xblend'', is available from Kevin Kratzke.

If you are working with multi-row panoramics, (for example three rows of eight pictures each), you can greatly speed up the processing by manually blending each row of images, then blending these three assembled rows.

I have written batch files for the Windows platform that do this automatically. Feel free to email me at markdfink_AT_northernlight_DOT_net if you are interested.

Parameters worth noting are:
;-a: Pre-assemble non-overlapping images.
;-w: Wrap the blending process around the 360 degree boundary so you don't end up with a harsh transition at the +180 and -180 degree seam.
;-o: Force Enblend to use an output filename of your choice.
;-v: Verbose output, see the details of what is happening rather than staring at a blank screen.
;-l <n>: Force enblend to use a certain number of levels in order to increase the blend area (minimize visible seam lines).

Enblend supports [[cropped TIFF]] input files.

If you are trying to run Enblend 3.0 on Windows and are finding that the program returns immediately with no output, you may be attempting to run a version compiled with SSE instructions on a non-SSE-capable CPU (e.g like older AMD CPUs). You can obtain an non-SSE binary for Enblend from Sourceforge.[http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=123407]

However, it could be that this version still doesn't run as discussed on [http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1668117&forum_id=420370] (problem) and [http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1685658&forum_id=420370] (solution). If so there is a patched version available at http://alto.anu.edu.au/~wpc/private/enblend/enblend-3.0-cyg.zip

== See also ==

Tutorials featuring enblend:
* [[Using enblend to fill the "Hole in the floor"]] {{RateStar|2}}
* [[How to use enblend for patching zenith and nadir images]] {{RateStar|2}}

== External links ==

* [http://enblend.sourceforge.net/ Enblend Project Page]
* [http://www.kekus.com/xblend xblend]

[[Category:Software:Platform:Linux]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Windows]]
[[Category:Software:Platform:Mac OS X]]

Hardware

2007-09-24T09:46:05Z

Imroy: Remoe top 'hardware' section header, promote that section to intro, decrement all other section headers, replace invalid characters

Almost any type of computer is usable, as long as it is running some version of Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X or Linux. We recommend you to use a reasonably fast computer, since re-warping images and blending them are quite CPU intensive. A slower computer just means a longer wait, though.

== Memory ==

While a fast processor will speed up the creation of digital panoramas, memory seems to be the single most important hardware requirement. I've stitched 6 and 8 frame panorama's together with as little as 512MB when I had a 3MPix camera, but with my new 8MPix, I can't process more than 3 images with 512 MB. Jumping up to 1 GB of RAM let's me build and manipulate huge digital files. Remember, image manipulation software nearly always stores images in memory uncompressed, so my 3MPix images (2048 x 1536) take up 24MB of RAM. [[User:Jeff|Jeff]] 21:33, 7 Dec 2004 (EST)

However, if you have a large enough hard disk 1 GB of RAM seems enough for all tasks. Both [[Photoshop]] and [[PTStitcher]] use the hard disk heavily. I managed to stitch a 30 layer [[Full 16 bit workflow|16 bit]] 4,000x50,000 pixel panorama on my 1GB Athlon 1400 machine. It took forever and a day not only to stitch but to load into Photoshop, too. Photoshop used 23 GB of scratch disk but work was suprisingly smooth. [[User:Erik Krause|Erik Krause]] 05:51, 30 Apr 2005 (EDT)

One caveat - dual hard drives can markedly improve performance, at least in MS Windows machines. If the windows swap file is located on the same drive as the application scratch file, say photoshop, then Windows and Photoshop are battling over hard drive access. Locating your scratch disk on a different PHYSICAL hard drive helps considerably. If you have three drives, that's even better. One for Windows and software, one for your scratch disk (and more software, or storage) and a third for your working files. You can have a performance increase of 20% or more. --[[User:Add360.com|Add360.com]] 03:09, 7 Nov 2005 (EST)

== Cameras ==
Currently content still on [[Camera Kits]] and [[Cameras]] pages

An interesting alternative for cheap fisheye photography: [http://shop.lomography.com/fisheyecamera/ Lomo Fisheye Camera]: 35mm film camera with a 170° fisheye lens

== Camera Memory ==
Long gone are the days with the 1 meg memory card that came with my first digital camera. Heck, the 64 meg card that came with my last Nikon is now next to useless! I find myself with a collection of cards, from 512 meg up to 1 gig, and I'm looking at the 2 gig cards. With my Coolpix 8700 in Raw mode, the 1 gig card holds around 65 photos! So plan accordingly. You also need to consider memory card speed. A slow card can take several seconds to save a high quality image, compared to a higher speed card taking under a second. Just remember: faster card = higher cost. For situations where you can afford to wait while an image saves, save 25% and get a slower card. But if you need faster save times, you'll be happier with the faster speed cards. Also see Personal Storage Devices at the bottom of this page. --[[User:Add360.com|Add360.com]] 03:10, 7 Nov 2005 (EST)

== Lenses ==
Narrow angle lenses (field of view < 90 degrees) are often used to create high quality panoramas for print. Fisheye lenses are more often used to create lower quality panoramas for web display, etc. In order to assist with setting up your lens and camera there is a [[Entrance Pupil Database]] with relevant dimensions.

=== Popular narrow angle lenses ===
Any fixed focal length lens would be best for maximum quality. Most zoom lenses suffer from non-standard edge light fall-off ([[vignetting]]) and from heavy lens flare. Consumer zoom lenses often perform badly in terms of contrast, sharpness, maximum aperture and [[chromatic aberration]].

=== Popular wide angle lenses ===
{|
| [http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3236&navigator=1 Sigma 12-24mm f4.5-5.6] || Super wide-angle zoom lens with a 84-122 degree field of view on film SLR cameras
|-
| [http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?cat=1&grp=5&productNr=2144 Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 DX] || Super wide-angle zoom lens with a 61-99 degree field of view for Nikon mount DSLR cameras
|}

=== Popular fisheye lenses ===
{|
| [http://www.geocities.com/belshop/content2.html Peleng 8mm/f3.5] || fisheye lens covering a 180 degrees field of view
|-
| [http://www.sigma-photo.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3319&navigator=4 Sigma 8mm/f3.5] || fisheye lens covering a 180 degrees field of view
|-
| [http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?cat=1&grp=5&productNr=2148 Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 DX] || full frame fisheye (180 degrees diagnonally) for Nikon mount DSLR cameras
|-
| [http://www.rugift.com/photocameras/zenitar_m_fisheye_lens.htm Zenitar 16mm f/2.8] || full frame fisheye (180 degrees diagnonally for 35mm film or full frame sensor) for various SLR and DSLR cameras (manual operation)
|}

=== Fisheye conversion lenses ===
{|
| [http://raynox.co.jp/english/dcr/dcrcf185pro/index.htm Raynox DCR-CF185PRO] || 180 degrees field of view with a standard lens at 35mm
|-
| [http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/accessory/converter/fc-e9/ Nikon FC-E9] || ~185-190 degrees field of view with a standard lens at 35mm (this is '''not''' only for Nikon, I used this with my Canon PS A75.. you need a [http://www.hama.de/portal/articleId*5592/action*2563 52mm >> 46mm adapter ring].. with that it works great with Canon or whatever you want) An [http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/accessory/converter/list.htm adapter ring] is required for ALL Nikon cameras, and can make the setup rather large [http://www.panotools.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Image:Fce9.jpg (almost a foot long!)]
|-
| [http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/accessory/converter/fc-e8/ Nikon FC-E8] || ~180 degrees field of view with a standard lens at 35mm. [http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/accessory/converter/list.htm adapter ring required]
|}

There are also many small and cheap semi fisheye conversion lenses available from [http://raynox.co.jp Raynox] if you have a small digital camera and quality is not the most important issue:
{|
| [http://raynox.co.jp/english/video/egvideoindex.htm Raynox video camera index] || Look for the 0.3x versions
|}

== Filters ==

== Tripods / Monopods ==
My current favorite tripod for shooting panoramas is the manfrotto 755b.

The tripod is extremely strong, tall, and incorporates a ball head that can be used to quickly level a head - though this does require somewhat of a 'knack' to get the hang of.

Essentially, for just over $200 you can get a really large, strong tripod, with levelling feature. Only downside for me is the weight, but I cannot justify spending 3x the price to get a carbon fibre version!

Stu

Monopods have a couple of advantages. One advantage: Height - many have several sections. They are most popular with one-shot lens users. You can extend the monopod fully, set the self timer on the camera, and position the camera 10' off the ground (held at arms length above your head.) Takes practice, but it works. You'll want to invest in a monopod level. These attach to the monopod leg, kind of like the level used on 4x4' when you build a deck. Another advantage is portability, plus some monopods serve double duty as trekking poles. They are difficult to use for multiple shots, as one can wobble the monopod left, right, back, and forth between shots. It's just like mounting your camera on top of a giant joy-stick! --[[User:Add360.com|Add360.com]] 03:14, 7 Nov 2005 (EST)

== Panoramic Heads ==
When combining multiple images, it is critical that each image be captured from the same point of view. This [[Nodal Point|optical center]] of the lens is commonly called the nodal point, although it is more correctly referred to as the entrance pupil. The nodal point is located inside the lens; in the wide angle lenses used for panoramic imaging, the entrance pupil tends to be near the front of the lens.

A standard tripod mount rotates the camera around the mounting screw in the camera; the simplest nodal point adapter simply shifts the camera back to move the lens's nodal point over the axis of rotation. [[Heads|More complicated brackets]] allow the camera to rotate vertically around the nodal point around the nodal point as well as horizontally.

== Stitching Adapters ==
With lenses that produce a large image circle, it is possible to capture a number of DSLR frames for stitching into a large panorama. Typical lenses that can be used for this purpose come from Medium Format, and Large Format (4x5) camera systems. A stitching adapter is typically used on a Large Format camera to provide precise XY positioning of the DSLR camera, so that all the image tiles are taken in the plane of focus.

In this type of system, since the capture device (DSLR Camera) is moved, but the lens is not; there is no requirement for determining the lens nodal point. However the panorama must be stitched as an orthographic projection.

== Flashes ==
Currently content still on [[Flashes]] page

== Miscellaneous ==

== Portable Storage Devices ==
These come in several varieties, a broad price range, and with varying options. Kind of like purchasing a VW Beetle vs a Porsche - either can get you from point A to point B. Basically all models perform the same function: automatically move images from your memory card to the storage device. Just stick in the card and like a digital vacuum, it sucks the images from the card to the device. That is the BASIC function. The type of cards it reads, hard drive space, battery life, simple LCD display vs full color display - the features go on and on. You can preview images on some models, display them on TV via built-in jacks, watch movies, play music. It all depends on your budget! Google "Portable Storage Device" or search on Amazon or eBay. You'll get an idea what's available. Not to long ago there were only a couple of models available. Now you can find dozens! Bottom line: If you take a lot of photos, you'll eventually need one of these! --[[User:Add360.com|Add360.com]] 03:11, 7 Nov 2005 (EST)

Click to see an alphabetical list of panorama related [[hardware manufacturers]].

[[Category:Hardware]]

SoC2007 projects

2007-05-15T15:40:30Z

Imroy: remove underscores from wikilinks

See [[SoC 2007 overview]] for usage hints and a page list.

= Introduction =

This is the work in progress list of possible projects for the [[Google SoC 2007]]

Panoramic imaging is a very broad field and touches many different areas of expertise, such as photography, computer vision, art and programming.
There is a thriving community with experience from arts to science that provides many interesting ideas and explores new territory in panoramic imaging. In addition to the mentors, this open community will provide good support and innovative ideas.

Generally, all development should done with multiple platforms in mind (at least Windows, OSX and Linux/Unix). We have an open communication culture via mailing-lists and mostly develop using C and C++.

The project below are just suggestions. If you are an interested student and have questions or new ideas, please let us know on the relevant [[Discussion lists]], for example [https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/panotools-devel panotools-devel].

= Development style =

Most of the projects below are related to [[Hugin]], and some also relate to [[Panotools]] or [[tlalli]]. [[Hugin]] is mostly written in C++, and uses the [http://kogs-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~koethe/vigra/ VIGRA image processing library] to support different types of images (for example, 8bit, 16bit and float (HDR) images). The core functionality is implemented in a platform independent C++ library, which is used by the GUI based on wxWidgets toolkit, and the command line programs ([[nona]], [[fulla]]).

The development of the projects should take place in a separate branch of the projects CVS (or SVN) repository. Communication with the mentors should usually happen through the appropriate development mailing list. All code should work on the major platforms supported (Linux, OSX, Windows).

= Possible Projects =

== Intuitive yet powerful GUI for panorama creation ==

Goal: Redesign/Reimplement the graphical user interface of the premiere open source panoramic imaging suite, [[Hugin]], to increase ease of use, and provide better access to its unmatched capabilities. Currently the GUI is written using [http://www.wxwidgets.org wxWidgets], which has proven to have slightly different behaviours on different platforms, especially with a complex GUI such as the one of Hugin. This is very annoying and a lot of time has been spent on minor issues such as making the GUI look good on all platforms with different font sizes etc. Therefore two options are available:

# Rewrite the whole GUI using QT (which is very consistent even across platforms, and has (IMHO) a much nicer API). This is a lot more work, and not all functionality of the current GUI can be recreated during the Summer of Code, but it will provide a better platform to build onto in the future. It is also possible to implement the GUI logic in a scripting language such as Ruby or Python. This project should only be tackled by a student who has experience in developing non-trivial GUI applications with QT. The GUI and core panorama code are already separated into different libraries.
#* '''Details to be discussed on [[SoC 2007 project New GUI Framework|the separate page]]'''.
# Extend and enhance the existing wxWidgets based GUI.

General goals for the improved GUI include:
* Providing a simple, yet helpful user interface that suggests or highlights potentially useful next steps.
* Enhancing and integrating manual and automated control point placement and management.
* Improving lens parameter management.
* Providing a batch processing interface.
* Expert mode with access to all features and internals.

Recommended knowledge or interest in:
* Workflow analysis and UI design skills
* Experience with building cross platform GUI programs (Windows/Linux/OSX), either using wxWidgets or QT
* Creative use of panoramic imaging

Mentor: Pablo d'Angelo, ?

License: GPL

== Automatic feature detection for panoramic images ==

Goal: Robust extraction of local image features using a Hessian-based detector and a suitable descriptor.
A detector and descriptor that takes into account the approximately known distortions will have a much higher matching rate, especially when fisheye or wide angle images are used.

Tasks:
* Implementation of the feature detector and descriptor, and a suitable test suite to verify the correctness of the implementation.

'''Further details are being discussed in the separate [[SoC2007 project Feature Descriptor]] page'''.

A desired result of the projects would be:
* C or C++ library for the matching step.
* Standalone program to extract the matches from images.

Required knowledge or interest in:
* signal or image processing background
* C or C++ development skills.
* Matlab or octave

Mentor: Pablo d'Angelo, Herbert Bay, ?

== Automatic feature matching for panoramic images ==
Goal: Robust and efficient matching of local image features.

Tasks:
* Implementation of the matching step, including geometry based outlier pruning (for example using RANSAC) and nearest neighbour matching, possibly using a fast algorithm such as cover trees. For the panoramic imaging use case, several heuristics could be used to improve the matching behaviour, including using the EXIF timestamps, or previously known approximate orientation of the images.

'''Further details are being discussed in the separate [[SoC2007 project Feature Matching|SoC Feature Matching project]] page'''.

A desired result of the projects would be:
* Standalone program for the feature matching part, which at the end should accept the features found by the automatic feature detection task. Preliminary studies can be done using the existing SIFT and SURF detector/descriptors.
* Integration into [[hugin]] and a standalone executable similar to [[Autopano-sift]] or [[Autopano]]

Required knowledge or interest in:
* signal or image processing background
* C or C++ development skills.

Possibly useful resources and libraries:
* [http://hunch.net/~jl/projects/cover_tree/cover_tree.html Fast nearest neighbour matching using cover trees]

Mentor: Pablo d'Angelo, ?

License: GPL

== Interactive panoramic viewer ==

Goal: The [[Freepv]] panoramic viewer aims to provide a superior viewing experience
for panoramas on all major platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux/Unix), based on
exploiting powerful graphics hardware using OpenGL. Currently it provides
basic but solid viewing capabilities for Quicktime VR, cylindrical, cubic and equi-rectangular panoramas. Plugins for Mozilla/Firefox and a standalone viewer are available. Several important features are still missing from the viewer include:

* Support for hotspots
* Optimisation for panoramas larger than the Video RAM
* Display of high dynamic range panoramas with adaptive exposure
* Support for reading a SPi-V compatible .xml file, for platforms where SPi-V is not available (Linux/Unix).
* Fallback software renderer

Required knowledge or interest in:
* OpenGL or other 3D programming experience.
* Creating cool and nice looking interactive experiences.

Mentor: Pablo d'Angelo, Fulvio Senore ?

Student: [[User:Leonox|Leon Moctezuma]]

[[Interactive Panoramic Viewer|Project detail page]]

License: LGPL

== Anti-ghosting HDR panorama blending and merging algorithm ==

Goal: Most HDR creation algorithms are designed to work only with very small variations in camera viewing direction. Assume that registration and response curve estimation has already happened. An improved blending method for HDR images together that have not been shot using the traditional exposure stack method. It should avoid ghosting and be insensitive to small misregistrations.

'''Further details are being discussed in the separate [[SoC2007 project Anti Ghosting|SoC HDR Anti-ghosting]] project page.'''

Interesting research papers:
* [http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~eden/737_eden_a.pdf Seamless Image Stitching of Scenes with Large Motions and Exposure Differences]
* [http://graphics.cs.ucf.edu/ekhan/project_ghost.htm Ghost Removal in High Dynamic Range Images]
* [http://research.microsoft.com/IVM/HDR/hdr_sg2003.pdf High Dynamic Range Video]

Required knowledge or interest in:
* Strong background signal/image processing
* Creative mind with ideas beyond the state of the art in computer vision/graphics research.

Mentor: Pablo d'Angelo, ?

License: GPL

== Processing of very large images ==

Goal: Allow the creation of arbitrary large panoramas.
[http://flickr.com/groups/83823859@N00/discuss/72157594574253488/]

Currently panotools, as well as hugin/nona require memory to hold the complete input and the remapped output image in memory, which consumes a lot of RAM, especially for spherical panoramas. [http://www.vips.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ VIPS] is a powerful and modular image processing library that supports very large images and multiple processors natively. By porting the core remapping routines of panotools/hugin to VIPS, panoramas of almost arbitrary size can be computed.

A desired result of the projects would be:
* VIPS operations that support the geometric and photometric (vignetting correction) transformations.
* Standalone command line program that remaps images using these routines.
* Program/script to convert panotools scripts to nip2 projects.

Required knowledge or interest in:
* C/C++ programming
* image processing

Mentor: John Cupitt, Pablo d'Angelo

License: GPL

== Architectural Overhaul of Panotools ==

Panotools is a very monolithic application. The goal of this project is to refactor the functionality of panotools into 4 main parts, as independent of each other as possible.
These parts are (at least):

* Calculation of position of images (optimization)
* Mapping from input images to output images
* Projection related computations
* Parsing of input scripts/Generation of input scripts

Were this project successful the functionality of panotools will be available as a collection of routines that be called directly (as opposed to the current model that requires
the creation and parsing of a script). It will make it easier to replace one component of panotools with another one; and it will improve the future maintenance of panotools.

'''Details to be discussed on [[SoC2007 project Panotools Architecture|the separate page]]'''.

A desired result of the projects would be:
* Set of functions/classes that are available to hugin to perform optimization and remapping of images
* Test suite to verify that the functionality before and after is equivalent.

Required knowledge or interest in:
* C/C++ programming
* Knowledge of Numerical methods
* Basic knowledge of image processing

Mentor: D.M. German

License: GPL

== PTButcher ==

A batch creator-project manager for batch creating projects, optimizing, managing groups of projects, names outputs, indipendently invoke the software parts and feed scripts.

All the software is based on advanced find-replace in text files, generation of script files, but needs an user-friendly GUI, the main investment in the coding I suppose.

General
* ability to translate projects between the various gui.
* To search projects in subfolders
* to keep history of all operations, with undos ability.

batch building projects
* creates projects basing on the subfolder of a main folders, creates CPs and optimizes.
* Default name schemes customizable for result images and projects. As well as project folder-locations
* Template application (selection in base of image number, or exif)
* Customizable CP finder and refinery
* Customizable optimizer
* report with result and-or creation of a little test image
* capable of hugin-ptgui-whatever panorama project format.

project manager,
you have a table of all your project, with ability to change, one by one or in group, and without opening them

* relative and absolute paths for images, changing the full path or a part of it, allowing HD migrations even if projects are foldered in creative ways.
* Path for output image
* output image type, resolution, layers.
* Involved software and modificators.
* 16 bit workflow warnings

Batch stitching
* ability of batch processing stitch operations, or to invoke the specific software and feed its batch

Ability to stitch panovideos:
Given a template with the (n) of images involved and (n) folders, containing (m) png images
extracted from the (n) streams to stitch together.
Invoke itself the softwares, and cycles the batch to build (m) images in a new folder.

Support for HDR or ADR workflows, always template based.
i.e.
Given 3 set of 4 fisheye images and the corresponding template, it generates the main project, optimizes images together, and THEN, render 3images (a,b,c) involving images 0,3,6,9 (a) 1,4,7,10) (b) (2,5,8,11) (c)

See [http://search.cpan.org/dist/Panotools-Script/ Panotools::Script] for a perl approach to this.
Note that the PanoTools script format is is a bit hard to understand, there is a proposal in the
[[SoC2007 project Panotools Architecture]] to replace it with a more workable XML file format, so work should concentrate on the workflow aspects instead of another panotools script parser.

Proposal: Luca Vascon

Mentor: Yuval Levy

Licence: GPL

Student: [[User:Stereo sl|Zoran Mesec]]

[[PTButcher proposal]]

== PtPatcher, module for Interactive panoramic viewer ==
Was: PTeditor2.

The basic need would be to have it integrated in photoshop and Gimp, with a simple “paint on this side” interface. 16Bit workflow needed, as multiple input-output filetype.
See also skypaint for inspiration interface and capabilities.

There is a lot of overlap here with [[SoC2007 projects#Interactive panoramic viewer|SoC2007 Interactive Panorama Viewer]]. Note
that the viewer simply needs to fork and pass the current filename, pitch, yaw and Field of View to an external script which can handle
the extraction, editing and reinsertion - The viewer itself doesn't need to be involved with any image processing.

: - If this should be a photoshop plugin it would be a possibility to interact with the Adjust (or PTAdjust) plugin, which can do the extraction and insertion within photoshop (might be possible for the Gimp, too. See [[Panorama Tools Plugins#Adjust]] for details.--[[User:Erik Krause|Erik Krause]] 23:55, 23 March 2007 (CET)

The viewer should allow to save a fileproject in order to allow:
* unlimited close and reopen of the viewer
* multiple interventions and extractions with only one final reinsertion, in order not to loose quality
* working in parallel with multiple images
* batchable alone or with PTButcher, in order to extraxct all nadirs and/or zeniths, with given view angle 'XxY' of panos in a folder and then reinsert them all.

Proposal: Luca Vascon

Mentor:

Do we incorporate this with the viewer?

Licence: GPL
[[Category:Community:Project]]

User:Imroy

2007-05-15T15:37:02Z

Imroy: Link to my Wikipedia user page

I've been a Wikipedia editor for a few years. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Imroy my user page there].