Back a while, we discussed software for stitching panoramas. Both Mike and I had our sad share of bad results from Zoombrowser. Since then I have downloaded the free, minimized version of Serif PanoramaPlus. I am pleased to say that it amazes. No seams (or joins). The software adjusts for variations in exposure, as well as for misalignment of images:



This free version cannot stitch vertical arrays or mosaics. But it is free for the downloading (of course, they want your email address so they can send adverts...worth it, IMHO). Above image is three frames stitched, with Mount Whitney to the far left.

That's interesting info, thanks for posting. I have some old canon software called photostitch but it couldn't cope with the two photos I used for the 'variety sky' fohn photo, mainly because of the wires. I ended up stitching them manually in layers, and after spending some time fiddling about I lost the will and gave up trying to hide the join.

Anita, North Cumbria, UK

Thanks AK for the tip! I agree, Photostitch leaves much to desire. Your end work there is without flaw and that should be painless and easy to accomplish. Thanks again. btw..where is all the snow?

I use Adobe's photomerge that is a part of Photoshop. I think CS3 struggled with noctilucent cloud panoramas but CS4 and CS5 are pretty good. Not for multi-row sky panoramas though.

That, and Adobe is very expensive. Here in Finland it is just highway robbery if you ask me. Oh well.



Jari

the photo however is extremely good value

Anita, North Cumbria, UK

I didn't spend any time editing the finished result so it's not amazing, but the Serif panorama software is a doddle to use and seems to have joined up the wires without any difficulty. I'm impressed.



Anita, North Cumbria, UK

Hey good find by the looks. I've not had a chance to look but I can see the website no problem. I see there is a free starter edition and a £15 full version. Any idea what the difference is between the two? It's not too obvious on the website (unless I missed the obvious heh).

-Mike

Free....
Create a beautiful free panorama, both horizontal and vertical
Seamlessly join pictures together
Panoramas are created automatically
Create panoramas up to 3000 x 3000 pixels
Exported in the popular .jpg file type

Paid for....
Create Stunning Panoramas in 3 easy steps
Upload Panoramas directly to Facebook® and Flickr®
Stitch all your panoramas simultaneously
Import and create panoramas from video
Rotate, straighten, crop and perfect your image
Upload any file format including RAW
Export to your panorama to PDF
Create a 360° virtual reality movie

I liked it so much I paid for it anyway

Anita, North Cumbria, UK

Unfortunately the Serif is not MAC X ( Tiger or Leopard) compatible...or I couldn't find any verbage saying it is.

I did google and found free " limited Trial Period" panorama stitch software available from several sources that are Mac compatible. Some of them are quite amazing and also quite expensive. I may give one or two a test drive and if they do what they say they can do, i just may buy one. The Big Sky of Arizona demands big panoramas.

Hmm I finally got round to trying Serif Panorama Plus software. I installed the free version after jumping through the hoops on the Serif website. However it continually crashed and it was a huge effort to produce anything. As a result I uninstalled it and will not be buying the full version. I wonder what went wrong? Such a bug ridden product.

Atleast resizing my originals down to 1024x768 improved the panoramas in ArcSoft PhotoStitch so I'll stay with that for now. Still not perfect but any improvement is better than none.

No more experimenting for now though as my main PC just died and all hands to getting that fixed now. Hmm it was only 2 years old too. Things just aren't made like they used to be. Good job my older laptop is still going strong albeit with a faulty (but usable) screen and not enough disk space...

Hmm no gliding news to report. The weather's been so awful the last month there have been almost no good soaring windows down South. (We got well over double the average rainfall apparently.) I like the clouds but they are testing my patience currently heh. Alas mother nature is not to be argued with!

There was a break last Monday. I saw some great cloudscapes in Norfolk which I will have to get online to share in due course.

-Mike