HELP - What is the best free software for doing a panoramic stitch?

[kehng]

Hi
Just been asked to make a panoramic stitch at work? Any ideas anyone? I use a Mac and the photos will be shot for me... What instructions should I give the photographer who is in New York?

[rxmd]

The best free software is probably Hugin (http://hugin.sourceforge.net). Good program, with a lot of good tutorials (http://hugin.sourceforge.net/tutorials/index.shtml).

For the photographs - manual focus, manual exposure, identical white balance. This is to make sure that images can be stitched to each other. Make sure that there is significant overlap between them. Get the photographer to use a tripod, and ideally one with a nodal point adapter (so that the camera doesn't revolve around its base, but around the nodal point of the lens). Also make sure that there aren't too many moving things in the picture between shots, otherwise they may appear multiple times.

Further instructions partly depend on the kind of panorama you want to do.

[kehng]

thanks RXMD. checking it out now. trying PTGui now as well...

[rxmd]

PTGui isn't free, it's shareware. The free trial version leaves watermarks in the final picture.

[Brian Puccio]

Seconding hugin. It can get quite complex though.

[kehng]

thanks guys. i'll get off ptgui now!

[majid]

I can recommend Kolor's AutoPano Giga. It offers a good UI, very high quality stitching and blending, and plenty of control when you need it.

[tlitody]

photoshop does perfectly acceptable stitching if you have a recent version