workflow enfuse with no panorama?! can't figure it out

[Alister Ling]

Please help! And I will help others in return. I feel like I'm missing the obvious but after hours of trying I am near the point of giving up.

I can load images and see exif data. As far as I can tell, I do not need to do anything else on the photos tab.  I have no need for the masks or control points tab functions. I come to stitcher, the default projection is equirectangular - I hope that's what I need. Or is it rectilinear?! I check the box "Combined Stacks" even though I do not have anything stacked yet, because there seems nothing else reasonable to do. I put jpg as output. The batch processor ran successfully, but I can't find any final image. 

 I just can't figure out how to use hugin as described on the http://wiki.panotools.org/Enfuse site:

• The droplets by Erik Krause are contained in the hugin windows package from http://hugin.sourceforge.net and installed ready to use. A group of image files or an entire folder can be dragged and dropped on a droplet. In case of a folder the user can specify the number of images in a bracketed series, hence multiple series can be enfused in one go. The droplets copy relevant EXIF data to the result image such that camera and lens data isn't lost f.e. for subsequent stitching. Another droplet version does automatic alignment in order to allow for handheld bracketed series. (open source)

Fantastic! Except I can't make it happen (2013.0.0.0d404a7088e6 ) the latest available from the website. 

I have no idea what a droplet is and references to droplets on the enfuse site simply lead me back to the above. 

I simply want to do enfuse in batch mode for a time lapse, but I can't figure out how to do it for even one bracket set. The tutorials all start with panorama but I do not have/want a panorama - I want to process a simple fixed camera with bracketed shots.

Some Youtube and other tutorials show previous interfaces or no sound(!). I will gladly do a fresh tutorial for other folks like me if someone helps me through this.

Regards,

Alister.

[Terry Duell]

Hello Alister,


On Wed, 19 Nov 2014 14:40:34 +1100, Alister Ling <dawns...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Please help! And I will help others in return. I feel like I'm missing
> the obvious but after hours of trying I am near the point of giving up.
> I can load images and see exif data. As far as I can tell, I do not need
> to do anything else on the photos tab. I have no need for the masks or
> control points tab functions. I come to stitcher, the default projection
> is equirectangular - I hope that's what I need. Or is it rectilinear?! I
> check the box "Combined Stacks" even though I do not have anything
> stacked yet,
> because there seems nothing else reasonable to do. I put jpg as output.
> The batch processor ran successfully, but I can't find any final image.

If I understand you correctly, you don't have your images in a stack.
In the photos tab, display radio button set to 'general' the images you
want to fuse should be all in the same stack. You can alter the stack
settings by right clicking on an image line in photos tab and select
'Stacks', and set things accordingly.
Your stacked images must align perfectly for exposure fusion to give a
good result.
If I have misunderstood your words above "even though I do not have
anything stacked yet", then please clarify the steps you go through.


Cheers,
--
Regards,
Terry Duell

[Erik Krause]

Am 19.11.2014 04:40, schrieb Alister Ling:
> I have no idea what a droplet is and references to droplets on the enfuse
> site simply lead me back to the above.

A droplet is a shortcut to a windows batch file (in this case), which
you can put in a convenient place to drag and drop images on it. If
hugin installer didn't create shortcuts on your desktop go to the bin
folder inside the hugin program folder and search for .bat files having
*droplet* in their name. Double click them for a short instruction.

Also in the \doc\enblend folder inside the hugin program folder there is
a readme.txt for the droplets which gives usage details. (Sorry, not my
idea to put it there ;-)

--
Erik Krause
http://www.erik-krause.de

[Terry Duell]

Hello Alister,

On Wed, 19 Nov 2014 14:40:34 +1100, Alister Ling <dawns...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Please help! And I will help others in return. I feel like I'm missing
> the obvious but after hours of trying I am near the point of giving up.
>

[snip]

>
> I simply want to do enfuse in batch mode for a time lapse, but I can't
> figure out how to do it for even one bracket set.

Try using Hugin_stitch_project as your processor and see if that makes any
difference.
File -> Preferences -> Stitching Processor-Hugin_stitch_project

[Alister Ling]

Hi Terry and Erik, thank you so much for your rapid feedback! I have now successfully got it going - I need to play with the enfuse parameters but that's another story. Terry, you were right about me needing to right-click and choose to put the images into the same stack. I got my output after running stitch with rectilinear and calculate optimal. 

Erik, I will try the droplets tomorrow - I have run out of time for this evening.

One more thing, On the stitch menu, I have checked only "Combined Stacks" and "Exposure Fused Stacks", but I am forced to use Nona, despite the fact that my images are on a tripod in bracket and time lapse mode, so should align really well. What interpolator should I choose? I presume it is nona that is reducing the size of my final images, cropping in the horizontal but I did not deliberately ask for that. Instead of calculate optimal canvas size, do I override it with the actual?

Regards,

Alister.

[Terry Duell]

Hello Alister,

On Thu, 20 Nov 2014 15:51:19 +1100, Alister Ling <dawns...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Terry and Erik, thank you so much for your rapid feedback! I have now
> successfully got it going - I need to play with the enfuse parameters but
> that's another story. Terry, you were right about me needing to
> right-click and choose to put the images into the same stack. I got my
> output after
> running stitch with rectilinear and calculate optimal.

Good.

>
> One more thing, On the stitch menu, I have checked only "Combined Stacks"
> and "Exposure Fused Stacks", but I am forced to use Nona, despite the
> fact that my images are on a tripod in bracket and time lapse mode, so
> should
> align really well. What interpolator should I choose? I presume it is
> nona that is reducing the size of my final images, cropping in the
> horizontal
> but I did not deliberately ask for that. Instead of calculate optimal
> canvas size, do I override it with the actual?

Regarding the reduced size of your output image, it should only be cropped
in accordance with your field of view settings, so check what is shown in
the Fast Preview window just prior to "stitch". Adjustment of the image in
the window affects the output.
In Fast Preview window, set your crop boundaries as required, and choose
calculate optimal size. Also, in your Preferences -> Assistant, set your
"Downscale final pano" to 100% and see if any of that makes an improvement.

[Alister Ling]

Gettin' closer all the time! Erik, I was able to use the enfuse droplet with a trio of images! But when I dropped a folder of 9 (3 trios), onto the same droplet it died part way through. It asked me the number of files in the bracket, to which I replied three. Then it gave me 3 lines of Access denied, followed by EXIF Tools  trying with the trio of images, then 2 lines of Access Denied, then the same for the next trios, then the bat window disappears too quickly for me to see what else. 

I am wondering if it might have to do with the fact that the hugin\bin is considered admin priviledges. Should I move that whole group elsewhere? 

Regards,

Alister.

[Erik Krause]

Yes, this would be best. Sorry, the droplets where never designed to
work in the hugin\bin folder and should either be changed or installed
elsewhere. It should suffice to copy all the .bat files, the two .txt
files, enblend.exe, enfuse.exe and exiftool.exe to a folder in user
space. Then create new shortcuts for the droplets on the desktop (or
elsewhere). If anything else is missing the droplets will tell you.

[Alister Ling]

It's a beautiful thing! Wahoo! Thank you so much Erik for both the droplets and your support. The process works really well. As promised, I will post a tutorial so that others like me can follow. Also on my list to do, I have to find the right combination of settings (weight, contrast, sigma etc) for my particular fuse. 

Regards,

Alister.

[Brandon]

Let us know what settings you find that make much of a difference. In the last month or so I have been messing with them and have not been able to find a way to improve them much. Windows the bane of this photographer. It seems there should be a good setting to deal with them, but I have not found the perfect ones yet.

[Alister Ling]

As promised, I have made an explicit tutorial on using Hugin for jumping straight to enfusing bracketed shots:

https://sites.google.com/site/alistargazing/hugin-tutorial-enfuse-only

Who should I contact in order to get it placed on the Hugin section for "Tutorials on other sites"?

Alister.

[Alister Ling]

Hi Brandon, I will drop a note back here when I do find out. I had even tried the ImagesPlus (commercial astro-imaging software) HDR. Essentially gave me the same result - I need to bring down the highest end with little change in the middle and low, but I am too inexperienced with it to know how to do that easily. IP has a function that allows a log - it was great on the Moon, but the foreground was too dark. The enfuse wiki website (http://wiki.panotools.org/Enfuse) shows a 17 EV image on the side. Need to know what sort of settings that had. I will do more seeking on the net.

Regards,

Alister.

[Terry Duell]

Hello Alister,

On Sun, 23 Nov 2014 17:53:22 +1100, Alister Ling <dawns...@gmail.com>
wrote:

I can organise that for you, but could I suggest that you make it clear
that your tutorial really only applies to Windows users?

[Terry Duell]

On Sun, 23 Nov 2014 19:25:50 +1100, Terry Duell <tdu...@iinet.net.au>
wrote:

I could have worded that better, sorry.
Enfuse_droplet.bat only applies to windows users, and it would be helpful
to make that clear.

[Erik Krause]

EnfuseGUI by Ingemar Bergmark is very good to test out settings. Get it
from http://software.bergmark.com/

[Alister Ling]

Tutorials updated to include notes about Windows only. Reference and links to EnfuseGUI included. 

Here's the direct link to the time lapse enfuse tutorial featuring Erik's droplets:

https://sites.google.com/site/alistargazing/home/enfuse-tutorial

Thanks again guys!

Salut,

Alister. 

[Terry Duell]

Hello Alister,

On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 10:36:54 +1100, Alister Ling <dawns...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Tutorials updated to include notes about Windows only. Reference and
> links to EnfuseGUI included.
>
> Here's the direct link to the time lapse enfuse tutorial featuring Erik's
> droplets:
> https://sites.google.com/site/alistargazing/home/enfuse-tutorial
>

OK, I've updated the tutorials to include this link. It should appear
shortly.
Please let me know if you anything changed/corrected.

[John Muccigrosso]

I'm a little confused. It's a nice tutorial, but does it really include use of the batch file? 

[Alister Ling]

Hi John, 

now that you mention it, I too wonder a bit because it looks like the parameters are being specified twice. I'll take a closer look at it this weekend. It's possible that I made two changes in between test runs and convinced myself both were necessary. I don't know if hugin calls enfuse directly or via the droplet - it will be straightforward to find out by deleting things until something breaks.

Regards,

Alister.

On Tuesday, November 25, 2014 9:24:14 AM UTC-7, John Muccigrosso wrote:

>> https://sites.google.com/site/alistargazing/hugin-tutorial-enfuse-only
>>

[Alister Ling]

Quite correct John, the droplets do not matter for this operation. I have removed the mention of these from the tutorial. Thanks for catching this!

Alister.

[John Muccigrosso]

NP. Thanks for writing this up. If I understand it correctly then, it is _not_ limited to Windows users, which is great. 

[Alister Ling]

I can't say absolutely, but I would draw that conclusion too. The interface might be slightly different, but should be similar enough.

On Tuesday, December 2, 2014 10:52:19 AM UTC-7, John Muccigrosso wrote