Fine movement of individual images in Panorama Editor

[Stephen Beattie]

I would like to adjust an individual image in the Panorama Editor by
about half of what appears to be the default increment when I drag the
image in the direction I'd like it to move. Is there a more refined
means of moving individual images in the Panorama Editor window?

Thanks,

Steve

[Erik Krause]

Am 17.12.2011 04:29, schrieb Stephen Beattie:
> Is there a more refined
> means of moving individual images in the Panorama Editor window?

Modify the Yaw, Roll and Pitch values on Image Parameters tab. However,
setting proper control points and optimizing might be easier.

What do you want to achieve with manual fine placement?

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

[Stephen Beattie]

There is a slight misalignment of a horizontal element in the
panorama. I'm trying to correct this.

[John Houghton]

On Dec 17, 4:16 pm, Stephen Beattie <sabeat...@mac.com> wrote:
> There is a slight misalignment of a horizontal element in the
> panorama.  I'm trying to correct this.

Misalignments are best corrected with control points if practical, as
Erik suggested. Line features crossing seams can often be aligned
using the vertical or horizontal line control points (type t1 or t2),
or the straight line control points (t3,t4...). (For the latter, you
need to optimize with the alternative Panorama Tools PTOptimizer.exe
from the PTGui web site). It may be that misalignments cannot be
completely eliminated owing to parallax effects or odd lens
distortions, in which case you might output a layered file and use the
transform tools in Photoshop.

John

[Zack Dougherty]

I have wanted this aswell. I would love it to be setup so you can
select an image individually and then use the keypad (arrow keys) to
move the image pixel by pixel.

[Erik Krause]

Am 19.12.2011 06:06, schrieb Zack Dougherty:
> I have wanted this aswell. I would love it to be setup so you can
> select an image individually and then use the keypad (arrow keys) to
> move the image pixel by pixel.

Usually, if you align a certain element by moving the entire image you
dis-align all other elements. PTGui optimizer can compensate for this by
varying other parameters. If you have misalignments in a part where good
control points are there are some possible reasons:
- parallax errors: delete foreground control points and better adjust
your panoramic head next time.
- you didn't allow the optimizer to alter a relevant parameter: allow
for lens shift optimization as well as lens parameters (select heavy +
lens shift on Optimizer tab simple interface).
- wrong control points in other parts of the image: delete any CPs on
your tripod head or on moving subjects including clouds etc.

--
Erik Krause

[PTGui Support]

Hi Zack,

You'll never be able to align images this way better than through using
control points. Try to manually align the left border of an image and
you'll introduce misalignments at the right border.

If you can't get proper alignment using control points, something else
is wrong, see 4.4:
http://www.ptgui.com/support.html#4_4

Joost

[Zack Dougherty]

I totally understand that control points will always be the more
accurate way, but in many cases I will be manually dragging images to
have them match up quicker then If i were to try to guess about
control points (because I wont have anything to really create controls
points with.) for example a cable overhead in a gigapixel image, I
could manually nudge it into place.

Its not big of a deal but i feel it would be useful to be able to
nudge images when you can click and drag them to begin with.

[Todd Salerno]

I highly recommend the grid mode for gigapixel images. I just completed a 48" x 88" B&W pigment print comprised of 11 rows x 15 columns (x5 exposures per location = 825 images) using a 138mm equivalent lens and even professionals cannot tell that it is stitched. Assuming your tripod and pano head are set up accurately, then PTGui should be able to compute very accurate lens settings for warping using the images that DO have good control points and apply these to all of the images where they should fall in your grid. You will still need to add/delete control points to get things perfect, but you shouldn't need to move anything manually, nudging or otherwise.

And having been through this from start to finish, here are my feature requests:

1. An exposure preview slider directly in the Panorama editor (similar to, but independent of the one in the CP editor). Why = to reduce the need to switch the setting back and forth repeatedly. With HDR, needed overall compensation is often quite different from any given pair being adjusted in the CP editor.)

2. In the Panorama Editor, a method to show/hide exposure sets. Why = to assist in locating ghosted frames which have a 4 in 5 chance of being obscured by the default stacking.

3. CS5-quality de-ghosting, which would reduce the need for excluding ghosted exposures in each exposure stack. Why = because CS5 will not batch that process and therefore PTGui is preferable as the HDR generation tool. With 825 source images, any step requiring manual touching of source images is to be avoided. Easy, quality de-ghosting should be a feature of shooting HDR from a tripod.

4. Ability to save include or exclude image sets in the "Include images" section of the Advanced panel of the Create Panorama tab. Because I chose PTGui to do HDR, but its de-ghosting I found inadequate, I simply excluded frames that caught glimpses of cars, etc. Each stack typically still had 4 other exposures to work from. Why = because once these were excluded, in practical terms I lost functionality with "Include images" since selecting a given exposure would cause me to lose my ghost exclusions, and tracking and re-deselcting them was time-prohibitive. Removing those bad frames altogether may been a problem due to the exposure linking settings, but I honestly don't remember exactly.

5. Some kind of user feedback regarding progress and timing during processing. Until I built up some trust with the program, it was unclear whether I was hung up or still in waiting mode. However, even with that trust, it would have been handy to know I had X number of hours/minutes to do something else. With a project this large, you cannot finish unless you aggressively abort your mistakes, but it is hard to see those mistakes without some feedback. If the process estimates that it will take 30 hours, I need to evaluate if I have them to spend. If the process gives no estimate, then I may waste several hours before I figure out that it's not going to finish in time. it's a guessing game I'd rather not play. Even a range would be helpful if an exact number is impractical or unknowable.

I have to say, overall PTGui did an exceptional job with the herculean task I threw at it. It was very well behaved, returning RAM nicely when it was done, and generally handled everything I asked of it, given enough time. These files through sheer size broke Photoshop. They broke Photomatix. They broke APG. They broke Autodesk Stitcher. They broke HDR Expose. They broke the size limit of TIFF. They did not break PTGui. I was confident that I had captured good data, and PTGui made it into a seamless whole. It's not the easiest to understand program, and it has its share of UI quirkiness, but it was the last tool standing. In the end, that shows a focus on what matters most. I am most thankful as I would not have finished this project otherwise.

-Todd

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[PTGui Support]

Hi Todd,

Thanks for the feedback, I've added your requests to the wish list.
Regarding #2: in HDR mode you have an EV selection listbox just below
the 'include images' list in the Advanced section of the Create Panorama
tab. This allows you to hide all but one EV. It has its drawbacks but
may be useful.

Joost