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Seeking free/inexpensive photo software that...

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:42 pm
by oleander
Was going to take the plunge for Lightroom 4, but really I think what would cover 80% of my needs is photo software that would...

1. Stitch together my panoramas (my Canon Photostitch usually messes that up).

2. Melds together 3 photos taken on a tripod with exposure bracketing. (My camera does the bracketing, but my camera software can't combine the three photos taken.)

Canon Powershot 100.

Ideas?

- Elizabeth

Re: Seeking free/inexpensive photo software that...

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:51 pm
by maverick
The two I use is AutoPano Giga and Photomatix Pro (though I use Photomatix very delicately, if at all), Hugin is a free stitching software, give it a try first.
Pano's: http://www.kolor.com/autopano/
Hugin: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/
Merging: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... 7601,d.cWw

Re: Seeking free/inexpensive photo software that...

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:06 pm
by SSSdave
The 12mp Canon Powershot 100 is decent above average compact digital camera. Even with better stitching software and tools one would need to upgrade to higher quality to make the below worthwhile. There are forum and help sites where enthusiasts address your questions and more.

Have been extensively using Kolor Autopano Pro now for stitching since this last fall after being frustrated with Photoshop CS6 that uses the Photomerge stitching tool Adobe had bought its company for. Of the several stitching products serious users make use of, it is well down on the list with little manual control. Sometimes it works fine while other times does not especially when warping frames together. Autopano has a lot of functionality I've never had a need to figure out but for what I do, it has made life easy.

That said, I still use Photoshop CS6 for focus stack aligning then blending of landscape frames as well as blending of exposure bracketed scenes. But for close-ups use Zerene Stacker. Quality of results are rather obvious on website links I post herein. That said, will also relate that just having those software tools is just part of the puzzle. Some answers can be found on various imaging software forums and help sites while there is significant skills and techniques that one will have to figure out by themselves with experience because you won't find them anywhere online or in books. Tis all too new and evolving.

Re: Seeking free/inexpensive photo software that...

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:13 pm
by Jimr
Get Hugin. It's free and does an excellent job. Also get EnfuseGUI. It is not software, but a GUI front end for using one of the programs (Enfuse) that comes with Hugin. Hugin has an interface that will do your panos for you and do a very good job. EnfuseGUI will make it easy for you to either Exposure stack or Focus stack a series of shots depending on how you set two sliders. Pat David has a quick tutorial that will show you where to position the sliders for Focus stack. The default settings will give a good Exposure stack.