Image stitching softwware

[jack]

Please add your input.

I have tried the following, plus a few others:

Panavue ImageAssembler
Panorama Factory
Canon's PhotoStitch
HP's Arcsoft
PTAssembler -- front end GUI for Panorama Tools
Hugin -- -- front end GUI for Panorama Tools
Imerge
PhotoVista

My main objective was to scan LP covers in four parts and reassemble
them. LP covers are 12.25 by 12.25 inches.

I chose the HP 4600 scanner because it has a true flat bed, no raised
borders. An LP cover will rest perfectly flat on the glass.

After many hours of experimentation, I have come to the following
conclusions.

PTAssembler won the race hands down but it has a very steep learning
curve for a newbie like me. But I perservered and was rewarded with
excellent results.

The same excellent results could probably be attained with Hugin, as it,
like PTAssemble, is just a GUI for Panorama Tools, which are free.

When I say "just a GUI", I don't mean to denigrate either program. The
ease of working in Windows rather than from a command line is not to be
underestimated.

Of all the products that have an automatic scanned image stitching
function, Panavue came closest to being acceptable. Costs $64 for
unencumbered download and $69 for CD.

PhotoStitch runs a very close third. I don't know if it can be bought.
Maybe just bundled. I just don't know. I got mine bundled with Canon
i860 printer.

Arcsoft came bundled with an HP 4600 scanner. It was somewhat forgetable
for my purposes.

Panorama factory was quickly dismissed for my purposes.

Imerge did not make the cut.

I did not like PhotoVista, which did not suit my purposes and had the
arrogance to install Metamail on my system without asking for the
purpose of splashing my desktop with urgings to buy.

Those that did not suit my purposes may be fine for others who want to
make panoramas from photos. I just want to stitch together images that
are too big to be scanned on an 8.5 by 11.5 inch scanner.

Jack

 

[CSM1]

Please add your input.

I have tried the following, plus a few others:

Panavue ImageAssembler
Panorama Factory
Canon's PhotoStitch
HP's Arcsoft
PTAssembler -- front end GUI for Panorama Tools
Hugin -- -- front end GUI for Panorama Tools
Imerge
PhotoVista

My main objective was to scan LP covers in four parts and reassemble them.
LP covers are 12.25 by 12.25 inches.

I chose the HP 4600 scanner because it has a true flat bed, no raised
borders. An LP cover will rest perfectly flat on the glass.

After many hours of experimentation, I have come to the following
conclusions.

PTAssembler won the race hands down but it has a very steep learning curve
for a newbie like me. But I perservered and was rewarded with excellent
results.

The same excellent results could probably be attained with Hugin, as it,
like PTAssemble, is just a GUI for Panorama Tools, which are free.

When I say "just a GUI", I don't mean to denigrate either program. The
ease of working in Windows rather than from a command line is not to be
underestimated.

Of all the products that have an automatic scanned image stitching
function, Panavue came closest to being acceptable. Costs $64 for
unencumbered download and $69 for CD.

PhotoStitch runs a very close third. I don't know if it can be bought.
Maybe just bundled. I just don't know. I got mine bundled with Canon i860
printer.

Arcsoft came bundled with an HP 4600 scanner. It was somewhat forgetable
for my purposes.

Panorama factory was quickly dismissed for my purposes.

Imerge did not make the cut.

I did not like PhotoVista, which did not suit my purposes and had the
arrogance to install Metamail on my system without asking for the purpose
of splashing my desktop with urgings to buy.

Those that did not suit my purposes may be fine for others who want to
make panoramas from photos. I just want to stitch together images that are
too big to be scanned on an 8.5 by 11.5 inch scanner.

Jack

That is very good analysis of the various stitching software.

A good digital camera with around 3 Megapixels and a studio setup for
copying album covers is a lot easier that having to stitch each and every
cover.
http://www.carlmcmillan.com/how_to_copy_with_digital_camera.htm

Once the studio is setup, all you do is stick the album on the stand and
click the shutter.

 

[Terry]

I just had an occasion to use the photo stitching software built into
Adobe Phtoshop CS.
It's automated just pick your pictures and it does it all by it self.
I'm impressed.

Before I used Corel's Photo Paint 12 program, it works well however, it
is all manual.
What a pain.

 

[jack]

Thanks for that link. I came across that site a couple of days ago. To
tell the truth, I was not impressed with the Four Lads LP image that was
posted on that page. I think better results could be obtained, perhaps
using a 10x optical zoom. But I don't have any photographic equipment
and I have a scanner and the sofware so that is what I am working with
at present.

But I like the idea of "one click and your done".

jack

 

[CSM1]

That "Four Lads" LP cover is in exactly that condition.

To see a 150 dpi flat bed scan of the middle of the "Four Lads" Album cover.
Scan bed is 8.5 x 11.7 inches.
http://www.carlmcmillan.com/Temp/
I will not leave this up on the Temp site very long.

As are a lot of my LPs. By the way that image on the web site was made with
a 2 Megapixel camera, not a 3 Megapixel which I recommended. A 2 Megapixel
image is 1600 x 1200, the 1200 pixels top to bottom squeezed into 4.75
inches makes the equivalent of 250 DPI on the CD insert.

It does not take a high price digital camera to take pictures of Album
covers. The main thing is a tripod mount so the camera is steady.

I have a FujiFilm Finepix 2650, which cost $150 that works as well as my
$400 Olympus C-2040 for Album covers.

For that matter, you can use a 35 mm film camera and have the photo lab give
you a Picture CD.

A digital Camera is better because you can see the image immediately. With a
film camera you have to get the film developed before you know what you
have.

 

[DaveG]

I have tried the following, plus a few others:

Panavue ImageAssembler
Panorama Factory
Canon's PhotoStitch
HP's Arcsoft
PTAssembler -- front end GUI for Panorama Tools
Hugin -- -- front end GUI for Panorama Tools
Imerge
PhotoVista

Not tried yet, but looks impressive
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/panorama/panorama.html

Technically, it a free demo version which expires but can be replaced by
the latest version. It's not gone commercial yet.

 

[jack]

That "Four Lads" LP cover is in exactly that condition.

It curves at the top?

 

[CSM1]

It curves at the top?

No, it does not curve at the top. I thought you were seeing the hightlight
glare from the lights in the picture and the wear from the record label
inside the jacket. That is how the actual cover looks.

That was my fault for shooting the cover too close at a wide angle setting
of the camera lens.
If I had zoomed to a more "normal" lens setting and backed up the camera
from the subject to frame it correctly, the "fish eye" effect would not be
there. What I did was plop the tripod down in front of the cover and zoom
out to frame the top to bottom of the cover. When I should have zoomed the
camera a little past the wide angle setting and moved the tripod back to
frame the image.

It goes back to the studio setup, camera too close to the subject and a wide
angle lens setting.

I may redo the image of the front of the cover. Someday (grin).

 

[CSM1]

No, it does not curve at the top. I thought you were seeing the hightlight
glare from the lights in the picture and the wear from the record label
inside the jacket. That is how the actual cover looks.

That was my fault for shooting the cover too close at a wide angle setting
of the camera lens.
If I had zoomed to a more "normal" lens setting and backed up the camera
from the subject to frame it correctly, the "fish eye" effect would not be
there. What I did was plop the tripod down in front of the cover and zoom
out to frame the top to bottom of the cover. When I should have zoomed the
camera a little past the wide angle setting and moved the tripod back to
frame the image.

It goes back to the studio setup, camera too close to the subject and a wide
angle lens setting.

I may redo the image of the front of the cover. Someday (grin).

Done!

 

[jack]

That's not a photo, that's a scan. It even says it's a scan.

But I agree that a 10x optical zoom set as close as possible to get a
full view of the LP cover would be worth trying, especially one with a 6
meagapixel resolution.

Jack

Done!

 

[CSM1]

That's not a photo, that's a scan. It even says it's a scan.

You have deleted an important part of the previous post, I am not sure what
you are referring to.

The 150 dpi scan of the middle of the cover is at
http://www.carlmcmillan.com/Temp/

The Photos of the front of the album at
http://www.carlmcmillan.com/how_to_copy_with_digital_camera.htm
are made with an Olympus C-2040 Digital Camera. Which is a 3X zoom 2
Megapixel camera, the photos were made at the 35mm equivalent of 65mm. The
whole album cover is there.

I wanted to show that the camera makes as good a image of the whole cover as
the scan, the problem with the scan is it is only a part of the cover. If I
and everybody else had a 12 1/4 inch scanner bed then it would be easy! A3
scanners are not cheap!

CSM1

But I agree that a 10x optical zoom set as close as possible to get a full
view of the LP cover would be worth trying, especially one with a 6
meagapixel resolution.

10X zoom is not necessary, all you need is the 35mm equivalent of a normal
lens (around 50mm) to eliminate the "fish eye". The distance from the album
cover to the camera is around 28 inches. So you do not need a long zoom.

A 6 Megapixel camera is nice but is very big overkill.

Frame the top and bottom of the album as close as possible in the short
dimension of the frame.
For a CD insert, the final image is 4.75 x 4.75 inches, a 2 Megapixel camera
makes a 1600x1200 pixel image. You take the 1600x1200 pixels and crop to a
square you get 1200/4.75=252.63 dpi image for the CD insert.

If you want more resolution for the CD insert, use a 3 Megapixel camera.
A 250 dpi print is a pretty good print.

Jack

That means, I re-photographed the front Album cover at a better zoom setting
of the lens. (65mm) and put the new photos on the web. The photos are square
now.