Stitch Assist with DSLR?

[gregrocco]

I used to own an S3 and loved using the "Stitch Assist" feature to create some awesome panoramic photos. On the off chance some of you aren't familiar with it, you could take a number of pics (of a city skyline, for example), and then the Canon software would "stitch" them together to create one large photo. I've sold the S3 and now own an XSi and was wondering how I can go about creating similar panorama photos with it? I realize there is no stitch assist feature on the camera (that I'm aware of), but is there an inexpensive (read: FREE) program out there that can perform the same function?

[johncolby]

Canon includes a free "PhotoStitch" program on the software CD that comes with their cameras. (Or at least they did a couple years ago when I bought my XT)

[number six]

Yeah, Photostitch works pretty well.

Your XSi doesn't have a panorama mode like some P&S cameras (right?), so you need to pay attention to a few settings that are automatically equalized in a panorama mode.

The idea is to get identical exposures, even though the light may be different in different parts of the pano. For this you want:

- manual mode, with exposure set to your taste (take some test shots);
- manual white balance, typically sunlight or cloudy;
- manual focus.

Shooting RAW will make it easier to adjust white balance, but you can get perfectly exposed jpegs too. Obviously a tripod will help but I've shot lots of panos handheld in daylight.

-js

[gregrocco]

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize (or remember) that it was a separate program.

[JonBoyd]

This was going to be my question today. It is nice to find it already asked and answered!

[dustyporch]

Can I recommend a different program that works a ton better (IMO)?

I have found Autostitch (http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html)does a much better job that just about anything else I've tried. Its a bit clunky to work with (the dialogs can be confusing), but it does an amazing job stitching. Then you can export the jpg to photoshop and do whatever other editing there is to do.

[gregrocco]

Can I recommend a different program that works a ton better (IMO)?

I have found Autostitch (http://www.cs.ubc.ca/%7Embrown/autostitch/autostitch.html)does a much better job that just about anything else I've tried. Its a bit clunky to work with (the dialogs can be confusing), but it does an amazing job stitching. Then you can export the jpg to photoshop and do whatever other editing there is to do.
Thanks for that, I just downloaded it and was much happier with the results it provided.

[gregrocco]

It just occured to me that all the panoramic photos I've done have either been a series of horizontal or vertical shots, but would Autostitch (or any other similar program) be able to assemble a series of photos of a large area shot in a grid pattern?

[polarbare]

yes it will

[johncolby]

Depending on how intense you want to get with panoramas, and if you want to spend money in the future, PTGui (http://www.ptgui.com/) is an excellent program to check out. It's available for Mac and PC, and is very powerful. Not that expensive either when you consider how much some plugins run for. I especially love it's ability to stitch 32bit HDR images.