I am conscious that it is not directly a DxO subject… The subject of panorama stitching has been discussed many times (for instance in My wish list for DxO PhotoLab 10).
If some wishes to exchange about, we could compare our methods in this thread, exchanging sets pf photos to stitch.
Yes Uncoy we know that if we stich panos !
I have found a limit with a 20000 px wide picture.
Autopano is now consistently high-performing and free; it is likely based on open-source code; DxO could use this code to reduce development costs and integrate it with the Reshape tool, which would make it a highly efficient process.
I had a look at Panorama Stitcher Mini ; it seems a basic tool.
I make much panoramas ; on achitecture subjects, rectilinear is mandatory.
But for landscapes, I use Panini projection that gives the far best results ; Panorama Stitcher Mini and Affinity don’t have this projection.
Good tip. Thanks. You are expert enough in panoramas it seems to be you would be the first to understand that a generalist RAW development tool would be unlikely to ever include panoramic software which would satisfy your requirements.
Were DxO to include panoramas in PhotoLab (where they don’t belong: one could make a good case for a ViewPoint upgrade including panoramas, albeit with a RAW processing first pipeline), it’s highly unlikely you would ever use it.
With my post on methods, I am trying to stick to reality. Panoramas in PhotoLab sounds great as a phrase. The reality of panorama creation shows that RAW development has nothing to do with good panoramic workflow, except as an pre-requirement to prepare the materials.
To create an efficient RAW-based panorama development tool (based on 2026 image size and consumer computer capacity), the first requirement would be to group the images. One creates as panorama group in which the images where they would all enjoy identical processing (apart from retouch and local adjustments). PhotoLab or ViewPoint would then process these images based on their last version. If the photographer decides to change the processing of the images, the adjustments would be global except for retouch and local adjustments. If one adjusts the processing, it would be possible to regenerate the panorama in a single step.
It’s just as easy to export a set of TIFF or JPEGs and stitch then together in an external program as introduce such a convoluted workflow to PhotoLab or even ViewPoint.
If DxO were to create the best panorama tool in the world, I would be all for it. But please don’t throw the dessert on top of the steak and call it sauce. Let the panorama tool be the panorama tool and stand on its own merits.
I greatly prefer panini projections, too - for fisheye photo editing as well as panorama stitching. I’ve used hugin when I’m able to get it to work properly. Otherwise, ICE. I’ll give autopano a try one of these days.
One can be to careful. There’re software developers where you can’t download their products. It has to be done through third party source for logistical reasons.
Affinity Photo has the ability to create panoramas as well. I haven’t used it. I have been playing around with its ability to assemble a focus stack and that kind-of works (no access to the mask it automatically creates; fine when it works, otherwise not). I’m on Photo 2, haven’t tried 3 yet. Affinity is now owned by Canva and they’re giving v3 away. From other comments, it’s not a ‘rug pull’. So if you wanted to d/l something from the source…
That said, I’ve used Microsoft ICE for panoramas - and it’s pretty good: it can even assemble multiple rows.
Oh, and I’ve found that taking a picture of one finger before the start of a series I’m going to assemble and a picture of two fingers after the end makes it a lot easier to separate those raw files so I can process them the same, keep the TIFFs together for assembly.
The default projects in Affinity Photo is fine for most photographers/photographs. The ability to change the projection is great, but if you don’t need to do so the absence of the feature is irrelevant.
Affinity v3 includes a very powerful panorama for free. Any photographer except an Adobe user should have Affinity Photo v2 or Affinity installed (and Adobe users will have access to Photoshop which includes still better panorama tools). Not sure where the win is for DxO to include panorama tools in PhotoLab where the competition is excellent and free.
I don’t think DxO should include features where it’s not the leader or close to it (the retouch features I was wrong about: retouch started very weak with poor performance and did get much better and now the retouch takes much of the drive to move an image over to a bitmap editor at all). I suppose DxO could do the same thing with panorama but panorama is fundamentally a different type of product: sewing together a series of images instead of working on one.
My strong vote is for DxO not to waste the resources on panorama but to spend them on some other aspect of PhotoLab. DxO have no advantages with panorama and it’s not related to their core product.
