Panoramic stitching software

Good panoramic stitching software saves a lot of headache and work. Although there are free packages available they often only really work on 'small' projects. On 360 x 360 degree panoramic images, when using multiple RAW exposures or large files, stable and powerful software is worth its weight in gold. There is nothing worse than spending hours tweaking and aligning images in a bad interface just to see the project freeze or crash part way through.

Achers house in Skagen, Denmark, panoramic photograph of living room

Stitching software comes in different configurations and some will include VR output to HTML or Flash. Personally I prefer stitching software that concentrates on the stitching part. Software that does both stitching and VR tours often involves a compromise in either the stitching or the VR part or come with a hefty price tag.

I love my PTGUI
PTGUI is based on Panorama Tools and is a specialist stitching Software. I have stitched perfect panoramic images consisting of over 250 high resolution RAW images, doing nothing more than selecting the files and output options. But, its when things go wrong that I really appreciate the ease of the manual controls.

PTGUI analysis stitching points and will guide you to the problematic ones with no more than a double-click. When creating manual stitching points the software will suggest an appropriate match making the process much faster.

The software automatically recognises multiple exposures. It links matching images and enables good exposure control and output to HDR.

When I have pre-viewed a stitch and I am happy with all alignments, I love playing with the perspective options. As I supply micro stock sites, where very wide images don't perform well, the ability to quickly change perspective and cropping is essential for me.

Panoramic stitching software essentials

• Works with large number of files, large file sizes and RAW images
• HDR ability, automatically linking sets of multiple exposures and good exposure control
• Powerful and accurate automatic alignment of images with options for manual adjustment of stitching points
• Flexible perspective settings
• Good blending ability
• Ability to output very large uncompressed files
• Batch stitching