Pano software?

Microsoft ICE is free
 
Depends on if you just want a really long photograph or a true 360 degree pano embedded in a website. For my customers I offer 360 degree panos that are fully interactive and use an embedded player to stitch the photos. If that's what you are looking for then I recommend PTGui if you just want to stitch a bunch of pictures together then I recommend Microsoft ICE as the other poster recommended. PTGui is around $90 and my customers love the result. I do take my panos into Photoshop and add the zenith top so that it's fully 360x360 not 360x180 but that's just me.
 
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Depends on if you just want a really long photograph or a true 360 degree pano embedded in a website. For my customers I offer 360 degree panos that are fully interactive and use an embedded player to stitch the photos. If that's what you are looking for then I recommend PTGui if you just want to stitch a bunch of pictures together then I recommend Microsoft ICE as the other poster recommended. PTGui is around $90 and my customers love the result. I do take my panos into Photoshop and add the zenith top so that it's fully 360x360 not 360x180 but that's just me.
I just opened a trial account with PTGui. I like it. How do you share the Pano? Do you upload the final Pano file to PTGui and create a shareable link to the Pano? Or do you have to upload the Pano file to your own hosting account? Is it required the receiving party have PTGui install on their end? Thanks in advance...
 
I just opened a trial account with PTGui. I like it. How do you share the Pano? Do you upload the final Pano file to PTGui and create a shareable link to the Pano? Or do you have to upload the Pano file to your own hosting account? Is it required the receiving party have PTGui install on their end? Thanks in advance...

Depends on the situation. If the customer just wants the flat pano then I just send them the stitched image. If they want the interactive website, then I complete all of the footage, post process it, stitch it and convert it to a website using PTGui, zip it and send them the complete files.

I make it clear up front before I take the job that if they want an interactive Pano it will be in a website format and they must host it themselves. Typically they will send the completed project off to their webmaster who embeds it in their website for them.

If the pano is for personal use or for me to showcase my abilities to create a pano for customers, then I upload the website source files from PTGui to my website and embed it in my website. I created an HTML5 template with my custom website header, footer, navigation, etc. and I transfer the source code for the completed pano to my template before I upload it to my website so that it is completely integrated into my website. Customers can then go to my website and view my demo panos. They do not need anything except a web browser to view the completed pano.
 
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Depends on the situation. If the customer just wants the flat pano then I just send them the stitched image. If they want the interactive website, then I complete all of the footage, post process it, stitch it and convert it to a website using PTGui, zip it and send them the complete files.

I make it clear up front before I take the job that if they want an interactive Pano it will be in a website format and they must host it themselves. Typically they will send the completed project off to their webmaster who embeds it in their website for them.

If the pano is for personal use or for me to showcase my abilities to create a pano for customers, then I upload the website source files from PTGui to my website and embed it in my website. I created an HTML5 template with my custom website header, footer, navigation, etc. and I transfer the source code for the completed pano to my template before I upload it to my website so that it is completely integrated into my website. Customers can then go to my website and view my demo panos. They do not need anything except a web browser to view the completed pano.
Well, that pretty much makes up my mind. I feel comfortable with creating new web pages and pushing the Pano files from PTGui through FileZilla to my online folders.

Here's a somewhat related question: why would you get the PTGui Pro over the Personal package? I would probably do 1 pano per week. Is there a reason to go with the Pro package? Without having the benefit of actually using it, I'm not sure if the Pro is worth it. PTGui vs. PTGui Pro
 
Well, that pretty much makes up my mind. I feel comfortable with creating new web pages and pushing the Pano files from PTGui through FileZilla to my online folders.

Here's a somewhat related question: why would you get the PTGui Pro over the Personal package? I would probably do 1 pano per week. Is there a reason to go with the Pro package? Without having the benefit of actually using it, I'm not sure if the Pro is worth it. PTGui vs. PTGui Pro

I had the same dilemma, but there is a single reason why I went with Pro, if you are doing this professionally and creating panos from a drone you MUST have this feature: Viewpoint correction - PTGui Stitching Software

I did not even buy it for that feature, I bought it because I wanted the HDR capabilities, but after using it now for a year or so, I have never shot an HDR bracket from the air for a customer. However, the viewpoint correction is worth the extra $80.00. Panos are supposed to be shot from an extremely steady platform like a tripod with a special pano head, remote trigger etc. In that situation stitching is a piece of cake. Now imagine trying to shoot a pano 300 feet above ground with a 10mph cross wind and a drone who's GPS is only accurate to within 3' .

There is no possible way that all of your footage will ever realistically line up when shot from a drone under pretty much any conditions. So what you see all over the Internet is drone pano footage with major stitching errors that would take hours in PhotoShop to fix; commercial customers would never pay you for the footage that I have seen on the Internet. Thanks to the viewpoint feature of PTGui Pro, I can easily do a high resolution 360 Pano in PTGui and spend less than an hr in PhotoShop fixing the remaining stitching errors. Also, when you do custom control points in PTGui pro it does not just blend the images, it does complex viewpoint corrections at the same time.

This software paid for itself with the very first job, and the customer specifically stated that they picked me because my pano footage stood out from the competition.
 
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I had the same dilemma, but there is a single reason why I went with Pro, if you are doing this professionally and creating panos from a drone you MUST have this feature: Viewpoint correction - PTGui Stitching Software

I did not even buy it for that feature, I bought it because I wanted the HDR capabilities, but after using it now for a year or so, I have never shot an HDR bracket from the air for a customer. However, the viewpoint correction is worth the extra $80.00. Panos are supposed to be shot from an extremely steady platform like a tripod with a special pano head, remote trigger etc. In that situation stitching is a piece of cake. Now imagine trying to shoot a pano 300 feet above ground with a 10mph cross wind and a drone who's GPS is only accurate to within 3' .

There is no possible way that all of your footage will ever realistically line up when shot from a drone under pretty much any conditions. So what you see all over the Internet is drone pano footage with major stitching errors that would take hours in PhotoShop to fix; commercial customers would never pay you for the footage that I have seen on the Internet. Thanks to the viewpoint feature of PTGui Pro, I can easily do a high resolution 360 Pano in PTGui and spend less than an hr in PhotoShop fixing the remaining stitching errors. Also, when you do custom control points in PTGui pro it does not just blend the images, it does complex viewpoint corrections at the same time.

This software paid for itself with the very first job, and the customer specifically stated that they picked me because my pano footage stood out from the competition.
Well, that seals the deal. I'm in with the Pro version. Thanks for sharing that.
 
There are websites, Free And Paid Where One Can post, create & Share panos. Dermander comes to mind: Panoramic Social Network - Create and Share 360 Panoramas - Embed Interactive Pictures - Make Easy and Free Virtual Tours. Also Facebook :)

Getting a decent panorama embedded on one's website can be quite a challenge. Most folks use WordPress and there plugins (not many) for that. The go-to plugin is PanoPress. But (a big BUT) you have to build your panorama outside of WordPress then upload it then reference it using the plugin's shortcode. Not for the html/css challenged.

PTGui and Microsoft ICE will both export you a working panorama that can be uploaded. When I say working I mean on your web server. Often there are gotchas when trying to view and tweak them locally.

I've worked with most panorama software solutions and my choice is PTGui. For getting them on my website I use PanoPress. Here is a demo of both. While I prefer the ICE result, there are too many drawbacks, the most glaring is it doesn't work with enough browsers! If the demo doesn't load in Chrome (it doesn't for me), then try Safari. ICE seems defunct as in MS is not continuing development. Their "PhotoSynth" pano website has been discontinued, yet the login and upload controls are still a part of ICE.

I end up sticking with PTGui stitched and exported panoramas. Being able to one click straighten a horizon and one click set an entry point are real time savers. The stitched and exported panoramas are more likely to display where your clients and fans can see and appreciate them.
 
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Over the years I have used several, but for incredible ease of use, amazing speed, and fabulous results, I use the University of British Columbia's Matthew Brown "Autostitch" (beware of copycat names, with hitchhiking bloat). It is now found here [ AutoStitch ] in a free version...which is all you may ever need.

With that one, you just decide the size and resolution you want to end up with and then throw in a pile of image files (ALL, up, down, sideways, rotated, a mistaken photo of your dog or unrelated content - it automatically throws out what doesn't make sense - whatever), and it will yield a virtually perfect result as long as you are not going to hang it in the Metropolitan Museum in semi billboard size. MS ICE is wonderful, too. Good luck.
 
I use Lightroom6, also PTGui, also MS ICE - sometimes LR6 will not stitch but one of the others will, sometimes there will be 'mismatches' that the others will not show. LR6 is the most convenient, and quick on my i7-7700k desktop.

I have sold panos from PTGui when made into large posters - very satisfied customers.
 

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