Hello everyone,
 
I'm a bit new here, please be gentle with me. Can I ask for advice about some stitching errors?
 
I'm using the latest version of Stitcher Express and a Canon EOS350D and stock lens 18-55mm @ 18mm, shooting three rows of 15 pictures each plus a zenith (no nadir, that's a future worry!), on a Nodal Ninja 3.
 
Putting images from this set up into Sticther Express and I am gobsmacked at how well the results come out on fully auto mode considering the low-ish price of my set up and lack of any manual intervention.
 
However there are some minor errors, I would like to get these ironed out before moving up to a fish eye and the full version of Stitcher (lots more money!  ).
 
Firstly, I am using the "smart" mode and rendering a single TIF file which I am then making into a cubic QTVR (via Photoshop for changes to brightness etc) with Pano2QTR. This gives much better results than making a QTVR direct from Stitcher Express as the only blending option is "morph" and it's OK but not perfect.
 
Apologies for the subject matter (old, untidy kitchen, poor lighting, dust spot on sensor etc!!!) here is the result:
 
http://www.rackheath.org.uk/kitchena.mov
 
At first look this rendered well and only about five images along the bottom had to be put in by hand before stitching (and then semi automatic stictched), it did the rest itself. In hindsight the exposure of the original images is really bad, and this is the first of four panoramas I have tested that it didn't place ALL the images correctly.
 
Anyway, when you look around the image you may be able to spot some flaws. I have highlighted the biggest of these in a second QTVR:
 
http://www.rackheath.org.uk/kitchenb.mov
 
Please note these errors are also present when stitching with NO zenith picture.
 
From these source pictures:  
 
http://www.rackheath.org.uk/kitchen.zip
 
Can anyone advise...
 
1. I only get "smart" or "morph" as options when creating the TIF file. Will Stitcher Unlimited give other (better) options?
 
2. Any ideas what is causing these? Out of interest this is also shown here:
 
http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtou [...] %20Results
Correction here in the end to fix it is using "external smart" is this the same as "smart" that I have in Stitcher Express?
 
Also, this type of error is also present in some 6 + 1 + 1 panos (so it can't be the number of images causing the problem?) eg from this page:
 
http://michel.thoby.free.fr/PTGui5 [...] pared.html
 
This pano:
 
http://michel.thoby.free.fr/PTGui5 [...] ST5-5.html
Scroll to the left quite an obvious error on the metal shelf. This was also using "smart" (but not "external smart"?)
 
Manual control points is tricky with this number of images and in preview they look well aligned anyway.
 
In practice I have found a few minutes in Photoshop per flaw is quicker than the same time moving images and control points plus > 1 hour new render on my old PC - but would like to try and remove these errors to start with.
 
Thanks in advance anyone who can help. I'm keen to move up to a better lens (less shots) once I have mastered the basics.
 
Regards
 

Hi Ingenious,
I read your posting with interest as I am having similar problems albeit with a Canon 15mm fisheye and Stitcher Unlimited. There are some very knowledgeable members of this forum who will hopefully comment and hopefully we can both benefit.  
 
To me, your results look fairly good but you may like to consider the following:
 
I am no expert but generally, I am able to get perfect stitching with rectilinear images from a wide angle lens providing I carry out a careful lens calibration prior to stitching. In Unlimited this is accomplished as follows:
 
1. Place first image in stitching window.
2. Place second image in stitching window and align it approximately with the first but don't stitch it.
3. Select Tools>High Distortion>Calibrate.
 
This starts a calibration procedure which results in the calibration of all images to be stitched.  
It takes some time but the results are generally better. The results can also be saved for future use with the same camera/ lens combination.
 
Also, be sure to check that your camera/ lens combination is rotating precisely round the nodal point.  
I will be following this thread carefully and hopefully others will comment.  
 
Often I wonder if consistently perfect stitching is achievable or if some retouching in Photoshop is inevitable from time to time.
Kind regards,
Stephen.

Hi Ingenious,
I have stitched and rendered your kitchen files. The result can be viewed here:
 
http://idisk.mac.com/stephenscott5-Public?view=web
 
Please let me know what you think.
Regards,
Stephen.

Thanks for the reply.
 
Lens distortion - On the first one I tried (different location) I did try this option. I took two images, overlapped them and ran this option. It thought about it for a bit then aligned them perfectly. BUT this resulted in a much worse stitch overall (ghosting, wavy lines) so I assumed you should only use this as per the manual on < 17mm lenses - anyway for me at least doing that made the results worse.
 
Nodal point - I think this is correctly set up. Out of interest I saw a good report on the net (sorry no longer have link) where someone intentionally moved his settings by a few mm each way and they still all stitched together OK. I'm using the settings from the Nodal Ninja site though and have not calibrated it personally. On another panorama I tried, some stitching errors were present on a feature that was about half a mile away and I would not have expected parallax to blame for that.
 
(I also stitched together about 40 images from a panorama I did with NO nodal correction in fact I even moved the tripod slightly halfway through! That was before I looked into how to do these properly. The results with Stitcher Express were stunning. The effect of no nodal correction was that flat areas (posters, wall features etc. were pin sharp but things on the wall that physically came out - this was a retail shop with stock around the place - were blurred/noisy as I assume from parallax movement between each shot. That was a different type of stitching issue that this though).
 
Your render - It's fantastic you took the time to do that, thanks. Is that using external smart blending? Lens correction? It does look better however there are some flaws and in roughly the same places. The most obvious being the door frame to the left on the image at the top. I note the green tiles have come out better, and overall that's just a few minor edits in Photoshop  

Hi Ingenious,
Yes, still a few minor errors. This is my experience overall. Like you, I am keen to improve my general workflow.  
This was done with lens correction and using the "internal" smart blend option.  
Regards,
Stephen.