Panorama Stitching feature has been introduced in Capture One 22 (15.0.0) to stitch RAW files into Panorama DNG files. From now on, you can create stunning panorama perspectives, achieve super-resolution, or get creative with an extremely shallow depth of field from multi-row stitching – all in Capture One. Panorama Stitch Tool outputs a linear DNG that behaves like a RAW file for further editing.
Shooting optimally for Panorama
When shooting for Panorama stitches, consider following these principles for optimal results:
- Shoot at 35mm or longer.
- Use a tripod if possible.
- Lock the focus and exposure between the shots.
- Shoot with 20-40% overlap.
- Capture One can stitch multiple rows so don’t restrict yourself.
Light fall-off correction
Consider if your images need light fall-off correction within Lens correction before stitching. This will ensure an even transition across skies and other similar areas, as in the example below.
How to stitch
1. Select the images you want to stitch, right-click one of them, and select Stitch to Panorama.
Alternatively, go to Image in the Menu and select Stitch to Panorama.
2. A dialog box will appear, preparing a preview of the Panorama with the selected projection. Please note, that it takes some time to generate the preview for the first time.
3. Depending on the number of images, scenes, and field of view your images cover, you can choose a projection of your input images that best suits the purpose.
Spherical projection is useful for multi-row stitching with a large field of view both horizontally and vertically.
Cylindrical is useful for a single row of images that cover a field of view of more than ~100 degrees. Vertical lines remain vertical using this projection.
Perspective projection aims at simulating the field of view of your input images with the corresponding field of view of the wide-angle lens. This projection is useful for scenarios that cover less than ~100 degrees field of view and images captured with technical cameras using tilt/shift lenses.
Panini is useful for architecture where the vanishing point is at the center of the frame. Vertical lines remain vertical, and lines going towards the vanishing point remain intact using this projection.
Panorama projections examples
| Architecture | Landscape | |
| Spherical | ||
| Cylindrical | ||
| Perspective | ||
| Panini |
Stitch size
NOTE: If the resolution or number of input images is high, then it will result in quite a large Panorama DNG. Panorama DNGs that are more than 600 MP in resolution will suffer from poor editing performance in Capture One 22 as they exceed the file size Capture One can cache. Images above 600 MP can still be edited in Capture One 22, but with decreased performance. In this case, a warning will appear as shown below this performance loss, the stitch size can be determined in four steps: 25%, 50%, 75% or 100%.
The maximum supported resolution is 715 MP and the Panorama width or height cannot exceed 65,000 pixels.
NOTE: If you wish to convert your DNG file to PSD for further editing in Adobe Photoshop, please be aware of the following file limitations of the PSD format: it has a maximum height and width of 30,000 pixels, and a size limit of two gigabytes. If the resulting panorama gets too big, downscale the resolution while creating it or export it to TIFF if the PSD file hits its limit.
To avoid this performance loss, the stitch size can be determined in four steps: 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%. The expected size is displayed in pixels and the scale is displayed in megapixels.
Stitched file
Depending on your hardware, the number of images, resolution, and projection, the process can take anywhere between 10 seconds to 20 minutes.
Once the preview of the Panorama is ready, you can click Stitch and the actual stitching will begin. When the stitching is done, the Panorama DNG will appear next to the input images.
In order to receive the notification when Panorama Stitching is Completed, you need to enable notifications in advance in both Capture One Preferences and System Preferences.
The Panorama Stitching notification message will appear in the top right corner, and if you click Show, you will be taken to the stitched image in Capture One.
The Metadata is copied from the first image in the selection in the main viewer, it includes Stars, Color rating, Keywords, Shooting date, Album, Session folder, Copyright field, all EXIF and IPTC metadata.
Adjustments in the Panorama Stitch
Adjustments applied to the resulting Panorama Stitch are taken from the first image in the selection in the main viewer (like with metadata). Please note, that layer adjustments are not included.
The table below lists background adjustments copied to Panorama Stitched image.
|
Background adjustments copied to Panorama Stitched image |
|||||||||||||
| Black &White |
Color balance |
Color editor |
Levels | Clarity | Vignetting | Exposure | High Dynamic Range | Curve | Sharpening |
Noise reduction |
Film grain |
Moire |
White balance adjustments |
NOTE:
-
Only RAW from supported cameras can be stitched with the Panorama Stitch feature, this means that it’s impossible to stitch JPGs or Tiff files for instance.
-
RAW files from achromatic cameras are not supported.
- Fujifilm simulations applied to RAF's will not be supported on Panorama Stitch and will be replaced with default Capture One camera profiles.
- It is not possible to create a Panorama Stitch from Offline files.
- When performing a Panorama Stitch on Windows, resulting files will not appear in the Recent Imports collection but you will still be notified that the stitch was successful.
Comments
7 comments
Hi,
I am currently experimenting with the new panorama stitching feature and it seems to be working fine, at least on some sets of pictures.
An interesting refinement that could be implemented in that new tool : could the possibility to ignore cropped areas of selected photos be included ?
For instance it could help to be able to prevent the algorithm from selecting a part of the subject which is blurry in picture 2 while it is sharp in picture 3.
regards,
Sylvain
Hi Sylvain,
Thank you for feedback on Capture One - we appreciate the time you’ve taken to contribute towards the development of the software.
I have forwarded your suggestions to add the option to ignore cropped areas in selected images when using Panorama stitching to our Product Management team as something to consider in a future release.
Hopefully, your feedback contributes towards a future version of Capture One.
Hello,
I would like to use this feature for top down pictures I've taken with my drone for doing a neighborhood map.
What settings would be recommended for doing this?
Hi Jarred,
Thanks for your comment.
We think the spherical projection works best, but please check this with your images.
Quite a few times I get an error 4 where C1 refuses to do any stitching. There is plenty of overlap. I have tried selecting only 2-3 files but the problem remains. I am using Fuji GFX100s. The problem happens on PC as well as Mac.
And C1 need a way to allow easy crop within the stitched image.
. Здравствуйте ! Попробовал сшивать панорамы. Первый день все получалось . А на второй день нет уведомления о сшивки и получаются маленькие- - несколько кб. Как это исправить ?
I love Capture One, but i hate it when it comes to Panorama or HDR, this is the only thing LR is trully capable and fast
Please sign in to leave a comment.