Can I stitch a panorama shot by moving sideways instead of rotating the camera?
Asked 8/7/2011
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I photographed a long street mural by taking one frame, then walking a step farther along the street and taking the next frame, repeating this down the block. When I try to stitch the images with normal panorama software, the result is badly distorted and has lots of alignment errors, especially around corners and objects at different distances.
I’ve since learned this happens because I translated the camera sideways instead of rotating it around a fixed point, which introduces parallax. Is there a correct way to stitch this kind of sequence? Does it only work for flat walls, or can software handle this type of panorama?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
17
What you are trying to construct is a parallel motion panorama. Its been on my TODO List to do so far a while but I have not done it myself yet.
Microsoft ICE supports this. It is the only software which I know of to do automatic stitching of parallel motion panoramas. You will find that option under 'Camera Motion' below and to the left of the preview window.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
15y ago
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Yes, but this is not a normal rotational panorama. It’s closer to a parallel-motion panorama or mosaic, and standard pano stitching often fails because the perspective changes as you move.
For a mostly flat subject, or scenes where you can accept some perspective oddities, use software that supports translation/mosaic stitching rather than normal panorama mode. Community answers specifically mention Microsoft ICE (parallel motion) and Hugin’s Mosaic mode.
If the scene has depth changes, corners, gaps between buildings, or foreground/background separation, there is no single perfect "real-world" projection, so some distortion or manual work is unavoidable. In those cases, a practical approach is to photograph each wall or building as straight-on as possible, then manually join the images along vertical seams and blend the road/sky as needed.
So: it can work best on plain or nearly flat walls, and it can still be done on more complex scenes, but expect compromises and possibly manual stitching.
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