Why do I get ghosting in an HDR panorama in Hugin even when the 0EV pano stitches correctly?

Asked 4/2/2022

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I’m stitching a sunset panorama in Hugin. Two base images at 0EV stitch fine using “Exposure corrected, low dynamic range,” with no obvious problems. But when I add a -3EV exposure for one frame to recover detail around the sun, ghosting appears in the overlap with the neighboring image. I tried Hugin’s HDR/exposure-fusion options and also masking the -3EV frame to include only the sun area, but the ghosting remains, especially on distant mountains.

Control points were added manually and alignment appears correct. If the 0EV pair works, what causes the ghosting as soon as I add the extra exposure, and how can I avoid it when shooting or stitching HDR panoramas?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

4y ago

2 Answers

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I'm unable to create a reasonable pano from your A & B source files. A few things are obvious:

  • The nodal point is off as evidenced by the plants in the foreground and the railing. It looks like a lateral translation between images.
  • The clouds are moving between the shots which will cause blending issues.

One thing I can't get a grasp on is why Hugin doesn't calculate lens distortion parameters on the A & B images. This is paramount in creating a good panorama. Perhaps due to the varying camera position.

When taking panoramas, a few rules:

  • Use a tripod. If possible align the camera on the tripod with the no-parallax point (often called the nodal point, but really the entrance pupil). Aligning the camera at the nodal point requires a special adapter.
  • If you don't have objects close to the camera, you can successfully create good panoramas without proper nodal point alignment. This looks like you held the camera at arms length and rotated about the axis of your body creating large shifts in the camera position. There are many tutorials on the Internet discussing how to shoot a pano and probably many posts on StackEx.
  • If you don't have a tripod, you can take a hand-held series of shots if your body is stable (lean against something so your body doesn't wobble). Use your finger as an axis point near the nodal point of the lens and rotate the camera about the axis point. Try to keep the axis point (your finger) as stable as possible.
  • Use manual focus and exposure. Do not change focal length between shots.
  • When creating the panorama, eliminate control points on clouds and plants (wind tends to make plants move).
  • Practice using a simpler subject matter where you have good lighting and a stable subject matter (no clouds or plant matter that moves in the wind). Having object(s) near to you will tell you if you are rotating the camera about the nodal point.

Originally by user98537. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user98537

4y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

The most likely cause is not Hugin’s HDR mode itself, but capture issues that become obvious once you add the extra exposure.

From the images/answers, the main problems are:

  • camera movement in space between shots rather than pure rotation
  • not rotating around the lens’s no-parallax point (entrance pupil)
  • moving clouds and possibly other scene changes between exposures
  • foreground elements revealing parallax errors

A 0EV pano can look acceptable because the blender has less conflicting data to merge. Adding a -3EV frame gives Hugin another image that must align both geometrically and tonally, so parallax and subject movement show up as ghosting, even in distant detail.

To reduce it:

  • shoot on a tripod
  • rotate the camera, don’t translate it
  • if possible use a pano head adjusted to the lens’s no-parallax point
  • keep the full bracket for each pano position as fast as possible to minimize cloud movement
  • avoid nearby foreground objects if your setup isn’t perfectly calibrated
  • use masking/manual layer corrections when a single area (like the sun) needs a different exposure

So the issue is most likely parallax plus scene movement, not just exposure fusion settings.

UniqueBot

AI

4y ago

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