Glen Coe Panorama - AutoPano Pro - D700 - Click to view larger
I was going over some of the photos I took in Scotland and was disappointed that I didn’t have more time and better weather when we passed through Glen Coe. The scenery was spectacular to say the least but 70 mph wind gusts and driving rain did NOT make for fun photography. I did manage to grab some shots in spite of the weather and this one is the subject of this post. No, it’s not a spectacular iconic landscape shot but given the circumstances it definitely DOES reflect the kind of day that it was.
I shot three quick, and I do mean quick, hand held shots between the rain storms at the Glen Coe Visitors Center, trying to overlap the shots by about 50%. I knew it would be a challenge to stitch these being that I didn’t have a pano head or tripod at the time. My D700 with a 24-70mm lens set at 24mm @ f/8, 1/90 sec and ISO 800 are the image details. Here’s the files I had to work with:
GlenCoePano_left
GlenCoePano_center
GlenCoePano_right
Having tried to stitch these images together in a few different programs that I use for stitching and NOT getting the results I wanted, I gave AutoPano Pro by Kolor a try. Having seen the AutoPano Pro stitching program before and reading many good reviews I download a demo to see if it would do a better job of stitching. Well I ended up buying a license for it and it is NOW my GO TO stitching program. Fast, easy to use, plenty of control and does a better job than anything I have tried.
Yes, I have used Photoshop Photomerge and it does work sometimes but you don’t get any real control with it if it doesn’t stitch correctly.
Yes, I have used PTgui and Panorama Factory, both good programs and both do good jobs most of the time. I’m just saying that I found the AutoPano Pro program to be better.
Here is a enlarged detail from the final pano, like I said nothing iconic or spectacular but sure does bring back memories from our trip! AND I NOW have a NEW, BETTER stitching program…
Glen Coe Pano - Detail about 25% of final