What's New and Improved?

Color Adjust

Edit and make contrast and color adjustments right in GigaPan Stitch.Efx with an easy-to-use interface and the following advanced options for color correction: Black, for making black shades even darker; White, for brightening whites; Gamma, for adjusting grey shades to alter contrast; Exposure, to compensate for incorrect exposure; Temperature, to adjust color temperature, making your image appear more yellow or blue, in order to fix an incorrect white balance; Tint, for adjusting your color range along a magenta-green axis; and Saturation, to make colors purer or make your image grayscale

Since Stitch.Efx is optimized for working with huge images--photos up to 1 terapixel have been uploaded--it's designed to support color adjustments at interactive rates. Start adjusting colors as soon as the image preview appears. User adjustment typically takes just a few seconds. While your image continues to stitch, you can set up an upload and the software will apply the adjustments quickly and reliably. Additionally, Adjust Colors is integrated into the other output mechanisms supported by Stitch.Efx, including Export and Save Projected Images

Vignette Correction

Automatically corrects darkening around the periphery of your images, an effect which is caused by lens optics. Removal of this darkening, or vignetting, ensures that your photos do not show the dark vertical banding that would otherwise be present

Save Projected Images

Benefit from maximum control over blending. Stitch.Efx supports blending masks by hand in Photoshop or other image editing software programs. This tool is especially useful for capturing images of people or other moving subjects. The process is simple: Just choose the images whose blending you want to fine-tune, save their projected images, retouch their masks in Photoshop in order to control cut curves between images, flatten the layers into one image, and upload to GigaPan.com using their free upload application

Image Rearrange

Capture action, insert extra shots later, or shoot in any order you wish. The software enables you to interactively adjust the layout of images prior to stitching them

Improved Alignment

The software is now better-equipped to handle 360-degree panoramas that include the zenith. Horizon-leveling has also been enhanced. Advanced algorithms are now employed to accurately estimate lens focal length for optimal alignment--whether you're using a long telephoto or wide-angle

Fast Uploads

Uploading is now three times as fast as before, letting you share your images in less time and giving you more time to put towards the completion of other tasks. The software provides information on the progress, overall throughput in megabits per second, and estimated time to completion of your uploads

Other Features

Stitching

Combines a set of overlapping pictures that form a grid of rows and columns, and automatically stitches them together to make a unified panorama, which is then stored on the local disk. Consists of: Alignment, which determines from the pixels of the input images how they overlap; Projection, which stretches and rotates the images to make them align; and Blending, which combines the images as seamlessly as possible

Viewing

Shows the panorama on the local disk, enabling you to zoom and pan

Uploading

Uploads your panorama to GigaPan.com for sharing. GigaPan Upload can read and upload Photoshop PSB and PSD files directly, so there's no need to convert to TIFF or RAW format. This saves time, and works well with the Save Projected Images feature

Exporting

Takes a panorama on the local disk and writes it to a single file in TIFF, Photoshop RAW, or KRO image format. You can then edit the file in Photoshop or another editing program

Fast, Efficient Workflow

For panoramas with several hundred input images, stitching can be as quick as shooting, requiring only seconds per input photo. Stitch.Efx is capable of performing stitch, view, upload and export operations simultaneously, if you so desire. The software is designed to process panoramas with up to 2,000 images, taking advantage of multi-core processors and more memory. But image stitching does not require the most advanced computing equipment

The software does not require you to indicate corresponding points manually; rather, alignment is determined automatically. Stitch also corrects for radial distortion, which comes in handy in the event your camera lens has some barrel or pincushion distortion

Efficient memory use allows other applications, such as web browser or email, to be running at the same time and not be slowed down substantially. But if you like, stitching jobs can be paused and resumed

Seamless Stitching

In many cases, the seams between images are invisible, because of the automatic alignment, projection, and feathered blending performed by the software. Stitch.Efx preserves the resolution and detail of your input images, as well

Mercator or Spherical / Equirectangular

Use Mercator projection rather than spherical / equirectangular. This way, objects above or below the horizon won't be squashed. Mercator projection cannot be used in Google Earth

Draft Mode

Combine images in draft mode, which causes seams between photos to be visible, and expedites the stitching process

Build at 50% Scale

You can construct panoramas at 50% scale, which results in a loss of detail, but speeds up stitching

Larger Blending Region

Comes in handy if transitions between images are noticeable

Broad Compatibility

Works with photos from nearly all cameras, from 1MP cell phone cameras to point-and-shoots to high-end, high-resolution DSLR's