PtGui

Today we've released version 9.1 of PTGui and PTGui Pro. Several handy new features have been added in this release:

The new Align to Grid tool makes it easy to stitch gigapixel panoramas using a motorized panoramic head. Also, image alignment for wide angle images (and fisheye images in particular) has been improved. Further there are lots of usability improvements such as more context menus, a new 'ghost cursor' and the ability to generate control points in a rectangular area.

For an overview of the new features see What's new in PTGui 9.1.

To download the new version choose Help -> Check for Updates or see the Download page.

Version 9.0 of PTGui and PTGui Pro is now available for download. This is a major upgrade with several great new features. PTGui Pro now includes a Mask tool. Further the new Detail Viewer window enables zooming in the live preview. And there's a new Publish to Web tool to show panoramas on your website using the bundled Flash 10 / HTML 5 viewer.

For an overview of the new features see What's new in PTGui 9.

Also a new tutorial is available: Masking in PTGui Pro

To download the new version choose Help -> Check for Updates or see the Download page.

Jeffrey Martin of 360cities.net used PTGui to create world's largest spherical panorama:



This image is currently (as of 12/2009) the largest spherical panoramic photo in the world. It is 192,000 pixels wide and 96,000 pixels tall. That’s 18.4 billion pixels, or 18.4 gigapixels! When it’s printed, it will be 16 meters (53 feet) long at regular photographic quality (300dpi). It was shot in early October 2009 from the top of the Zizkov TV Tower in Prague, Czech Republic in collaboration with Prague 3 town hall. A digital SLR camera and a 200mm lens were used. Hundreds of shots were shot over a few hours; these shots were then stitched together on a computer over the following few weeks.

View the panorama at 360cities.net.

Read more about how this panorama was created on the 360 Cities blog.

nasatech.net is currently showing unique panoramas and photos of the final missions of the space shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour. The final space shuttle flight STS-135 is set for launch in July 2011 - view the panorama gallery.

Marco Stucchi has written an extremely detailed Italian tutorial for stitching spherical panoramas with PTGui: Fotografia immersiva

PTGui Pro was used in the production of two commercials for the new 2011 Mini Cooper Countryman. All but 3 of the 317 vehicles seen in the spot are computer generated; PTGui Pro was used to create the HDRI environment maps used fo...

PTGui was used to create extremely detailed 14 Gigapixel reproductions of masterpieces from the Museo del Prado in Madrid, viewable in Google Earth. Watch the video to see how it was done:

New Scientist magazine writes about the Panini projection: 18th-century painters give photography new perspective This projection is available in PTGui under the name Vedutismo; select it in the Projection menu in the Panorama Editor. It works great f...

Harald Woeste's book on panoramic photography, originally released in German, is now available in English. About the book: The unusual perspective of a panoramic image creates a unique and intriguing visual experience for the viewer. Sk...

Florian Knorn of Pano.ie has posted an excellent series of video tutorials to YouTube on shooting a spherical panorama using a fisheye lens: Part 1: shooting the images Part 2: developing the images Part 3: stitching in PTGui

Factum Arte just published an interesting writeup of their workflow for producing extremely high resolution images of artworks: read more...

We've created a video tutorial to help new users get started using PTGui!The tutorial is split into two parts: first we give an overview of PTGui and show how to best take the photos for a panorama. In the second part we show how th...