LR native "merge" functions (HDR and Pano) versus dedicated SW

[rjalex]

I came back from a trip with several sequences of shots which I am ordering into stacks each of which is either a 5 image 0.7EV HDR stack or a handheld panorama sequence (usually 3-4 images).

Do dedicated packages such as Autopano Giga or Hugin give marked advantages on the resulting quality of the end result?

Same question for the HDR stacks.

Thank you very much.

 

[Linwood Ferguson]

Yes, no and maybe.

I find Lightroom's own panorama to be surprisingly good, with better de-ghosting than Photoshop (which makes no sense I realize, as you would think it is the same code, but it is not). You have less control, so if you end up with one you need to modify, something like PTGui or others give you a lot more control, but when LR works, it works very well.

HDR: LR is decent for "vanilla" type images. Other HDR products have a lot more flexibility.

All these products are either free or have a trial version. HDR especially is such a personal taste thing I think the best bet is to give it a try. Some people lean much more toward realistic tone mapping, some lean toward more artistic, glowing colors, etc. And different products seem better at each. The more expensive products often give you deeper toolsets for more fine control as well.

But LR is decent, and if you have CC (I think not from your profile) Photoshop as well. It is well worth giving them a try. Photoshop is not worth buying just for that however, other tools are better if you have to spend money.

Caveat: I do both only sporadically; hopefully those who do it more frequently will dive in with specifics.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

A well stitched panorama is a well stitched panorama, and the version produced by Lightroom has the advantage that it can still be edited like it were a raw file. Other applications need you to convert the images to tiff first. Sometimes Lightroom has troubles stitching a pano (or even bluntly refuses to try), and then these dedicated packages can give a better result. For example: Lightroom needs the images to be exactly the same pixels size and exactly the same focal length. The slightest difference makes Lightroom refuse to stitch. PTGui Pro often has no problems with these shots.

 

[Gnits]

I have had success stitching images in Photoshop which failed in Lr.

Select the images you wish to create a panorama with in Lr. Right click ... opt for "Edit In" .... Open As Layers in Ps.

In Ps....select all the layers ...

In Menu / Edit select
1. Auto Align Layers
2. Auto Blend Layers.

This method always give you the option to manually move and blend if the auto features do not work.

I am sure there are other (and maybe better) ways to do this.

 

[Jimmsp]

For most of my panoramas, I tend to use LR. I like the dng final product and the ability to fix/warp the outer edges. When I have some stitching issues, I switch to PTGui which has never (as I recall) let me down.

For my HDR, I often take a first look using LR - but for a final product for a really good shot I use Photomatix.

 

[rjalex]

Thank you all very much.
Nowadays I only shoot with my fixed focal RX1R and now I understand why LR never refused to stitch
Take care.