Hugin Assistance: Alignment

[magomago]

Hi all,

I use Hugin quite a bit, however I don't know the details well.

Here is my issue: I will have big panoramas (usually hand shot, but monopod isn't uncommon) and will almost always have a horizon that is mis aligned. It ruins an otherwise near perfect picture. Its often a single photo that is doing this.

Things I've tried:

(a) Go with heavy overlap - Often makes it worse
(b) Go with heavy overlap and try to selectively pick photos - its a crap shoot and can take forever to find the right combination.
(b) Manually adjust control points - works maybe 15% of the time, more often than not it sends something else misaligned

I will invest a LOT of time trying to modify/adjust it, largely by removing photos, or by manually selecting control points, but I'm convinced there has to be a more effective/efficient method. I'm using Hugin's CPFind.

Is there a way to be able to physically move that photo? Or can I mask PART of the photo and attempt to align with overlap elsewhere? Am I even making any sense? Any suggestions on what I can do? What are common techniques/tricks that can really speed this up?

I've attached a link below. Although not the original size, and the quality has been reduced to fit the target size of 1 MB, you can see the artifact I'm describing in the MIDDLE of the photo...

Thanks in Advance!


http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/magomago/IMGP3430-IMGP3498.jpg

 

[Fardringle]

I use AutoPano Pro to make my panoramas, but I believe the basic concepts are the same. I usually only get odd alignment issues like that if any of the photos are taken with a different zoom or from a different location or height.

Unfortunately, I haven't ever used Hugin so I don't know how you could manually move a single image in a layout there.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

http://tech.******************/group/PanoToolsNG/message/51146

That URL up there should be tech, groups, y*hoo, com. It seems that Hugin is an open-source frontend to the open-source PanoToolsNG library, so whether the problem lies with Hugin itself, or PanoTools, is a question.

"Alignment problems can be due to less than optimum setup of the panorama head
and/or inexpert control of Hugin. With a well set up head, an experienced user
might aim for an average control point distance of <1 and a maximum of 2-3, say.
That should ensure a perfect stitch. If there are misalignments, placing extra
control points in the vicinity should help the optimizer to correct these. If
that doesn't help, it may be that parallax shift or subject movement is
responsible. Horizontal line control points should only be used on line
features that would be expected to be exactly horizontal as they appear in a
correctly rendered output image."