Hugin 0.6.1 review

Hugin is a panorama tools GUI. Goal: an easy to use cross-platform GUI for Panorama Tools. With hugin you can assemble a mosiac

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: Pablo d'Angelo

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Hugin is a panorama tools GUI.

Goal: an easy to use cross-platform GUI for Panorama Tools.

With hugin you can assemble a mosiac of photographs into a complete immersive panorama, stitch any series of overlapping pictures and much more.

Main Window

This window consists of a toolbar that provides quick access to important functions. It also contains the Images, Lens, Control Point, Optimizer and Panorama Tab, which will be explained below.

Images Tab

Images can either be added with the Add button, or via drag and drop. To change the orientation of one or more images, select them in the list on the left. The image will be show in the preview area, and its orientation (yaw, pitch and roll values) can be edited on the left.

It is possible to select multiple images at the same time. Changes in orientation will be applied to all selected images

Lens Tab

The lens tab looks a lot like the Images tab, except that the lens settings can be edited here. As in the Images Tab, multiselection can be used to change the parameters for multiple images.

Currently only one lens is supported. The idea is that the Lens describes the process that was used to create the image. The most important parameters are the Lens type and the HFOV (Horizontal Field of View). Hugin will read the EXIF information in jpg files created by digital cameras, so usually it is filled out correctly.

Photographers do not use a HFOV in degrees, but the focal length. The focal length can be entered and it will be converted to HFOV in degrees, like the panorama tool require it. The focal length entered is taken to be for 35 mm film cameras.

Usually images are more or less distorted. This can be seen especially if there are long straight lines close to the image border, which are usually not completely straight but bent a little. The a b and c parameters are used to remove that distortion. They are applied radially from the image center, which can be moved by changing the d and e parameters.

During image capture, it is possible that the parameters vary, that is are not the same for each image. This can have many reasons, one of the could be a scanner that cuts a way a few pixel more at one side than the other. Other parameters stay the same, like usually the a,b and c parameters (if the zoom and focus for the images is the same).

The inherit checkmark means that this parameter doesn't vary between the images that were captures with that lens setting. If a parameter is inheritied it is forced to be the same for all images. When inherited parameters are optimized they are kept the same for all images, whereas parameters that are not inherited can get values specific for a single picture.

Control Point Tab

Control Points are probably the most important thing when using panorama tools. The Tab consists of two image displays and tab bars to switch images to be editied. The bottom contains a list view where Points can be selected and some fields to edit a selected point. Points can also be selected by clicking or dragging on them in the images. It is possible to zoom out to show the full image.

Adding a control point works by clicking into one image to select a point and then into the other image. If auto add is not set, the points can be moved by clicking at some other place in the images. They are added to the list of control points by pressing the right mouse button. If you press the right mouse button when only one point is slected, the point selection will be aborted. auto add adds the control point as soon as both points have been specified.

Control point creation is influenced by the following checkboxes:

auto fine tune hugin helps you to find the second point by looking for it in a search region (shown by a rectange around the cursor). This might not always work, but usually is reliable, if the image distortions are not too big. Try and play with it.
auto add A control point is automatically added when both points are know. You won't have time to refine the selection before adding the point.
auto estimate Tries to estimate the position of the second point by estimating the translation between the two images. This is very crude and probably only works for single row panoramas created from rectilinear images.

All these flags can be combined. I typically use auto fine tune and auto estimate at the same time. Then hugin usually automatically selects the second point correctly. Well for single row panos that is...

The images are zoomed out, the first click zooms to a temporary 100% view to give you the chance to refine your selection. Note that only the second click will trigger the auto estimate.

The Fine Tune button can be used to find a better position for the point in the right image for already selected point. Contrary to auto fine tune it only looks in a very small area around the point. This function is especially useful if you moved both points by hand, but want to have fine tuned control points.

Press the middle mouse button to pan the image. If you press shift key while paning, both images will move.

This window supports some keyboard shortcuts:

a add a new point that has been selected in both images, and the auto add is switched off.
cursor keys scroll image under the mouse cursor
shift + cursor keys scroll both images at the same time
f fine tune currently selected control point pair. Same as the Fine Tune button
Del Remove currently selected control point.
0 Zoom out to full view.
1 100% view.
Mouse function
Function
control key + mouse movement Scroll image under cursor
shift key + mouse movement Scroll both images
left button Use left mouse button to select new points or drag existing points.
right mouse button Add control point, if auto add is switched off
middle mouse button Scroll image under cursor
shift + middle mouse button Scroll both images

Optimizer Tab

The optimizer moves the images into the right position, so that they can be assembled into a hopefully seamless panorama.

To select what the optimiser should try to estimate, use the Optimize combo box, then click the Optimize Button. If you select the "custom" setting, you can change

Pano Panel

Options concerning the output panorama can be set here.

Requirements:
PanoTools

What's New in This Release:
This is mainly a bugfix release.
New features include support for displaying HDR images in the control point editor and the panorama preview.
The main improvements are a properly working Universal Mac OS X binary, bugfixes for the preview window, and faster calculation of vignetting correction from overlapping images.