Affinity Photo Doesn't Seem to Support Linear Panorama Stitching

[Chris Kangsan]

Hello Developers, Fans and Users of Affinity Suites.

I love Affinity and always want to suggest ideas to help improve the software. Hopefully, the programmer developers can incorporate it.

I noticed that Affinity Photo does an excellent job when it comes to Panorama stitching, especially radial pictures based on the operator's one pivot point. The algorithm, to me, does a flawless job. I have had zero issues at all for those types. Bravo!!

However, due to sheer curiosity and love for not only the software, but also photography with creativity, I decided to test whether Affinity Photo can stitch a linear set of photos together. I tried it, but the result came out incorrect. I tried it multiple times, even down to the point of accuracy. I measured out a straight line to keep my axis the same and I used my tripod to go along the line taking pictures. I did so. 

Next, I took my collection of linear shot photos and imported them into Affinity Photo. I used the Panorama Stitching tool. The results, for some reason, came out not so appealing. I don't know what the issue is. Either one of the following: (1) Operator error, or (2) Affinity Photo's Algorithm doesn't support  linear Panoramas.

If anyone knows about the Panorama's algorithm support, please let me know. As much as I have been practicing and experimenting, the Panorama only seems to support radial photos, not linear. If it does support it and it is due to the operator's error, please let me know how I can adjust my ways of taking those photos. Thank you so much and continue doing, developing and making an ingenious software. 

Very Respectfully,

Edited June 30, 2022 by Chris Kangsan
Misspelling of the word "Suites"

[Old Bruce]

How much overlap was present in the individual shots? How much plain monochromatic (sky or similar) was present in each shot and what proportion of the individual shot was that monochrome.

[Chris Kangsan]

On 7/1/2022 at 8:15 AM, Old Bruce said:

How much overlap was present in the individual shots? How much plain monochromatic (sky or similar) was present in each shot and what proportion of the individual shot was that monochrome.

Since I do photogrammetry, I use the same rule of overlap of 70%. I always use cloudy days to prevent harsh bloom or reflections as well as harsh shadows. To me, the Affinity Software isn't programmed to do linear panoramas. To me, it feels like the programmer developers forgot to add that into their algorithm. 

[walt.farrell]

To help us understand your problem, Chris, it would help if you would provide a set of your images that will show the problem when we try it ourselves.

[smadell]

With deference to @walt.farrell, I think it's pretty clear what you're describing, @Chris Kangsan. If you were to use Photoshop, or a dedicated panorama stitching program, you would be given a choice of "projections" to be used in putting together the various pieces of the panorama. Affinity Photo does not offer us this choice. It uses a single projection, and i don't think that Serif has ever been real specific about what that is. My best guess is that it's a "rectilinear" projection, which is usually the way to stitch together panoramas of landscapes (stand still in a single point and turn to face various directions to grab the individual photos). Basically, you are taking photos of a small part of the "spherical" environment in which you are standing, and eventually rendering them as a single, flat image.

Obviously, there are other projections that are more suitable to other situations. Offering additional panorama projections has been requested in the past, but I am not sure if Serif has ever indicated that they are attempting to implement this. Also, I'm not really sure what projection might be most suitable for your use case. It may be that the best answer for you is to bring each photo into a large canvas and align them manually, possibly adjusting each photo with the "Lens" tab of the Develop persona and/or using the Mesh Warp filter on the final product.

[ATP]

It could sound like AP only supports spherical panoramic stitching, hopefully this could be rectified in a later release.