Panoramas can make for a fun and interesting option for capturing photos. Personally, I'm a fan, and I've been shooting them for many years. By capturing a very wide--or, for that matter, tall--field of view, they can be dramatic. And they can be revealing, by adding context.
Some newer cameras and smartphones have an automatic panorama setting built in where you can sweep the camera around the view and it'll all be stitched together in the camera. But as convenient as that is, you often don't get much control over the finished product, and you can often get much better results, and infinitely more flexibility, by taking a series of individual, overlapping images that you then later stitch together using software.
Here's a rundown of some of the better options for panorama stitching apps, ranging from simple, free apps to much more powerful, paid ones.
The ones I'm focusing on here are still image, flat panoramas. There's quite a lot of overlap in software and technique between flat panoramas and 360° virtual tours, but there are some specific requirements when shooting and displaying the latter. Regular flat panoramas--still images that have a very wide or tall aspect ratio--are what I'm focusing on here.
Dedicated Panorama Stitching Software | Free
The best panorama apps tend to be paid ones, and not inexpensive at that. But there are some free options. Overall, their features tend to be pretty limited and their user interface not especially well polished, but if you're dabbling, they're a useful place to start.
Hugin
If you're after something simple, free, and cross-platform, take a look at Hugin. Hugin is free and cross-platform.
While it lacks some of the finer points and doesn't have the more refined user interface, it works quite well and gives you quite a lot of control over things like projection and control points. Free. There are versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
AutoStitch
AutoStitch is focused mostly on the underlying algorithm that is then licensed to other software manufacturers to use in their apps. But they have also put together a rudimentary front end for it. It's very basic, and you don't get any control over things like editing control points or choosing the projection, but it's simple to use and it's free. There are versions for Windows and Mac.
GigaPan Stitch
If you’re shooting with a Gigapan panoramic robot, they have their own panorama stitcher. Despite some impressive capabilities, overall it's fairly basic and quite outdated now.
And one thing it does especially well is multi-row (or multi-column) panoramas, and if you're not shooting with a GigaPan or uploading the stitched images to the GigaPan site, there's not much reason to use their app—there are better options. But if you are shooting with a Gigapan (in which case you've already made a significant investment in panorama shooting) don’t feel as though you have to use their software—other options like PTGUI and AutoPano Pro work even better and give you more flexibility.
You can download GigaPan Stitch here. There are versions for Mac and Windows.
Microsoft ICE
ICE, which stands for Image Composite Editor, is a product of one of Microsoft imaging research labs and is a good complement to the PhotoSynth technology. It has some unusual and really interesting features, like being able to create a still image panorama from a video pan and compositing images in ways that most stitching apps can't. It's Windows only, free, and available as a standalone program or as a plugin for Photoshop.
Dedicated Panorama Stitching Software | Paid
PTGUI Pro
PTGUI is my go-to panorama stitcher, and it’s one of been using for over a decade. It started as a graphical user interface for some underlying command line tools known as PT Tools—hence the name PTGUI. But over the years it has grown enormously and offers a wealth of powerful options in everything from masking out unwanted elements, manually editing control points, straightening horizons, and working with very large and multi-row panoramas.
There are versions for Windows and Mac. Paid license, with free trial version.
Panorama Stitcher
Available from the Mac App Store. There’s a free version that’s limited to 5 images; if you want to stitch together more images than that, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version.
Overall, it' not in the same league as PTGUI or AutoPano Pro, but it is also a lot cheaper. Mac only.
iFoto Stitcher
Available from the Mac App Store. There’s a free Lite version that has basic functionality. If you want features like being able to work with RAW files, you’ll need to upgrade to the paid version.
Overall, it's pretty basis. Two things are notable, though: it makes it very easy to work with multi-row stitching, and if you're looking to share the panoramas quickly on social media there are built-in tools to help with that.
Apps that Includes Panorama Stitching / Free
GIMP. GIMP doesn’t natively support panorama stitching, but you can get plugins that add the functionality, like this one.
Software that Includes Panorama Stitching | Paid
Lightroom
If you're already using Lightroom, recent versions have a very capable panorama stitching function baked in. You don't get much control over the process, but in many cases, the stitching engine works very effectively. And there's a lot of convenience in having it so readily accessible in the place where you're managing and editing your images.
Lightroom is a paid app for Windows and Mac and has a trial version available.
Photoshop
Photoshop is endless powerful, and one of its numerous features is that it can stitch panoramas. It doesn't make much sense to buy Photoshop just for the panorama stitching option (called Photo Merge), but many of us already have it installed. And it's quite a powerful and effective option for this task.
Photoshop’s panorama stitcher works very similarly to the one in Lightroom—they share underlying engines and algorithms. If you’re already using Lightroom, it can be more convenient to use the one there. If you’re not using Lightroom, Photoshop’s version will give very similar results, although it does give you more options. One I particularly like is the option to use the Content Aware Fill feature as part of the photo merge process to fill in transparent areas—it can work really well in some situations.
Photoshop is available for Windows and Mac and is a paid app with a free trial.
Misc Notes
Some of these apps support RAW files, but many don’t. If you want to work directly with RAW files—and there are some advantages to doing so—you’ll need to make sure the app supports the format. Lightroom is an example of one that supports working with RAW files directly, and it even outputs the stitched panorama as a RAW file (DNG format).
Not Recommended
Panorama - Perspective Image Stitcher. This Mac app looks on the surface to be good, but it doesn’t work well for stitching more than three images at once. If you want to do a panorama with more tiles than that, you can technically stitch them in small batches and then stitch the resulting mini-panos, but that’s a really poor way to do it. Users have also reported that its merging algorithm also leads to substandard results.
Canon PhotoStitch. While it's put out in support of Canon cameras, it's not limited only to working with images shot with a Canon. But there's not a lot else going for it when there are much better options available. Windows only.
No Longer Available
AutoPano Pro
Kolor / Autopano Pro, AutoPano Giga. For a long time, the various Autopano products put out by color were among the best in the business, with powerful stitching apps that gave a lot of control over the whole process. But Kolor closed down in 2018, and their Autopano products are no longer available.
Andy Bobyarchick says
Kolor (Autopano) is out of business.
David says
Thanks for the heads up. Have updated above.
Kenn Rabin says
Thanks so much for this overview. I'm sending the link to my pano-buddy, so we can discuss. I have been doing flat-field 180 degree panos, primarily, usually using about 40 tiles, in 3-4 vertical rows. I use the manual Nodal Ninja pano head and am very happy with it. Just wanted to share my experience and perhaps pose a question to everyone: I have primarily been using PhotoShop's Photomerge and PTGui. I actually find PhotoShop does a better job, basically, but of course it doesn't have much flexibility at all. My big problem (and it IS a deal-killer) with PTGui is that it massacres water (lakes, etc.) in terms of stitching, and also can't handle time-exposure tiles at all well (again, especially when I'm trying to blur running water). Basically, it's water-repellent! I was thinking of trying Autopano Gig but before I plunk the money down, I wondered if you (or any of your readers) could comment on the stitching engine's strengths and weaknesses, as compared to PTGui and PhotoShop. Any thoughts?
David says
Yes, water can be an issue, for sure. I tend to use Lightroom's or Photoshop's pano stitching for simple, straightforward jobs, but PTGUI is so much more powerful. I particularly like its masking and alignment point customization tools. The masking comes in particularly handy when there are moving objects in the frame (eg. people or cars), and being able to specify the alignment points manually--or at least, tweak them--comes in very handy when it wasn't shot with a pano head/tripod. It's been a while since I used Autopano Gig, so I'll have to refresh my memory and take a look at the latest version.
Owen says
Hi,
Some really interesting reviews - they will save me a stack of time trying (and finding!!) different stitching programs. My application for stitching is sourced from video, and I'm going to experience the problems mentioned by Christopher : having to deal with different angles, distances, and to add to the mix, zoom levels. One of my problems will be I have a wide shot showing the entire scene and then zoom to the detail (and pan over the detail). So I'd like a result image set to the pixel size of the 'zoomed in' area, but interpolates the crap out of the 'zoomed out' area to fill in the less important context areas... a bit like the way ICE can do autocomplete except using the real image (in interpolated quality) rather than what microsoft thinks is there.
Could you add a review of the "Zoner" application Christoper talks about? It sounds as though it might be able to do what I want (even if I have to extract video stills to do it).
David says
Will see what I can do!
David Ruddle says
Hi. Is it OK if I link to this article in my blog on Panoramas?
David says
By all means.
Christopher says
Until recently, I had a Nokia Lumia 1020, a smartphone with a Ziess lens that produced 38mp images. I'm curious, since I'm on a budget, what differences there would be if I "downgraded" to a 24mp DSLR or mirrorless. They are smaller files, which means for the same size panorama I would need to take and stitch more files, but hypothetically a newer mirrorless should get better quality images. So basically my question is, at what point does it become unrealistic to stitch together multiple tiles? I've done 3-5 image panoramas with that smartphone camera and got pretty good results using Zoner Photostudio, but seems like no matter which software, each stitch eliminates a small amount of each photo and the resulting panorama. I've managed to stitch together a collection of nearly 100 images (macro shots of a moth wing), but it was messy. I tried using ICE to do multi-row stitching and it was terrible, probably because I took the photos by hand without much control over angles and distances, but Zoner managed to stitch the 3-5 enormous rows into a single, 5ftx5ft collection that I could then paste sections of undistorted images over an ugly stitches.
Santi Maspons says
What about IOS apps?
David says
Fair question. Because iPhones have the built-in real-time panorama function I use that if I want to shoot a quick panorama on the iPhone. But when I need much better quality and higher resolution I always use photos shot with a larger camera like a DSLR or mirrorless. So I haven't investigated iOS apps that stitch individual photos. A quick search shows that they definitely exist, and I'll try to test some of them out, but not sure when that will be.
Dave C says
I’ve tried as many as I can find and none do I better job than using the pano feature in phone or in a camera. There was a fantastic app called AutoStitch which used the AutoPano engine and it was excellent. Imported a dozen plus pics from my dslr on to the Ipad and it would just stitch them perfectly. This is not the app currently called autostitch, in fact google bought the original app and incorporated it into google photos, but they don’t allow a user to make a pano. It just occasionally presents one from uploaded photos. Nothing comes close to that on the app front now.
Ron says
Hello,
Do any of these applications include injection Facebook 360 Metadata and file conversion options for the FB standard of 2:1 aspect ratio, with maximum file dimensions of 6000 x 3000 pixels?
Thanks
David says
The 2:1 is standard equirectangular for any 360° video. It's a standard feature of many of them--I use PTGUI for it. Pixel dimension resizing can be set in output. Off the top of my head I can't think of any that inject the metadata into still panoramas by default, but I also have looked into this specific issue.
derfrankie says
Hi, great overview - there is still Microsoft ICE out there for free - also a very good option, Windows only
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/image-composite-editor/
David says
Thanks for the tip. I'd forgotten about that one--will add.