Good news! Autopano Pro users organize for the second time an informal meeting about panoramic photography.
It is the occasion to meet each others and take part in thematic workshops and conferences.
The meeting is to be held during a week-end, but participants wishing to come only one day can do so.

This meeting will take place on June 14th and 15th in Gracay, near Bourges (France). The place has been chosen regarding the beautiful stuff to be shot in Gracay surroundings, and because it is close to train and road infrastructures.

On Saturday, a photo outing is planned to discover Gracay, its photography museum, Bourges and interesting things between Graçay and Bourges.

On Sunday, workshops and conferences about panoramic photography.

This event is organized by French Autopano Pro users but it is of course open to any user, no matter what country he/she comes from! If you are interested in taking part in this event, please contact us before May, 15th and we will transmit your participation to the event organizer. If you are happy with French language, you can also read this page.

As we announced it a few weeks ago, we dedicate today an article to the new book of French photographer Bertrand Bodin: “Vauban, les sites majeurs”. This book comes after a first one released last year: “Briançon, Vauban et son empreinte”.

Vauban (1633-1707) was the most important military engineer of his age. He designed new types of fortifications and advised Louis XIV on how to make France’s borders safer and more defensible. Find out more about Vauban on Wikipedia.

This book has been ordered by the Vauban association, to support the candidature of the 14 major Vauban works to be listed as Unesco World Heritage sites. Bertrand Bodin had to work quickly: “It was an urgent order, since I only had 6 month to seal the project, including the publishing. If you consider that the 14 sites to be shot are located everywhere on the French territory, you can better estimate the challenge this project represented!” told Bertrand Bodin to journalist Nicolas Mériau (Image & Nature magazine n°13).

From a technical point of view, Bertrand Bodin used a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II with a 16 million pixels sensor and a wide-angle lenses, like the EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye. Many photos of the book are stitched images. The photographer used the program Autopano Pro to stitch the images: “This program is by far better than the others. I have been working for a long time with Stitcher and PTGui and I could make the difference. One of Autopano Pro’s strengths is to be able to create panoramic images from photos shot with different focal distances: a 15mm with a 24mm, a 20mm with a 35mm, etc. What’s more, it corrects very well fisheye distortions. And, despite its advanced functionalities, it remains very easy to use”.

To find out more about Bertrand Bodin, you can visit his website.

VRMAG is an online magazine specialized in virtual reality photography. It deals with subjects relative to the creation of virtual tours in its articles, reports, reviews and interviews.

In its 29th issue, VRMAG propose an interview of Alexandre Jenny, founder of the company Kolor and initiator of the program Autopano Pro.

Alexandre Jenny reviews his beginning in photography, and how he got interested in panoramic photography, from 1998 onwards: “During week-ends, I was used to climb the mountains. When reaching the top, you often have beautiful landscapes with a large view. So I shoot a lot… right, left… but really soon I felt a little uncomfortable because I wanted the full landscape, not only part of it. This is why I came into panoramic. There was pretty nothing out at that time or, at least, there was nothing automatic.”

Reviewing the history of the program Autopano Pro, the competitor programs, and the interesting features of Autopano Pro, Alexandre Jenny then gives some clues about the software development for the coming months, in particular the improvement of HDR support.

VRMAG will test Autopano Pro in its next issue.

Read the whole interview.

Image & Nature magazine has just dedicated a test to Autopano Pro in its 13th issue. This test is interesting because it quotes several arguments of Autopano Pro and tests them one after the other.

The 5 tested arguments are: ease of use, automatic detection of photos belonging to a same panorama, automatic correction of color and exposure differences, stitching of images having different focal distances, and stitching of images shot every which way.

Each argument was tested and positively validated by the magazine editors! Phew!

Image & Nature magazine begins by the program’s interface, which is “clear and intuitive”. About the automatic panorama detection, “it is amusing to note that the program often finds more stitchings that what you excpect”.

The conclusion of the test of color and exposure correction cannot be clearer: “the software’s capabilities in this field are totally impressive”! Performances in exposure correction “can be built on to perform HDR stitching (high dynamic range images)”.

The test of stitching images of different focal distances was quite advanced, since Autopano Pro could even “stitch a photo shot with a 15mm fisheye with a photo shot with a 35mm!”

Finally, no matter if the photos are shot vertically, horizontally or slanting, “Autopano Pro reorders all photos and gives the best possible stitching”.

The article concludes: “this program is the best pick! Simple and powerful, it puts panoramic photography at everybody’s reach, and enables even wider applications. A must-have!

This 13th issue of Image & Nature magazine also dedicated a test to the new Canon EOS-1 Mark III reflex camera. This magazine is currently being sold in French stores and on http://www.image-nature.com.

Kolor will take part in the workshop of the International Association of Panoramic Photographers. This meeting will be held in Peyresq, a small village of south-eastern France, from May 10th to 14th, 2008.

The program includes photo outings, demos and workshops. It is an occasion for Kolor to present its new technologies and software, the 64-bit version of Autopano Pro for example.

Anyone can take part to this workshop, whether you are an IAPP member or not. Find out more on this page :

http://www.panphoto.com/workshops.php

François Delauney is a French photographer based in Chartres, not far from the famous cathedral. He deals with several photography fields: architecture, industry, decors, and studio shots. He is the author of the photos published in the book ‘Chartres en Lumières 2007’, shot during the annual colored floodlight of the city monuments, last September.

For how long have you been a professional photographer?

I am a professional photographer since 1987; I ‘fell’ into the developing bath very early, at the age of 10 or 12. I had the chance to be able to transform my hobby into an occupation.

How do you work while you take your shots?

I am going to talk about the outside work only, because 70% of my activity is for studio work, both for catalogues and advertising. I am convinced that strictness, astuteness and sense of light are essential, no matter if it is about studio shots or reports.
I always try to analyze the place or the subject to be shot, in an artistic way (to transcribe the reality not necessarily as it actually is, but as I feel it). This is particularly true for panorama stitching, because it is hard to imagine a preview of the final image, on the contrary of a traditional dedicated device, like the Fuji 6X17 or the Hasselblad Xpan.
But the artistic side shouldn’t hide the technical side: the client’s demands, the feasibility, the choice of the best moment… I usually try to get exhaustive information on the weather, the environment, the diverse authorizations, etc.

How did you get to the panoramic photography?

Oddly enough, I got to the panoramic photography by necessity, not by personal research.
In 2000, a business client asked me to make architectural shots of a recently built secondary school, conceived like a rotunda of an ancient train station, with a magnificent zinc rooftop. When I began to shoot, I quickly felt frustrated. Therefore I used the Photomerge feature of Photoshop and I quickly discovered its limits. Then I looked at another dedicated program: Realviz Stitcher; Autopano Pro was not born yet…

What were your first contacts with panoramic photography?

I was fascinated, but it was arduous at the same time. This formidable vision was fascinating; it enabled me to rediscover places. But it was arduous at the beginning because I did a lot of attempts (research of the nodal point, correction of optical distortions…). This was before I discover Autopano Pro.

Do you use a panoramic head?

Yes, I bought the Manfrotto system in 2000. It is very performing, very expensive, and very, very heavy… The problem is, sometimes you have to react very quickly to shoot a panorama (furtive light, instable position, temporary scene…). Moreover, there is the weight, which is photographer’s first enemy when walking, even with today’s photo bags. 400 grammas less are worth it at the end of the day!
In 2003/2004, I began to work for the book ‘Chartres en Lumières’, with the scenographer Xavier de Richemont. All photos were shots during two nights, with an average of 15 panoramic images. It quickly began hard to work like this.

One day, I was wondering about the nodal point of my new box camera on the Manfrotto head, and I realized that the traditional head that I was using could be a panoramic head. Here is a photo, which is better than words:

All you have to add is a fast adaptor and an ‘elbow bracket’. It runs very well with a Canon EOS 5D and a 17-40mm lens!

Therefore my only extra device is the panoramic base, which I still find too heavy. I know other manufacturers produce such panoramic bases, but I didn’t find a small notched tray (very useful when working fast in the dark). For example: those that are sold with the Nodalninja heads, which seem to have a very good price/quality/weight rate. I don’t make QTVR panoramas.
If someone has an idea on how to get a light notched tray, please let me know!
Let me add that with Autopano Pro, I also create panoramas without any head.

How did you discover Autopano Pro?

In an article published in the specialized press in 2004 or 2005, or maybe in a forum on the Internet, I can’t remember.

What do you think of Autopano Pro?

Sincerely: exceptional, not to say brilliant.
Stitching images of a grandiose landscape, many stitching programs can do it well.
Stitching a panorama of the inside of a castle, or other places with sculptured ceiling, frescos, convoluted carpets, etc. is another type of job, and Autopano Pro copes with it very well.
Before using Autopano Pro, I had to manually adjust all my images to correct the optical distortions with the Panotools plug-in, which was helpful but not in all cases.
Then I discovered Autopano Pro and it really impressed me. At first, I hardly understand how it was possible to make such fast, perfect stitching, without monopolizing the entire computer’s power (my computer was a bi-processor Mac G4).
Seriously, I am a photographer, not a graphic designer. I think it is best to spend most the time on shooting. I can understand my colleagues who touch up a lot their images, but it is not my own.
For me, Autopano Pro represents this philosophy. The only retouches that I do are purely photographic: colorimetry (I am very exigent on this point, because of my studio background), contrast, saturation, luminosity, curves, sharpness, etc.
I am going to stop my compliments; otherwise it will be an ad!

Do you have ideas for the next version of Autopano Pro?

Honestly, with the latest version, coming with the blending feature and the Photoshop export, I am fulfilled. I am still loyal to my favorite program to deal with RAW files, and then I stitch with Autopano Pro. I didn’t try a lot the HDR feature, but I will have a look on it very shortly. The only thing that misses is a book dealing with all the potential of the program and tips of other users; but I think it is underway.
A magnifying glass tool should be interesting to implement. It enables to see a part of the image at a 100% zoom, to verify the stitching for example. I use this kind of tool in the program of my ‘Leaf’ digital back and it is really useful.
I think I use only 70% of Autopano Pro resources.

You sent us the book ‘Chartres en Lumières’, for which you shot all the photographs. Can you tell us a bit more about this project?

This project is a narrow collaboration between the scenographer and me. First of all, I have to respect the work of the artist, the unity of the project. I have to be careful on the colors and the crops. Panoramic photography is ideal for this type of work, because the scenographies are often very wide, grandiose. The panoramic format is perfect to restitute some atmospheres.
‘Chartres en Lumières’ enables Xavier to show his talent over the world. We went to Canada, Mexico, Scotland, Spain… and we created scenographies there. The book is like a catalogue of our work.

My only frustration about this book is that I couldn’t shot panoramic images just before the sun sets, which I find is an extraordinary moment with superb skies, because the lightening of the city monuments began later in the evening.

What about your next projects?

I work essentially in business photography; this lets me live (and make my family live) and not just survive.
I couldn’t really involve myself in personal project, because I lack time, but since 2 or 3 years I rediscover the pleasure to make photos intended just for oneself.
I live in a city which has an exceptional architectural patrimony, and I begin to shoot panoramic images almost everywhere and specially from and into the cathedral, to make people discover unknown places or sublime lights. Last year, the city of Chartres proposed me to make an exhibition on the event of ‘Chartres en Lumières’. I printed panoramic images in a very large format (2m x 70cm). This gave me new ideas… maybe another expo or a book.

Visit François Delauney’s website

A 10-page article is dedicated to panoramic photography in the 34th issue of French magazine Declic Photo (nov. 2007), including 4 pages dedicated to photo stitching.

After listing the hardware that can be used in the professional panoramic photography, the article deals with the stitching process itself, and focuses on Autopano Pro:
“No need to beat around the bush, the best quality/simplicity/price ratio is hold by Autopano Pro, an amazing French software that automatically detects the photos to be stitched. (…) The advantage of a software like Autopano Pro is that he does not only stitches your images: it corrects the stitching defects, modifies the views’ exposure to make them homogenous, adapts the images tones, handles most of file formats, and can manage a large number of images to stitch.”

This article, written by Denis Boyard, is illustrated with panoramic photographs by Bertrand Bodin, to whom the magazine dedicates an interview:

“After having tested several perfectible solutions, I adopted the program Autopano Pro, developed by Alexandre Jenny, mathematician in Chambery (France). This software detects and stitches my photos with a stupefying speed and an incredible easiness, all this without any montage defect in most cases. While I used to need seven hours of work in Photoshop to stitch a panorama manually (it was the only available method when I started out), now it only takes me a few minutes to manage it! The whole thing does not need particular attention, since you only need a few clicks to perform a series of stitched images in an image folder. I can even launch a rendering and go and do something else when in the case of a very large format.”

Bertrand Bodin has just published his new book dedicated to the architectural work of Vauban, architect and urban planner of Louis XIV (Vauban les Sites Majeurs, available from Libris). The book is illustrated with numbers of panoramas by the photographer, and the texts are from Nicolas Faucherre, archeologist and historian. We will dedicate a further article to this book’s release.

The new French-Swiss animated cartoon ‘Max and Co’ will be screened in France on February 13th, 2008.

We had the pleasure to know that the special effects team used Autopano Pro to stitch some of the movie sets, like backgrounds:

Apple Mac Pro computers with Intel bi-xeon double-core processors were used to produce the movie’s special effects, running Mac OS or Windows depending on the tasks.

Find out more about Max and Co and watch its preview on the movie’s website.

We are all excited and impatient about the new big project of Kolor: we propose all Autopano Pro users to contribute to a book entirely dedicated to them!

150 to 200 pages of outstanding panoramic photos, superb printing quality, English and French commentaries, annual release… we will do everything to make this great contributive project the reference book in panoramic photography!

We invite all of you, amateur or professional photographers, to take part in this unique adventure!!! We will publish at least one of each user’s photos.

This is your book and we will be fully receptive to your potential suggestions.

This book is to be published in November 2008; you will be able to begin sending your images very shortly, via a dedicated webpage.

Get to your cameras!

The whole Kolor team