A stitch in time..

[Ralph Turner]

Up to now I’ve been using the stitching tool in PSE6 for assembling sectional scans of medium format frames. The end result is usually a superb seamless composite. The only drawback is that elements will only handle 8-bit files. As a result I usually do any major edits on the 16-bit sections, noting the settings in order to match each scan prior to saving in 8-bit and then stitching.
As you can imagine, all a bit of a faff. Does anyone know of an easy-to-use program that can stitch as well as PSE but in 16-bit, please?

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

I'm not sure... Hugin will do 16 bit I'm pretty sure but I don't find it particularly user friendly. My go-to for stitching is Microsoft Image Composite Editor... which (surprisingly for something from Microsoft ) does a superb job of stitching. I think it accepts 16bit TIFF files but I don't know whether it will actually export in 16bit... I'll try it.

MICE (my acronym!) is discontinued but as it was always free anyway it is available as a download... somewhere... I think I found mine on an archived site.

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

think it accepts 16bit TIFF files but I don't know whether it will actually export in 16bit... I'll try it.

I just tried it - it does stitch them ok. On export it does not give any options as far as to TIFF quality/depth, but I just checked and it does indeed export in 16 bits if fed with 16 bits. Can also export in Photoshop format but I don't have Photoshop so dunno about that option.

I'd be happy to find the installer on my system if you wanted to try it. EDIT: assuming you run Windows....

 

[Ralph Turner]

Thanks @Stevenson Gawen, that’d be great. Much appreciated

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

I'll find it this evening and send you a link to my Drive folder...

 

[Ralph Turner]

I'll find it this evening and send you a link to my Drive folder...

Thanks

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

Here you go: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UIcmJmJtFSqs9SBF4MvGFcqy-UmN1a4g/view?usp=sharing

It's a surprisingly small file. I'm not sure how old this version is but it works on my Win 10 laptop and Win 11 PC so should be good...
Let me know if you get stuck using it - I'm no expert but find it useful!

P.S. I'll remove it from public access on my Drive after a day or two, but if anyone reads this post later and would like it, let me know!

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

Here you go: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UIcmJmJtFSqs9SBF4MvGFcqy-UmN1a4g/view?usp=sharing

It's a surprisingly small file. I'm not sure how old this version is but it works on my Win 10 laptop and Win 11 PC so should be good...
Let me know if you get stuck using it - I'm no expert but find it useful!

P.S. I'll remove it from public access on my Drive after a day or two, but if anyone reads this post later and would like it, let me know!

It's here too - this might be where I got mine from: https://archive.org/search?query=mi...ubject:"Microsoft"&and[]=mediatype:"software"

 

[Ralph Turner]

Many thanks @Stevenson Gawen. I’ve downloaded the programme and will have a go with it asap. We’re away for a few days, so it won’t be until later in the weekend probably. I look forward to trying it! Thanks again.
(Btw I‘m still running on Windows 8 so hopefully no problems )

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

We’re away for a few days, so it won’t be until later in the weekend probably. I look forward to trying it! Thanks again.
(Btw I‘m still running on Windows 8 so hopefully no problems )

Have a good time away! And hope the program works

 

[Ralph Turner]

@Stevenson Gawen I’ve just had a quick play with this software and so far it looks to do the job very nicely, quick and easy to use as well. I stitched a 645 neg scan that I’d done in four sections that resulted in a file size of around half a gigabyte. Looking at the image I couldn’t see any issues where the stitching takes place. I tried another three frame stitch of a 35mm transparency that resulted in an image of almost 70MP @ just under 6000ppi. Over the top for general requirements, but it proved a point. It needs more of an overlap than photoshop but that’s of little consequence when it avoids the hassle of having to edit the sections separately before converting to 8bit for stitching. This is, of course, based on only a couple of photos, but really great stuff so far. Thanks again!

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

@Stevenson Gawen I’ve just had a quick play with this software and so far it looks to do the job very nicely, quick and easy to use as well. I stitched a 645 neg scan that I’d done in four sections that resulted in a file size of around half a gigabyte. Looking at the image I couldn’t see any issues where the stitching takes place. I tried another three frame stitch of a 35mm transparency that resulted in an image of almost 70MP @ just under 6000ppi. Over the top for general requirements, but it proved a point. It needs more of an overlap than photoshop but that’s of little consequence when it avoids the hassle of having to edit the sections separately before converting to 8bit for stitching. This is, of course, based on only a couple of photos, but really great stuff so far. Thanks again!

That sounds very promising! Glad to hear it works as I haven't used it for exactly that application.

 

[Ralph Turner]

An example of a 4 frame composite, giving an image size of just over 60mp. It seems that too much overlap might cause a slight smearing of fine detail, so cropping the sections slightly helped a little with this. The crop shows a small 2000x1400px area and the overlap is towards the top of the frame in it. fairly pleased with the outcome.

Full image and small crop from the right-hand side:

 

[Ralph Turner]

Sorry, forgot to mention details of original. Fuji Velvia 50 shot on Bronica ETRSi and 75mm f2.8 PE (if memory serves)

 

[Brian Moore]

At I glance I couldn't see what you're talking about, Ralph. So after I glanced I spent a minute peering at it and now I think I know what you're talking about. I'd be fairly pleased too, I think.

 

[Ralph Turner]

Sorry, @Brian Moore, I’ve done usual thing of not checking properly what I’ve written to check it actually makes sense .The four original 3:2 ratio scans gave a substantial overlap band in the middle and the software struggled a little to keep things together at the pixel level in areas of plain tone or fine, random texture. Reducing the long dimension of each scan to give a ratio nearer 4:3 still gave enough overlap for the program to work with but without any noticeable smearing. The crop simply shows some pixel-level detail along with an area within the overlap zone.
I hope this makes more sense lol.

 

[Brian Moore]

I hope this makes more sense lol.

Not really; but that's not on you,...it's me.

 

[Ralph Turner]

Lol. I’m very grateful to @Stevenson Gawen for sharing the link to the little Microsoft program that allows me to do 48bit composites like this, even if occasionally it might need a little fettling to get it spot on. Certainly a lot less hassle than my previous method. As I mentioned previously it’s not a technique I’ll use regularly but if I want to print to poster size at any point then this will be very handy. Even with 35mm, it has potential.

 

[Ralph Turner]

Just checked the res of the composite, around 4100ppi. The scanning rig was set to scan the equivalent of a full 35mm frame for the individual sections.

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

Now that is what I'd call a good scan! And a good photo to start with. It's great how it resolves right down to the grain (what little grain there is). Interesting about the smearing of detail with overlap - it's the kind of thing I wouldn't notice with my use (mostly just the occasional landscape panorama) but would be very annoying for this, so I'm glad tweaking the overlap does the trick. It's hard to beat Adobe sometimes...

I'm now wondering if I could do this with my scanning setup. Not sure as I use a Pentax slide copier and I don't think there's enough off-centre movement to make this work properly. MMmmmmmmmm.............