Paul's Panorama Program is intended for those who want to publish their panorama photos in Facebook, Google Maps or similar platforms.
The program can do following steps:
- resizes a picture to 6000 pixel width
- adds space above the picture to reach 3000 pixel height
- paints the additional space with a "sky" color which the user can pick from the picture
- shifts the picture to have North direction in the center
- corrects colors, brightness, contrast, satuation, gamma
- blurs selected areas
- copies all GPS data from one of the 34 source photos
- changes the camera model into RICOH THETA S
- adds copyright and/or user data
- inserts all EXIF data into the panorama picture (EXIFTOOL is needed)

You can find the program here. Sorry, the page in only in German, I hope Google translator might help. English version is planned.
The program itself can be used in English and German!

This sample picture shows "before" and "after"

Looks nice.
Did you make it?

"Before" and "after" are not the same picture and the artificial sky looks less than acceptable to me, sorry to say it frankly.

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-3-23 10:44
"Before" and "after" are not the same picture and the artificial sky looks less than acceptable to me, sorry to say it frankly.

Not the same picture...???

Well... regarding the sky... it's up to everybody to add some more handwork if they think the sky is that important for them.

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-3-23 10:59
Not the same picture...???

Well... regarding the sky... it's up to everybody to add some more handwork if they think the sky is that important for them.

Judging by the name, you are the maker?

Montfrooij Posted at 2018-3-23 11:01
Judging by the name, you are the maker?

Yes. Why should I announce the work of somebody else?

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-3-23 11:07
Yes. Why should I announce the work of somebody else?

Ah, I see. The first post was still with the default username and you changed it afterwards.
At first glance it looked like somebody else posted it and you responded.
Hence my question

Definitely keen on an English version - please do keep us posted

Montfrooij Posted at 2018-3-23 11:13
Ah, I see. The first post was still with the default username and you changed it afterwards.
At first glance it looked like somebody else posted it and you responded.
Hence my question

Yes, the forum software did not update my user name. But at least my avatar

Face-AcheNZ Posted at 2018-3-23 11:44
Definitely keen on an English version - please do keep us posted

English manual will come, but maybe not very soon. Please load my page into Google Translator.
Anyway you can download the program, you can select English and German in the settings.
I believe that you can simply can try how it works even without a manual.

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-3-23 13:03
Yes, the forum software did not update my user name. But at least my avatar

Seems strange.
Apparently the username is stored in the post, not taken from the db.
But never mind.

I am curious about the software.
Not only to make or improve panorama's, but because I am looking for a faster way to align (stack) multiple images based on certain parts of an image.
I have done a couple of projects during my lunchbreak where I would take a picture of the exact same location every x days.
Now even though I used a monopod and tried to match the frame, there are too big variations between the shot.
Now I can align them by hand, or use the image stack tool from Photoshop but the first one is very very time consuming and the second one does not do a very good job, since the subject does change too much (light, sky and other objects that were not in the previous frame)
Still it should be possible since some parts of the frame remain there (buildings etc.) and if I could mark  them by hand in every frame and let the software do the alignment based on them, it should work.
The end result should be a lot of images that I can put in a timelapse (maybe they still need some post processing,  but that I can do by hand)

Long story, but do you think that is something you could do?

Thanks for posting! Will give your program a try.

@Montfrooij: my program does NOT do the stitching work. I am using Microsoft ICE for that. ICE makes mistakes, but anyway I can only admire the intelligence of all those stitching programs.

Will give it try and let you know the results.

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-3-23 10:59
Not the same picture...???

Well... regarding the sky... it's up to everybody to add some more handwork if they think the sky is that important for them.

I sincerely apologise for my initial response which was a bit harsh indeed. Keep on developing, that is always a good thing and thank you for sharing!

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-3-23 14:55
I sincerely apologise for my initial response which was a bit harsh indeed. Keep on developing, that is always a good thing and thank you for sharing!

In the U.S., we have a saying, "It takes a big man to admit his mistakes".  Very courteous of you to post this.

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-3-23 13:09
English manual will come, but maybe not very soon. Please load my page into Google Translator.
Anyway you can download the program, you can select English and German in the settings.
I believe that you can simply can try how it works even without a manual.

Thank you for your work, I know not everyone has Photoshop CC, but this correction is very easily done using it, simple create the pano using ICE, import it to PS/CC, crop out the black portion of the sky, quick sample of the sky then scale it and drag up to full image size, save it, then send it to SkyPixel or Kuula (they are both free) and they automatically inject the Meta Data required to make the Pano 360° interactive. The whole process in PS takes about 2 minutes and the scaled sky will match the original sky sampled including clouds, sunshine ect... Or you can use Spatial Meta Data Injector and then post to UTube or Facebook,

StanfordWebbie Posted at 2018-3-23 16:15
In the U.S., we have a saying, "It takes a big man to admit his mistakes".  Very courteous of you to post this.

Was my thought also when i saw Wachtberger's follow-up post - very courteous indeed!  

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-3-23 13:09
English manual will come, but maybe not very soon. Please load my page into Google Translator.
Anyway you can download the program, you can select English and German in the settings.
I believe that you can simply can try how it works even without a manual.

Ah, my apologies - though you meant the whole app was in German.
Anyway, i have downloaed it, pointed it at the exiftool.exe location, but get the following error whenever i select "read EXIF source" and select an un-stitched photo from a group of pano photos. Am i doing something wrong?

Changed the security settings on the folder where i put the app, and it's cleared the above error, but i now get this error below (even after doing a restart);

Face-AcheNZ Posted at 2018-3-23 18:29
Changed the security settings on the folder where i put the app, and it's cleared the above error, but i now get this error below (even after doing a restart);

Sorry, I know this problem. I supposed I found a solution but it seems not to work.
My program creates a batch file which starts ExifTool. ExifTool reads the picture and writes all EXIF data into a log file. Then my program starts to read this log file, but for unknown reasons too early. And for unknown reasons, the normal error handling does not work.
I will try to implemenr some loger delays.
Anyway - if you click on "Continue", does it work?

And regarding the access rights: I wonder how you managed to store it in C:\Program Files. I supposed if you are able to store it there, then you have enough access rights.
I wrote the program in Visual Basic, which also provides an installer. Perhaps the installer sets the correct access rights, I have to try it out.

Face-AcheNZ Posted at 2018-3-23 18:29
Changed the security settings on the folder where i put the app, and it's cleared the above error, but i now get this error below (even after doing a restart);

I implemented a kind of workaround and uploaded a new version 0.8.01, please try it!

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-3-23 13:47
@Montfrooij: my program does NOT do the stitching work. I am using Microsoft ICE for that. ICE makes mistakes, but anyway I can only admire the intelligence of all those stitching programs.

Thanks for your response!

QuadKid Posted at 2018-3-23 17:03
Thank you for your work, I know not everyone has Photoshop CC, but this correction is very easily done using it, simple create the pano using ICE, import it to PS/CC, crop out the black portion of the sky, quick sample of the sky then scale it and drag up to full image size, save it, then send it to SkyPixel or Kuula (they are both free) and they automatically inject the Meta Data required to make the Pano 360° interactive. The whole process in PS takes about 2 minutes and the scaled sky will match the original sky sampled including clouds, sunshine ect... Or you can use Spatial Meta Data Injector and then post to UTube or Facebook,

SkyPixel and Kuula don't know the location of the original photos, right?

You are right, I don't know PS CC. Where can I see a sample of the artificial sky?

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-3-24 07:51
SkyPixel and Kuula don't know the location of the original photos, right?

You are right, I don't know PS CC. Where can I see a sample of the artificial sky?

This is the tutorial I used when first getting started.

QuadKid Posted at 2018-3-24 11:22
This is the tutorial I used when first getting started.

I see, this is for Facebook. No location needed. My intention is Google Maps, where the panorama should be placed on the right location with the right direction.

Click on this link and then click on the little yellow man symbol and then on the blue circle in the center of the lake.

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-3-24 11:33
I see, this is for Facebook. No location needed. My intention is Google Maps, where the panorama should be placed on the right location with the right direction.

Click on this link and then click on the little yellow man symbol and then on the blue circle in the center of the lake.

OK, cool I like that, so this is what your program does. I translated the instruction and saved them. Going to have to give it a try, Thanks for your work!

QuadKid Posted at 2018-3-24 12:54
OK, cool I like that, so this is what your program does. I translated the instruction and saved them. Going to have to give it a try, Thanks for your work!

I just uploaded a new version.
0.8.10 has two colors for painting the sky and a color mixer. The program now saves temp files in AppData\Roaming to avoid problems with access rights.

I like it too! When the weather is better, I will try!

Hi I tried the program with some old 360 pano shots I had on file.
I can get the exif data loaded. But when I click on select pano, I get an error message. What am I doing wrong?
I even went into ICE and loaded all the photos up to be stiched again, but it doesn't like it? What type of pano am I supposed to be selecting? Is that where I'm going wrong?
Anyway, here's an image.

Simmo1 Posted at 2018-3-24 17:44
Hi I tried the program with some old 360 pano shots I had on file.
I can get the exif data loaded. But when I click on select pano, I get an error message. What am I doing wrong?
I even went into ICE and loaded all the photos up to be stiched again, but it doesn't like it? What type of pano am I supposed to be selecting? Is that where I'm going wrong?

The error message says "out of memory". I don't know why. Perhaps my computer has more memory than yours?
Do you resize your panorama in ICE? If not, please try to reduce the width to 6000 pixel.
I always resize my panoramas, but now I tried it with the original size (20,480 pixel) and my panorama program still  works.

Thanks Paul, I will try.

Simmo1 Posted at 2018-3-25 00:27
Thanks Paul, I will try.

I uploaded a new version 0.8.11 which traps this error and gives a warning if the panorama picture is too big.

OK, I resized it in ICE and your program accepts it, however, I could not quite fathom out how to do the sky.
It did work, and I put a private picture on facebook, but the sky was just lines going up to the centre.
Once I get this right, how does it go to Google maps, do others see the pano too??

Simmo1 Posted at 2018-3-25 03:03
OK, I resized it in ICE and your program accepts it, however, I could not quite fathom out how to do the sky.
It did work, and I put a private picture on facebook, but the sky was just lines going up to the centre.
Once I get this right, how does it go to Google maps, do others see the pano too??

Mark the pink checkbox and move the pink lines, you will see what you get.

Regarding Google: You need a Google account. Go to Google Maps and on the menu icon (top left) and try to find instructions.

Simmo1 Posted at 2018-3-25 03:03
OK, I resized it in ICE and your program accepts it, however, I could not quite fathom out how to do the sky.
It did work, and I put a private picture on facebook, but the sky was just lines going up to the centre.
Once I get this right, how does it go to Google maps, do others see the pano too??

Uploading to Google is a little bit tricky. It seems that it is only possible with a mobile phone which has a Google account and the Google StreetView App installed. In the StreetView App you can share photos. The App expects you to have a 360° camera, but there is also the possibility to upload files from a directory.

So you have to transfer your panorama pictures from you PC into your phone.

Anyway, today I got a new idea and I published verson 0.8.20. This version calculates an estimated position of the sun from the photo creation time and displays an artificial sun in the shifting menu. So you can move the photo so that the real sun (if visible) aligns with the artificial sun - and your panorama has already the correct position into North direction.

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-3-25 06:58
Mark the pink checkbox and move the pink lines, you will see what you get.

Regarding Google: You need a Google account. Go to Google Maps and on the menu icon (top left) and try to find instructions.

@Simmo1: please download the latest version. I forgot to convert "S" and "W" coordinates into negative numbers, so this update should be useful for you.
Now you can click on a button and the location will be shown in Google Maps.

Now finally there is an English Description!