Stitcher

Panorama stitcher

Stitch overlapping photos into one panorama in your browser: automatic matching, even exposure, hidden seams and auto-crop. Free; nothing is uploaded.

Stitcher

Your photos, one panorama

Photos are read and stitched in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded.

      Projection

      Cylindrical suits almost every handheld sweep. Flat stretches the edges past about 120°.

      Save as

      The JPG keeps the camera data of the middle photo, never its location.

      What the stitcher does

      It finds a few hundred corners in every photo, matches them between every pair of photos and keeps only the pairs that agree on one consistent overlap, so photos that do not belong to the panorama are left out rather than forced in. From those pairs it works out how the camera turned between shots and its focal length, refined together over every photo, and a lens's barrel distortion when there is enough of it to measure.

      It then evens out exposure and the darker corners a lens leaves (vignetting), routes each seam through the part of the overlap where the neighbouring photos agree most, and blends in two bands: broad tones across the seam, fine detail from one photo only, so nothing is averaged into a blur. A blown-out sky in one frame is taken from a neighbour that kept it.

      Shooting a set that stitches

      • Turn the camera; do not walk between shots. Near objects reveal any sideways step.
      • Overlap each frame with the next by about a third.
      • Lock the exposure and the zoom if the camera lets you; if not, the stitcher evens out exposure anyway.
      • Portrait-orientation frames give a taller panorama for the same number of shots.

      Hugin, PTGui and Microsoft ICE

      Hugin is free and open source for Windows, macOS and Linux, with full control over control points, lens and projection. PTGui is paid desktop software with masks and control-point editing for difficult sets. Microsoft Image Composite Editor was free and automatic, and Microsoft no longer offers it. This stitcher is automatic like ICE, needs no installation and never uploads your photos; it does not offer manual control points or masks.

      What it does not do (yet)

      • No manual control points or masks: a set with strong parallax may show a misaligned seam, and the page names the photos involved.
      • One camera at one size: photos of different sizes or orientations are left out by name.
      • RAW files are not read here yet; convert them first with the RAW to JPG converter on this site.
      • No HDR merge of bracketed exposures inside the stitch.

      Photographing something small and close? The focus stacker merges a focus bracket; for a scene too bright and too dark at once, the HDR merge blends an exposure bracket. Stack-and-stitch, a panorama of focus stacks, is planned.

      Panorama stitching: questions

      Is the panorama stitcher free, and are my photos uploaded?

      It is free, with no account and no watermark, and the photos never leave your computer: they are read and stitched inside this browser tab, and the panorama is handed straight back to you.

      How should I shoot photos for a panorama?

      Turn the camera rather than walking, ideally around the lens rather than your body; overlap each frame with the next by about a third; keep the exposure and the focal length the same if the camera lets you. Moving people and clouds are fine away from the overlaps.

      Which projection should I choose?

      Cylindrical for a single row, from a few frames up to all the way round. Spherical when you shot several rows or tilted up and down. Flat for a few frames of architecture where straight lines must stay straight; past about 120 degrees it stretches the edges.

      Why do parts of my panorama not line up?

      Usually because the camera moved sideways between shots, so near and far things shifted against each other (parallax). No stitcher can line up both from a rotation alone; the page names the photos where it happened. Shoot again turning on the spot, or keep near objects out of the overlaps.

      Is this an alternative to Microsoft ICE?

      Microsoft no longer offers Image Composite Editor for download. This stitcher does the same automatic job in a browser on Windows, Mac, Linux or a Chromebook: it finds the overlaps itself, evens out exposure, hides the seams and crops.

      How big can a panorama be?

      Up to 60 megapixels on a computer with enough memory, 30 by default. A panorama larger than that is made at a reduced scale, and the page tells you by how much.