Hugin and Harvard
Shortly before leaving to Boston I discovered a very powerful panorama tool called Hugin. I thought I would give it a spin doing a 360° view from the corner of the courtyard between Memorial Church and Widener Library at Harvard University.

The image is made up of 17 separate photos. Some of the initial images were of drastically different different brightness. In particular, one of the photos of the three windows near the right was extremely dark. I am very impressed with how the program managed to even out the image.

I think the 'dip' in the middle of the panorama is due to me tipping the camera down toward the couryard. In the future, a tripod would probably be handy. Also, it would be very beneficial to have more overlap in the pictures. The recommended value is 20%-30% overlap; in some cases I only had 10%. Those are the seams that are more clearly visible.

The program also seems to be designed to make decisions on its own. Once enough reference points are placed, Hugin predicts where additional points will go. If you make a mistake placing a point, it warns you based upon its calculations. If a gap is left between two photos, and then the correct photo is placed in the gap, it seems to figure out the details fairly accurately and shape the added image accordingly.

Overall, the results are great. I can see myself creating more panoramic shots in the future with the help of Hugin. It really is a powerful tool.

Quote of the week: "Extrinsic semiconductors are intrinsically useless." (Professor Tom Smy, Carleton University).