Pauls Panorama Program


Read EXIF data	original Panorama	adjust horizon	adjust cardinal direction	dye upper area like the sky	dye lower area like the underground	improve colors, contrast, brightness	manipulate EXIF, save picture - ready!

Pauls Panorama Program

If you have taken a panorama picture (360° photo), you may also like to publish it. Suitable media such as Facebook or Google Maps require certain features in the uploaded images, so that they are accepted and recognized as a panoramic image at all.

Paul's Panorama Program edits panoramic images so that they have the required properties and can be successfully uploaded. (Google can still take many hours after uploading, until the photo is actually available in Google Maps or Google Streetview.)

The source material is a panorama image that has been compiled from several single images, for example, with Microsoft's Image Composite Editor.

With Paul's Panorama Program you can do the following work steps:

bring the panorama to a size of 6000 x 3000 pixels
rotate the panorama so that the north direction is in the middle of the picture
in addition, adapt the areas added to the panorama to the color of the sky and the underground
change hue, saturation, brightness, contrast and gamma
blur selected areas of the panorama (privacy)
manipulate EXIF data:
- transfer GPS data and recording date from one of the single images
- allow manual changes
- enter copyright, author etc.
- set "RICOH THETA S" as camera model (distinguishing feature for Panoramas)

See screenshots of the main working steps!

New: Correct Stitching Mistakes!

		During stitching of single frames to a panorama picture mistakes can happen. Paul's PanoramaProgram offers now the possibility to correct those mistakes by distorting. More informations
Stitching mistake	Mistake corrected!

Installation: Version 0.9.52 from 18.11.2018

Pauls Panorama Program needs an external program called ExifTool by Phil Harvey.
Download ExifTool from here (Windows Executable), unzip it, put it in any directory and rename it as exiftool.exe.
Download Pauls Panorama Program from here, unzip it and put it in any directory.
Start Pauls Panorama Program and go to the tab "Settings". At "Location of ExifTool" click on the ??? and select exiftool.exe in the directory above.

Working Steps:
The main steps are performed by buttons on the tab "EXIF". It is recommended to follow the given order. The currently suggested button has a blue arrow, completed steps get a green tick.

1. Read EXIF Source
Select one of the photos from which the panorama was composed. ExifTool will read the GPS data, the creation date and some other data which are displayed in the text boxes. Manual changes are possible.

2. Select Panorama Source
Select the composite panorama image to be used as the starting material for the final panorama.

3. Edit Panorama
Now you can choose one of the other tabs to change the picture, depending on your wishes and requirements. The changes will only be finally adopted when you click on "OK".
Attention! The Move function is basically the first step. This means that all changes made are reset as soon as you open the tab "Move" again!

Move: the image can be "turned" horizontally so that the recorded north direction is exactly in the middle. This is necessary for Google, for example, so that the viewing direction is displayed correctly. In addition, it can be moved vertically if the horizon is not in the middle of the photo.
On request, an artificial sun can be displayed, the position of which is estimated on the basis of the recording time. If the sun is visible on the panoramic image, you can move the image so that the true sun aligns with the artificial sun - then the image is oriented approximately north. (Differences due to the place or daylight saving time are not taken into account.)
Sky: a panorama picture usually has to be extended upward to get an aspect ratio of 2:1. This additional area must be turned into "sky". There are two methods that can be combined with each other.
If the "enhance" method is active, all the pixels on which the green line lies are copied to the upper edge of the picture.
If the "colorize" method is active, the lower "Sky Color" will gradually change to the normal image in the area between the purple lines. In the area above the upper purple line the lower "Sky Color" slowly changes into the upper "Sky Color". The two "Sky Colors" can be selected by clicking on the respective button and then in the picture to a suitable place whose color is adopted. Alternatively, you can also click on the color box of the color mixer whose sliders specify the hue, the brightness and the color saturation.
"Auto Borders" sets the top pink line just below the black area. The green line is directly below and the bottom purple line is at a certain distance further down.
Ground: similar to "Sky", but on the bottom.
Colors: Sliders can be used to change the hue (red - green - blue), color saturation, brightness, contrast and gamma. Several changes can be made at the same time - or one by one, by clicking on "OK" again and again.
Blurring: Here selected areas can be blurred, e.g. for privacy reasons. You can place up to nine rectangles and ellipses and enlarge or reduce them with the mouse. The deletion button can be used to delete individual elements. After clicking on "OK" again nine blur areas can be defined.
The surfaces within the red elements are completely blurred. Outside, the blurred area slowly merges into the normal picture. The width of this transition space can be specified in the settings.

4. Manipulate EXIF:
This sets the camera model to "RICOH THETA S". This is a 360° camera and Facebook and Google recognize that this is a panoramic image. In addition, depending on the settings, additional information (e.g. copyright and author) is provided as EXIF data.

5. Save Panorama:
Now all changes are applied to the original image, and the changed EXIF data is transferred to the final image. The final image has the same name as the original image, but extended by "-ppp".

6. Publish the Panorama to Google:
Obviously, you can only do this with a smartphone that has Google StreetView installed. Please read the instructions!