Tutorial – Overview

• NextGetting Started

Interface

The Panaustik‘s interface is fairly simple. It includes:

1. The address bar to choose the root directory to scan.
2. Button to start scanning.
3. The list of groups found.
4. The individual images of a group.
5. The view of the blended group.
6. The buttons Options, About and Exit.

Quick Setup

During the first use, the Quick Setup window is displayed (It can also be called by clicking the button ).

This window allows you to select the primary mode of operation (search for duplicates or for pictures showing the same objects), as well as the “strength” of this research.

For more specific settings, use the options button (see below).

“Duplicates” Mode

Duplicate images are visually very similar, both in terms of framing and content.

The slider adjusts the required level of similarity.

“Matching” Mode

This mode allows you to search for images showing the same views or objects. It can detect panoramas.

The slider adjusts the level of similarity of objects or views in the images.

If you uncheck the box for fast search of panoramas, unlike the “Duplicate” mode, views can be with differents zoom factors and points of view.

Checking the box for fast search of panoramas, will speeds up the analysis by ignoring the zoomed elements. There is a real speed gain!

Analysis

Specify a root directory to scan, using either the button , or by typing in the text box.

If the directories to be analyzed are not in the same tree, it is possible to enter them one after the other by separating them with a semicolon.

The check box on the right allows to limit the search for images in that sole directory (by default, the subdirectories are scanned).

Start the search by clicking the button .  It then becomes . To stop the scan click the button again.

Note: Throughout the analysis, the address bar is replaced by a progress bar.

The analysis has two major phases:

1. The Image analysis.
2. The search for matches. During this stage, groups of images are built and begin to be displayed.

Groups

Groups of images are displayed as thumbnails within the left list area. When one group is selected, the various images that compose it are shown in the upper area and a view of the group in the lower area.

The top view (pictures composing the group) allows you to manipulate the group:

• Click on the images while holding down “Ctrl” or “Shift” buttons to select / de-select individual pictures. The group view below is updated.
• Click on to remove the corresponding picture from the group (the image remains on disk).
• Click on to permanently delete the corresponding picture from your computer (after confirmation the image is moved to the system trash).
• Double click the thumbnail to open the image and access the metadata.
• Click on the image while holding down “Alt” button to “pin” the image. This is used to split groups (Right clik to get the contextuel menu).

The bottom view (Group view) allows you to modify the projection parameters:

• The buttons and switchs between a spherical projection and a planar projection.
• The boutons and switchs between the two blending modes: feathering or image cut.

Panoramas

To launch the panorama, click .

The panorama is calculated from the current setting of the group (selected images) and the projection mode (Plannar or Spherical). Such treatment is quite lengthy because the group is fully recalculated based on original (non reduced) pictures in order to gain the best possible quality!

Cropping

Once the panorama is generated, it can be cropped / aligned.

Recording

• By default, the name of the panorama is the name of the first image of the group supplemented with “-pano” (configurable in options).
• The meta data of the first image of the group are preserved (configurable in options).
• All pictures in the group are moved to a subdirectory (image name + “-group”) of the one of the panorama. A thumbnail of the panorama view is also copied. (Thus, the images used for the panorama are isolated, and there remains only the pan within the original directory).

Options

The options (button) allow you to configure Panaustik :

Language

Defines the language for the application. Panaustik should be restarted after modification.

Operating mode

Select the Panaustik operating mode: Duplicates or similarities (see also “Quick Options”).

Size

Defines the thumbnails size.

Analysis

• Thread numbers: Specify the number of images analyzed in parallel. By default, this is the number of processors or cores.
• Picture size: The analyzes are done on smaller picture for performance reasons. Warning, smaller size improves Panaustik performance at price of less good matches.
• Zoom: A large value can find matches on objects with significant scale differences. To search for duplicates, it is advantageous to put a small value.
• Theshold: A large value can find matches on objects with differences significant scale. To search for duplicates, it is advantageous to put a small value.

Matching

• Thread numbers: Specify the number of images analyzed in parallel. By default, this is the number of processors or cores.
• Distance: A large value can find more matchings between pictures at cost of reduced performances.
• Depth: Limits the search “depth” when searching for matches.
• Threshold: Roughly, this is the maximum distance in pixels for the projection of two points to be considered as the same image of a scene point.

Blending

• Default Mode: Defines the default blending mode.
• Panoramas size: Defines the size of the generated panoramas.

Recording