We've imported our photos, tweaked them to get the exposure and color right, and if we're really goi

I will start off by giving an overview of the steps involved in my post-production workflow, from importing the images to getting the virtual tours online, and then I’ll discuss the software that can be used to accomplish these tasks.
Ok, we’ve taken our pictures and we’re at our computer with a memory card full of images. What now? The easy answer is just to stick the memory card into the computer and dump the files somewhere in the nether reaches of our hard drive. And while this is a fast and dirty way to do it, this method will come back to bite us before too long. We’ll have a ton of files to keep track of, and we’ll have to make adjustments to many of them. So while we can do it the dirty way, I highly recommend getting an image-management software kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in to help keep things organized and to speed things along when we need to make changes to a group of images.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom – US$119 – Mac Windows – Used by about 40% of Professional kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in Photographers, Lightroom “helpsyou bring out the best in yourphotographs, whether you’re perfecting one image, searching for ten, processing hundreds, or organizing kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in thousands.” It’s incredibly useful for virtual tour providers because it makes it easy to find photos from a specific job, fix issues with white balance/exposure/etc., and export them to the size we need. I could not live without Lightroom
Apple Aperture – US$150 – Mac Only – Has the same functionality of Lightroom, but it’s only available for Macs. In my experience, Aperture has a nicer user interface, but it’s slower than Lightroom and does not integrate as well with Photoshop.
Photomatix Pro – US$99 – Mac Windows – If you are doing any HDR processing, Photomatix is hands-down the best out there. The ability to run batches greatly speeds up the workflow, and the HDR look can be tweaked to your hearts’ desire. Photoshop CS4 and later can also create HDRs, but the simplicity of the Photomatix interface kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in makes it worth every penny.
We’ve imported our photos, tweaked them to get the exposure and color right, and if we’re really going all-out, run an HDR batch. The next step will be to turn those images into a panorama that will become what is seen in the virtual tour.
PTGui – (Price varies depending on license) US$109-205 – Mac Windows – PTGUI is the best panoramic stitching software out there. The options for customizing your panorama are endless, and the user interface becomes familiar very quickly. PTGUI does a great job of fixing problems that other software can’t handle. New features in version 9 include the ability to mask out your tripod and moving objects on the edges of the frame. Their support is great. kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in Overall, I highly recommend PTGUI.
AutoPano - 99 € – Mac Windows – AutoPano is an up-and-coming image stitching program that is easy to use and has a nice interface. kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in The idea of the software, in case the name didn’t make it obvious, is to create panoramas automatically. It’s great when it works, but I ran into many issues when trying to stitch together images that PTGUI did easily. If they can get these issues fixed, AutoPano and their partnership with
Adobe Photoshop – US$600 – Mac Windows – Photoshop is the most powerful photo editing software in the world, and many people who are into photography and design will already own it. Photoshop gives you the ability to create panoramas, but in my experience, dedicated image-stitching software will do the job faster and with far more customization options.
Hugin – Free! – Mac, Windows Linux – Hugin is a free program developed using the PT Tools framework, so it has the same backbone as PTGUI. The  program works great once you figure it all out. As with most free software, the documentation and support is not its shining point. However, if you don’t want to fork over the money for one of the other options, Hugin’s a great choice.
Once we’ve got our panorama, it’s time to make the magic happen. Retouching kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in the image is entirely optional, but if you want to make your Virtual Tours really shine, kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in you will need to retouch them. My retouching generally consists of getting rid of brown patches of grass, making the sky blue, fixing the exposure in dark and bright areas, etc. It truly makes a difference, and your clients will love you for putting work into making their place look beautiful. Here is the software you can use to do this:
Adobe Photoshop – US$650 – Mac Windows – As I mentioned earlier, Photoshop is the most powerful photo editing software in the world, kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in and as a photographer kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in and Virtual Tour provider, I could not live without kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in it. Knowing how to use Photoshop is a great skill that will help you tremendously improve the quality of your tours. In addition to retouching the panorama, you can also design your logo and custom Virtual Tour interface with it.
Photoshop Elements – US$80 – Mac Windows – If you’re only looking to retouch your panoramas and aren’t in need of Photoshop’s endless feature list, Elements is a great option that won’t break the bank.
GIMP – Free! – Mac, Windows Linux – GIMP is a community-developed image manipulation program that is completely free. I have never personally used it, but I have seen some outstanding work done in GIMP, so if your budget’s tight, definitely check it out.
We’ve got our beautified panorama(s) ready, so now we need to take those images and create the Flash or Quicktime Virtual Tour that will be seen by millions! (Ok, maybe not millions, but uhhh…thousands?) There are a few good options for creating the actual Virtual Tours, but as you’ll see, one really stands out.
Pano2VR – US$70 – Mac, Windows Linux – Pano2VR is Virtual Tour software that stands head and shoulders above other programs in terms of ease of use and customization options. In addition to giving you the option of outputting your tours to Flash, Quicktime, or HTML5 for embedding into a webpage, Pano2VR will also help you create a stand-alone HTML page that will get your tours online very easily. I shouldn’t even bother mentioning the rest, it’s that good.
AutoPano Giga – AutoPano Giga allows you to create simple Virtual Tours very easily. AutoPano is looking to integrate with KRPANO in the near future, which could drastically improve its interface customization.
After producing the Virtual Tour, we’ll need to make a web page to embed it in. There are  tons of choices out there for creating and modifying websites, but I’ll highlight a few of the popular platforms.
Pano2VR – US$70 – Mac, Windows Linux – Pano2VR gives you several options for creating the webpage that you can embed your Virtual Tour into. You can change the size, background color, and the title of a webpage right in Pano2VR
Adobe Dreamweaver – US$399 – Mac Windows – Dreamweaver is a great way to make customized web pages that can be used to house your Virtual Tours. It’s the web-design industry standard, and you can’t go wrong with it.
I know it seems impossible to sort through the massive pile of software and figure out what you should be using to create Virtual Tours, but hopefully it’s a bit clearer now. After experimenting kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in with my workflow, I’ve found that the following is a great combination that meets all my software needs:
The software that I’ve talked about here is all very powerful, but with this power comes a bit of a learning curve. Throughout this blog, you will find tutorials that may require a basic knowledge of the software that I use. So, if you’re just learning kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in how to use Photoshop, Dreamweaver, or Lightroom, I can’t recommend Lynda.com enough! I’ve learned almost everything I know about the software I use with their fantastic training titles. For less prominent software, such as Pano2VR, AutoPano, kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in etc, there are tutorials scattered around the Internet, and I will do my best to consolidate them on my Resources page.
Thanks for writing! I hope I m not too late with this response. Pano2VR will allow you to output all of the files necessary to create the virtual tour and embed it in a website, but you need to host it somewhere. So when you re making kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in your virtual tour in Pano2VR, you will have the option to output an html page. The output will produce a few other files in addition to the html file (flash file, javascript file, xml file, etc.) and all of those files can be uploaded to a server via FTP. When someone types in the address of the html file, they ll see your virtual tour! Pano2VR also has developed a wordpress plugin kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in which allows you to easily embed your virtual tours in wordpress files. kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in Hope that helps!
I recently switched from Photomatix Pro to LR/Enfuse to blend my HDR shots. The results I get seem to be more of a natural look and require less tweaking. Plus it can run batches straight from Lightroom kenny chesney concert tour in lafayette la in stacks and reimport the images to the stacks!