Fotox has one of the easiest panorama-creation tools, and it does a nice job of knitting the images together. Make it easier on yourself- use a tripod, and have at least 10% overlap on each photo. Fotox only lets you add one image at a time, and each new image is attached on the right side of the window. You can create good panoramas from less-than-deal photos with Fotox; it's just more work. Increase your blend width to mask mismatches. Fotox doesn't do much to help you select your images- you can't select new additions to the panorama from the thumbnail windows, but have to use the file picker in Edit Images -> Panorama. This has no preview, so you have to already know your filenames.

An important setting for panoramas is the lens focal length and lens bow. Set your focal length according to the EXIF data and then hit the auto-search button. This takes a minute or two, and it should make a pretty good match. You may also tweak it manually.

Fotox's HDR tool is a simple one that blends only two images. Again, you'll get the best results when you use a tripod and are careful with your exposures from the start. It will try to align images that are not perfectly-matched, but this doesn't always work. You may feel deprived at being limited to blending two images, but the only thing you'll be deprived of is making cartoony images. If you're trying for a realistic appearance, merging two well-exposed photos is what you want to do.

Resources

• Fotox
• Qtpfsgui for more complex HDR imaging
• Fie on Photoshop: Krita, the Real Photoshop Killer
• Gimp vs. Photoshop
• Fotox, unlike Adobe, doesn't put people in jail
• Tweak photos with Fotox

Carla Schroder is the author of the Linux Cookbook and the newly-released Linux Networking Cookbook, and is a regular contributor to LinuxPlanet.

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