How to Create Stunning Panoramas With Python and OpenCV
Panoramic photography is the technique of capturing a wider field of view that a single photograph cannot achieve. This technique stitches multiple images together to create a single image that captures the entire scene in an immersive way.
With the help of Python, you can automate this process and create beautiful panoramas with ease.
Setting Up Your Python Environment
To follow through, you should have abasic understanding of Python. Launch any Python IDE andcreate a new virtual environment. Create a new Python file. And on the terminal, run the following command to install OpenCV.
You will use theopencv-contrib-pythonlibrary to load images and manipulate them. It has thecv2.Stitcherclass which you will use to create the panoramas.
The full source code and sample images used in this article are available in thisGitHub repository.
Importing the Required Libraries
Import thecv2andosmodules into your script. You will use OS to navigate through the system paths.
TheOS moduleis a built-in module of Python. This is the reason you do not need to install it externally.
Loading the Images
Create a function for loading the images you want to stitch. First, create an empty list that will store the initial images. Then loop through each file in the folder path checking whether the file is an image. If it is an image, load and append it to the list of images.
You can add more image file formats to diversify your program. This code will only look for.jpgand.pngfile formats.
Resizing the Images for a Uniform Stitch and Faster Processing
Create a function that will resize the list of images. The function will loop through each image in the list and resize it. Finally, append the resized images to a new list.
Resizing makes sure the stitching of the images is uniform. It also reduces the file size for faster processing.
Using the OpenCV’s Stitcher Module to Stitch the Images
Create a function for stitching the resized images together. This technique is commonly known as creating a panorama. The function will take a list of images as input. Use theStitchermodule to stitch them together. Finally, the function will return a stitched image and a status code.
If the stitching was successful (as indicated by thecv2.STITCHER_OKstatus code), the function will return the stitched image. Otherwise, it will returnNone.
Cropping the Stitched Image
Create a function that will take in the stitched image and return it after cropping it. First, convert the stitched image to grayscale. Then apply a binary threshold to create a binary image. Finally, find the largest contour in the binary image and calculate its bounding rectangle.
The stitched image is cropped using the bounding rectangle.
Previewing and Saving the Stitched Image Using OpenCV
Create a function that will display the stitched image in an interactive window and will save it to the disk.
The panorama image is saved in the same folder that contains the original images.
Controlling the Flow of Your Program
Create a function that will control the flow of your program. It will load all the images from the specified folder. Resize and stitch them together. Crop the stitched image, display its preview, and then save it to disk. If there are fewer than two images in the folder, the function will print an error message and return without performing any stitching or saving.
Pass the folder path containing the images you want to stitch.
The images that you use should contain overlapping features. These features can be anything from prominent landmarks to texture patterns in the image. OpenCV uses them as a reference point to align the images.
Without these features, it will be difficult for OpenCV to align the images and create a seamless panorama.
Testing Your Program
Collect the images that you want to transform into a panorama image. Ensure that they have overlapping features.
Take a look at the hill in this first image.
In this second image, the hill is slightly visible. This creates an overlapping feature.
Save the images to a folder. Pass the folder path to thestitch_folderfunction for stitching. And then run the program.
The program stitched the images together and created a panoramic image with a wider view of the scene. Note that to create the above panoramic image, nine images were used that are present in the above-mentioned GitHub repository.
Manipulation of Images Using OpenCV
Creating panoramas demonstrates some of the many image manipulation techniques that OpenCV offers. There are more techniques you can use to manipulate images to suit your need. Working on more projects involving image manipulation will help you improve your computer vision skills in general.
You may not be able to pass yourself off as a great artist with this program, but you can still use it to produce some impressive-looking imagery.
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