14 DAY TRIAL // There is nothing like a view into the horizon from a high vantage point or the proud majesty of a tall tree in a field, or the froth of clouds blowing in a gentle spring wind. While I may have taken a slight poetic turn here, there is one thing all the mentioned above have in common, and that is that they are hard to capture in one single photograph. To capture the essence of a landscape, you would have to take several photographs, but even then, viewing them in succession would not give the same effect. To capture such a landscape you would have to stitch the images together to form a panorama, something that can prove to be quite a task depending on how you go about it.
Fortunately, there are dedicated programs out there, such as Calico.
What it does
Calico is a panorama stitching software. It is designed to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to making panoramas, leaving you to only worry about taking the individual pictures.
It does everything by itself, and after you feed it the images you have next to no control over the way it stitches everything together and creates the final panorama, the choice only coming to you afterwards when it is time to save it.
Automatic for the people
I remember reviewing another similar program quite some time ago, one that was less automated. While that program did produce good results, you would often have to tweak them for quite a while until they were just right, and I remember working with a panorama that consisted of only 3 images.
Calico is quite different, as it does everything by itself. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your approach and style. However, regardless of how much you like to get into the dirty details and mess around in the process, there is one thing that cannot be denied? The automated processing of the photos is incredibly fast and accurate, with surprisingly good results.
Granted, sometimes the output can be strange and unexpected, and there is nothing you can do except to exclude certain photos from the input or go and take another batch, but most of the time, it works great.
Panorama photographs?
The first test I did with this program was using a set of photographs that were provided as reference material with another similar program. After loading up the images and pressing the Align button, it started doing its thing and was done quite quickly, a lot faster than I was expecting. The result was exactly what I was expecting except for the height that seemed a bit smaller than in the other program, but upon inspection of the image it was not squashed.
After having done that I loaded up a series of very, very bad photos that I had taken a while back while messing around with my tripod. Just so we're clear, these photos had different exposure settings, totally different white balance, some were over exposed and some were just plain messed up by my ancient camera's moody white balance. While the result had a very unnatural shape, the stitching of the photographs together was impeccable and the colors were all uniform as was the exposure. I'm not sure how it selects and processes the images but it does it remarkably well out of the box.
Bottom line is, while some similar programs require photos to be taken very well and have enough similarity between them, this one chews though everything and delivers amazing results even from the worst possible input.
Hands tied
The great thing and the worst thing about this program is how it does not let you interfere at all in the stitching process. For those wanting to simply get the job done with minimal hassle, this approach is ideal. For those who want to know why the result was not exactly what they expected, and who want to try tweaking things so that they might get better results, this approach is a nightmare.
The only real option given to you during the composition process is the selection of the first image. This image is especially important and it will be treated as the reference point and all others will be placed around it.
Other than the selection of the first image, the only other place where you have a say in the resulting panorama is after the stitching takes place, and before you actually save the output.
The Good
Fast and pretty much fully automated with great results. Smart enough to handle even the worst possible of photos you throw at it.
The Bad
You have next to no control over the stitching process and if something does go wrong, your only options are to either try a different order or go out and take a new set of photos.
The Truth
If you want great fast result with a minimal bother, than give this a try. If you are a sticker for fine control over each step of the process this program will frustrate you.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
