DoubleTake

DoubleTake

Version 1.6.2

Sample images

While you read this manual you may download this disk image with 4 samples (8 images mainly from Yosemite National Park): Samples (7.4 MB)

Guide for DoubleTake version 2.0

This page is for DoubleTake version 1.6.2. Guide for version 2.0

Starting DoubleTake

Drag images into DoubleTakeTo stitch two or more images seamlessly together, wide or tall panorama, drag them onto DoubleTake. This will also work when DoubleTake is in the Dock, or if you drag from iPhoto.

When DoubleTake opens the images, it takes a look at the edges of the images and makes a guess about the arrangement, left, right top or bottom. The guess may be mistaken, but you can drag the images into the correct order. Perhaps with one click on the zoom out button to increase the overview.
If you drag all the images you wish to join at once you get the automatic guess. If you drag one image at at time it gets dropped where you release the mouse.
Seam handles

Adjusting the seam

On this screenshot you can vaguely see a colorshift in the water because of the seam.
To make a wider seam and spread out the color change, drag one of the bottom triangular handles, until the transition is smooth.


Keyboard Shortcuts

Without other keys held down: + and - zooms in and out.
Alt key held down while dragging anywhere in the window, scrolls everything.

Locking Overlaps

When you wish to stitch together many images, it is convenient to be able to lock an overlap when it has been aligned. This is the purpose of the overlap menu. The space bar is an alternate shortcut for locking an overlap.
Images locked at the overlaps will move together with the mouse.
If you select more than one image by clicking on it while holding town the shift key, you can also move the images together.

Moving and aligning

When you drag the images the overlap is shown with transparent images.

This allows you to align the edges in the images, and better decide if you want to move the seam away from the middle of the overlap. A diagonal seam can be useful in some cases.

Undo is supported to undo unintended move(s).

Keyboard Shortcuts

Single click on one image selects it (shown with small red handles). Then it can be moved with arrow keys, and deleted with backspace.

And when it looks just right

You save the finished image, and perhaps you drag the saved result back into iPhoto if that was where the images came from.

Dragback

Crop, Fisheye & Focal length


toolbar

Crop
DoubleTake offers two ways of cropping of the result. Either the total crop, where the white areas surrounding misaligned picture are included. Or inside cropping with no white areas.

Fisheye
Lets you apply fisheye-style distortion to the image. Good if the image has straight lines across the seam area close to the edges of the image. You can turn this feature off, with horizontal lines bent or with vertical lines bent.

Focal Length

This is only used for the fisheye distortion. The shorter the focal length used when the picture was taken the more distortion. You can adjust the slider and ignore what the camera may have written into the image file when the image was taken.Then you can use the manual override, to tell DoubleTake what focal length the images were taken at.

Iphoto Integration
iPhoto Adjust

More iPhoto integration

When you work with many images in one panorama, it can happen that a few of the images are exposed differently, or rotated a bit.
Perhaps the differences are not apparent when images are viewed separately in iPhoto, but side-by-side viewing in DoubleTake reveals the differences.

iPhoto has good exposure and rotation tools, so you can use those even after you have opened the images in DoubleTake.

When you switch back to DoubleTake, it will notice which images have been changed, and reload those.

Overlap MenuMany images

When you drop many images into DoubleTake, Zoom to fit will make the overlaps rather small. If you then zoom in to see each overlap clearly you can jump to the next overlap with the Next and Previous menu (and their shortcuts).

The lock and unlock function can be used when you have adjusted an overlap, and you don't want to move the images apart by accident. The 2 images now select and deselect together, and  they move together when you drag with the mouse.

Reset is only if you have adjusted the seam width or dragged the seam away from the center of the overlap.

DoubleTake file format

If you have arranged many images, you may save the arrangement as well as saving the completed image. This is good if you want to make a change later. Then you don't have to rearrange all the images again.
The format does not save copies of the images, but just their location on your disk. If you move the images, then you should put the DoubleTake file the same place, so it can find them.

An other reason to save these files is if DoubleTake gets new features, then it is easy to open old image sets.

Limitations


The images should be arranged either horizontally or vertically. In this version (DoubleTake 1.6) "matrix" arrangement is not actively supported (but not prevented either).

The images should be taken at the same resolution, and for best results with the same exposure. Most cameras have a feature which lets you take more pictures with the same exposure and focus settings. If this is not done you can adjust images to be evenly exposed in iPhoto.

iPhoto 5's rotation feature is very well made and excellent for straightening up images if needed.

Miscellaneous

AppleScript Menu item for tighter integration with iPhoto: download (200 kB). This is currently just an other convenient way of opening images in DoubleTake from iPhoto, where the menu is used instead of drag and drop. Now this tip is not that needed as DoubleTake understands copy & paste from iPhoto. Time will show what happens with Automator.

Contact

Feedback, report bugs and questions are welcome to:

Henrik Dalgaard
Echo One
feedback@echoone.com

My time zone: Central European - I live in Denmark.