Palo Alto, California – Panolapse is introducing an innovative feature for timelapse photographers to assist in animating light and color over time. The feature, RAWBlend, can automatically tune the brightness of a series of images over time to create a smooth gradation. RAWBlend works by analyzing an image’s metadata, calculating its light value from the image file’s embedded camera settings such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO noise value. The powerful software determines and sets the exact exposure value for each image, transforming timelapses into smooth sequences that even span traditionally difficult lighting conditions (such as sunrise or sunset).

Known as the “holy grail lapse,” timelapse sequences spanning sunrise or sunset can be the most impressive, but also the most difficult to properly capture due to the changing light. Amateurish results often yield overly-bright or over-dark sequences with fluttering light. Traditional techniques have involved manually tuning the exposure values of each file by hand, or using custom-installed firmware in digital cameras whereby the photographer pre-estimates the beginning and ending exposure values of the sequence. Both of these approaches are unwieldy, as hand-tuning is cumbersome and imprecise while firmware applies inflexible pre-programmed values.

RAWBlend and its innovative auto-exposure approach allows photographers to shoot at virtually any exposure value, tuning the exposure values of the images afterwards in software. The program supports the common RAW file formats used by many cameras, which captures additional scene data and allows the photographer to adjust the file in post-processing at virtually lossless quality. The program allows photographers can shoot any exposure and tune it into the perfect exposure.

RAWBlend also supports adjusting a variety of image parameters including exposure, color temperature, shadows, highlights, contrast, and more. As photographers work in a variety of changing conditions over hours or even days, RAWBlend helps make their work easier by animating image parameters smoothly.

The update also includes other advanced features such as deflicker and panorama support. The deflicker tool enhances smoothness of a video sequence by analyzing pixel-level brightness of each image, and then averaging out the brightness of each frame over time. Panolapse has also added support for animating 360-degrees equirectangular panoramic image files, enhancing its movement simulation capabilities.

System Requirements:
* Windows PC, Mac OSX
* 70 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Panolapse is free to download with output support up to 1280×720 HD resolution. The full version supports 4K resolution and higher.

Panolapse
RAWBlend
Vimeo Video (Demo)
Screenshot (RAWBlend UI)
Screenshot (RAWBlend)
Logo Image

Panolapse360 was created by Patrick Shyu in May 2013 for use with the HD timelapses in the Blue Eden project. Panolapse aims to improve timelapse software workflow for professionals and novices. All Material and Software (C) 2014 Patrick Shyu. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.