I have the following two images, with a stick in the peak of a golf ball in one, and in the trough in another:
They are very similar, however they are slightly misaligned due to nodal pans in between photos. We can safely assume that the size/position of the golf ball, focal length, Y/Z position, Y/Z tilt and zoom of the camera have all remained the same. All that has changed is that the camera may have moved ever so slightly forward or backwards, and panned at most 10deg from left to right, and that the stick has also possibly tilted on the X axis. Is there any way, using Photoshop, Lightroom and/or GIMP/Hugin to line up these images? As fairly evident by the subject of the photos, I am trying to measure the depth of the pit, but I first need to line up the images before I can make the calculations. I have been able to line them up after an hour of painstaking manual warping, but I am looking for an easier method that works automatically. I have found some tools (like Hugin on CMD) that work fairly well, but the rotation of the stick seems to throw it off. Are there any better tools/methods for doing this (I have 20+ sets of images that I can't spend a whole week lining up)?
Thanks.