Microsoft ICE - Free Panoramic software

Upon reading a post in DePressingReview, I downloaded Microsoft's ICE stitching software which is FREE!
Download it from here - link

It's very easy to use and seems to produce really excellent results. Here's a panoramic I took in Provence in June from 6 shots with my K20D and DA 16-45 mounted on a tripod, exposure fixed manually, ISO 100 lens at 36mm @ f8.0.




Take a look at this 12MP 50% resized shot from the original 48MP image. link

You just couldn't achieve this kind of resolution from any ultra-wide lens, that's why I gave up on ultra wide lenses for landscape work.

Further details about the shot here link

I like the shot a lot, the stitching isn't bad for Microsoft although you can detect the joins in the sky it certainly isn't obvious.

I'll stick with Hugin, which is also free, but it's always worth knowing what's out there.

Hugin is much more complex and slower to use, but I do agree that the joins are much better.

Thanks for the link and info.

In the past I've struggled with this type of work and had poor results, in fact my Optio E50 gives batter results straight from the camera than I'd achieved previously.

Might try again now.

I agree with Mongoose that its a very pleasing panorama, although some joins are visible in the sky, and additional sources of free software are always welcome.

In my experience the 'only' way to prevent sky joins showing is not only to shoot full manual (aperture, shutter and focus) but also to shoot in RAW. Find the darkest and lightest photo in the sequence and find a set of RAW conversion parameters which suits them both then do a RAW to TIFF (or PSD if using Photoshop). Failure to use RAW and convert like this will result in the camera applying differing amounts of processing to a series of JPG exposures.

This is a 360 degree panorama I shot last year using leveled tripod, K20D and 28mm shift to control the amount of foreground/sky giving 17 RAW pictures all equally processed to PSD then hand merged in Photoshop.


A larger version may be seen at larger panorama I promise you there are no joins visible even in the full size TIFF (41506 x 3543 pixels and 450MB) either.

Because I had trimmed the panorama to exactly 360 degrees I applied a polar distortion which I then used for CD labels.

Here is one done in camera with the Pentax X70 without software,

[IMG]http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq253/jackitec/gourock15-1.jpg[/IMG]

This is exactly what I am looking for!

Downloading ICE now, thank you!


Paul