Microsoft ICE is a spiffy free stitcher

I took a handful of pictures with my NEX (that's me on the couch) and then just plopped them into Microsoft ICE -- http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ICE/ -- it figured out which to put where, and now I'm left wondering whether I should even bother with the NEX's built-in pano mode...

Seems like a much more general purpose tool than the Nex panoramic stitcher. Would like to know a bit about your "workflow". For example, how long did it take for you to set up the stitch of how many images?

RussellInCincinnati said:

Seems like a much more general purpose tool than the Nex panoramic stitcher. Would like to know a bit about your "workflow". For example, how long did it take for you to set up the stitch of how many images?

Click to expand...

I put very little thought or planning into it (apart from that I wanted to include myself). I took about 12 pictures, and then simply dragged them into ICE. Actually, at first I had a few more artifacts so I deselected a picture or two, and then dragged them back in again.

The Pano mode is great, but leaves very little room for editing. Software such as the one you mentioned help create a much more custom look.

Thanks for the info.
--
Novice photobug, proud NEX-3 owner
http://davesnex-3photos.blogspot.com/

no osx?

that looks great.

Autostitch is also much better than using the internal nex stitcher - available here

http://cvlab.epfl.ch/~brown/autostitch/autostitch.html

...it inputs lots of photos in any order like this -
(one of 58)



and turns it into this -

You can get more efficient stitching of images in ICE if all the pics are shot on the same level or levels. For horizontal panos this fairly easy to do if you use a tripod allowing about 25% overlap. Single row panos will be deeper if shot using the vertical format but ideally require a special bracket if used on a tripod.

Random shots can be used but tend to lead to the type of output shown by the OP ie. irregular shaped photos which require heavy cropping.

The program will attempt to match colour & exposure but can be helped to achieve a more even final photo if exposure & WB is standardised at the time of shooting or in PP before mixing. It works best , like most pano programs , if there isn't too much movement between successive frames.
--
Keith-C

OSXers take DoubleTake
http://echoone.com/doubletake/
this is 3 NEX-panos stitched by DoubleTake
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/39599208

turnstyle said:

I took a handful of pictures with my NEX (that's me on the couch) and then just plopped them into Microsoft ICE -- http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ICE/ -- it figured out which to put where, and now I'm left wondering whether I should even bother with the NEX's built-in pano mode...

Click to expand...

For the highest resolution, use an external panorama software to stitch individual photos.

If size isn't a concern -- say, you plan to downsize to place on web, or won't print a large panorama -- then the built-in mode might do. I like the built-in mode for the instant feedback, because it's quick (to take and faster to send out), and even because it doesn't use excessive storage. But if I think I might want higher quality, I snap multiple photos.

Here's my biggest problem using stitching -- because I typically don't drag a tripod around, I don't always get a neat, orderly progression of pics. Also, movement of people and clouds will cause problems, although, usually the computer software is better at dealing with problems (but not always!). But if I get something wrong, I don't know until later that I wish I had snapped just one more pic. to fill in a hole, or whatever.

So, there are times where I like to "chimp" and verify that a panorama has worked without major stitching errors. But yeah, typically, just go with the old method and stitch multiple photos using the computer.
--
Gary W.

skybump's link to Autostitch also links to http://www.kolor.com/ which seems offer lots of manual control, though it's commercial software.

I've been experimenting a bit with Lightroom -- for example, I'm curious to see if simple crop and tone adjustments can improve the quality of the final stitch.

KEITH-C said:

You can get more efficient stitching of images in ICE if all the pics are shot on the same level or levels. For horizontal panos this fairly easy to do if you use a tripod allowing about 25% overlap. Single row panos will be deeper if shot using the vertical format but ideally require a special bracket if used on a tripod.

Random shots can be used but tend to lead to the type of output shown by the OP ie. irregular shaped photos which require heavy cropping.

The program will attempt to match colour & exposure but can be helped to achieve a more even final photo if exposure & WB is standardised at the time of shooting or in PP before mixing. It works best , like most pano programs , if there isn't too much movement between successive frames.

Click to expand...

I used a tripod (I'm in the picture after all!) but I wasn't picky about moving pointing the camera in carefully angled steps -- I mostly just wanted the tripod to remain in place.

I actually see heavy cropping as an advantage, rather than a detriment. Meaning, with more of the scene capture, you have more flexibility in how you crop.

I've been shooting raw (so I can adjust WB later) -- but it would be interesting to see how a set of Manual mode shots would compare.

I've not used ICE, so can't say whether it's better or worse, but I swear by Hugin:

http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Free, open source... the latest 4.0 release has come on leaps-and-bounds in the automatic hands-free stitching. You plug 'em in and hit go, and it figures everything out.

Well, I enter my lens details, (focal length and crop factor - 1.52 is the true value I believe) - as this helps it get a dead accurate solve.

The nice thing about Hugin is, that once it's done the initial stitch, you can either output it to a final render, or tweak any one of a hundred different settings to fine-tune it.

It has very powerful colour/exposure matching, can automatically remove vignetting, lets you pick from about 20 different 3D projections, and lots of other nice little additions.

ICE is a supereasy stitcher software.

Even better is that you can show the panoramic / gigapixel pictures in HD-view also available from microsoft.

Take a look at my gigapixel picture from Bergen (Norway) here. Try to zoom in to see the details. (You may have to wait a little bit to update the pictures when zooming)
http://www.panoramahardanger.no/HTML/panorama/giga_floyen.html

Here is a 360 deg panorama insode a church. (It is a glitch at the wire in the middle of in the midle. I had to moove because of a worker, and all pictures were not taken from the same spot.
http://www.panoramahardanger.no/HTML/panorama/360_tolga_kirke.html