Microwave Rice

I have been playing around with Microsoft ICE (AKA Microwave Rice) to produce some interesting images. It is a very versatile bit of software that is free to download. This view across the marina is a 180 degree panorama. This is made up of 63 18 Meg images. The original print size of the image is 273 inch x 60 inch (22'9" x 5' 0") and is a 179 Megs in size. The image below has then been reduced down to produce a thumbnail 18" x 4" inch version and is 1 Meg in size.

Autumnal sunrise from the back deck of my boat 'Rosie'.

The blurb about the Microsoft Image Composite Editor says that Microsoft ICE is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. Given a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location, the application creates a high-resolution panorama that seamlessly combines the original images. The stitched panorama can be shared with friends and viewed in 3D by uploading it to the Photosynth web site. 

Here is one I did earlier: Click Me

Or the panorama can be saved in a wide variety of image formats, from common formats like JPEG and TIFF to the multi-resolution tiled format used by Silverlight's Deep Zoom and by the HD View and HD View SL panorama viewers.

The prototype image above gives an idea how the Image Composite Editor manipulates the images and then seamlessly joins all the edges together. The shape above is used to generate a CinemaScope type of image representation.  Where you can pan left or right as well as zoom into the image.

The Editor is free of charge and comes without support. However, if you have questions or issues, you may find help at the Image Composite Editor Forum, which provides user-based support.