Tech Tip on a Tuesday – Creating panoramic photos with Windows Live Photo Gallery and ICE

You can create great panoramic photographs with Windows Live Photo Gallery and Microsoft ICE. Windows Live Photo Gallery is a free tool from Microsoft that most of us already have on our Windows 7 PCs.

Windows Live Photo Gallery Download

The Windows Live Photo Gallery software is an optional part of Windows Update so you should already have it in your queue or on your system.

If you do not have it you can download it from:

http://windowslive.com/Desktop/PhotoGallery

Take Pictures

For best results you should take pictures on a tripod or keep a level hand as you take pictures across the horizon. Take a picture, turn slightly and take another. The more pictures the software has, the better your stitch. Try to overlap large or distinct elements such as walls, buildings and trees to help the software stitch.

Once you have your pictures on your PC, access them from inside Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Select the pictures you want to stitch, right mouse click and select Create panoramic photo…

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Once the panoramic is complete you will have a large panoramic file with crazy large dimensions. Just crop if you want to and post or print!

You are also not limited to stitch horizontal. These pictures were taken looking down from a balcony. The panoramic stitching tool will combine photos based on similar edges and elements.

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More Control and Scaling Options with ICE

If you want more or less detail, or to maintain the original resolution in your panoramic pictures, then you can always use the Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) I talked about earlier this year.

The ICE will give you the option of scaling versus the default of Windows Live Photo Gallery.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ICE/

Use the Planar Motion setting for panoramic pictures and best results.

SkyDrive

I uploaded these two large panoramic files to my SkyDrive.

http://cid-35627bde2df631c6.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/.Public

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Have fun with this cool functionality and both of these Microsoft tools!

See you next Tuesday,

Tim