Create panoramas the easy way

Panorama images may seem difficult to create but, believe it or not, it’s more a question of choosing the right stitching software rather than being artistically gifted.

Microsoft Image Composite Editor is a photo editor that lets you create panoramas in a snap. All you have to do is open the files that make up the panoramic view and let the program take care of the rest.

For those who prefer tweaking with settings, there are a couple of configuration options in Microsoft Image Composite Editor to fiddle with, namely Stitching Method and Cropping Area. When it comes to exporting the final result, Microsoft Image Composite Editor lets you choose among several different formats.

In general terms I’d say Microsoft Image Composite Editor is a fantastic tool to take your first steps in the creation of panoramas. Power users will probably find too limited and restrictive, and will surely miss having some more manual options, not to mention the possibility to view images separately.

Microsoft Image Composite Editor lets you create panorama images in a couple of clicks, with generally excellent results.

Accelerated stitching on multiple CPU coresAbility to publish, view, and share panoramas on the Photosynth web siteSupport for “structured panoramas” — panoramas consisting of hundreds of photos taken in a rectangular grid of rows and columns (usually by a robotic device like the GigaPan tripod heads)No image size limitation — stitch gigapixel panoramasSupport for input images with 8 or 16 bits per componentAbility to read raw images using WIC codecsPhotoshop layer and large document support

Changes

• Accelerated stitching on multiple CPU coresAbility to publish, view, and share panoramas on the Photosynth web siteSupport for “structured panoramas” — panoramas consisting of hundreds of photos taken in a rectangular grid of rows and columns (usually by a robotic device like the GigaPan tripod heads)No image size limitation — stitch gigapixel panoramasSupport for input images with 8 or 16 bits per componentAbility to read raw images using WIC codecsPhotoshop layer and large document support