Microsoft ICE - controlling image order

[BrendanC]

Does anyone here know much about Microsoft ICE?

I've got two images with a big overlap. One is slightly better than the other, so I want the better one to be most of the image, with the less good one stitched onto that.

But it always does it the other way around, so that the less good image is used in whole, and the better one in part.

How do you control which image is 'on top' as it were? I've tried changing file names and dates etc, but no joy.

Thanks, Brendan
 

[happy-kat]

Did you try changing which one you added first

[BrendanC]

You have to add two in one go, you can't import one image and then add another, unfortunately. That's the first thing I tried!

I just cannot figure this out.

[happy-kat]

Given there are at least two date fields is the order reflecting date modified rather than date created or even date taken for example.

[BrendanC]

Played around with them too, no joy.

I have Affinity which someone just told me does panoramas too. It worked - but I have exactly the same problem there too!

This is driving me nuts.

[BrendanC]

So, Affinity does look like it has more control over panoramas with masking etc. First try, it did something weird with some stars. Second, it got it right but had no colour in StarTools. But I'll persevere with it cos it's a 'live' product. I do not understand why Microsoft shelved ICE. ICE was ace.

Anyway, I added more data to the 'bad' image last night to make it better - and now ICE uses it less! What's that all about then?

Weird. Never mind...

[happy-kat]

maybe the image with greater contrast gets used more

[ollypenrice]

Just crop the one you like less before feeding them into ICE. Then it has to use the good one!

I find it generally best not to give ICE a large overlap because it makes a mushy blend of the two at the overlap. Smaller overlap, less mush. 

Olly

[BrendanC]

Just to tie this one off, I discovered that Affinity Pro has a great panorama feature and that did the job nicely - much more control over which bits of which images to include.

So, finally finished - a four-pane mosaic going from the North America Nebula across to the Pelican Nebula. Culmination of the past 8 clear nights, and literally hours and hours of trying to  get it to work. I've never done a mosaic of a nebula before and it was a very steep learning curve (yes, another one).

* 17:39 hours of integration at ISO800 from 120x120s + 37x180s + 177x240s subs, over 8 nights
* Bortle 4 sky, Moon average 60% phase, 27° height
* Calibration: 25 flats, 25 dark flats, 50 darks
* Hardware: Sky-Watcher 130PDS scope (F5), Sky-Watcher NEQ6 mount, Canon EOS1000D DSLR camera with IR filter removed, Sky-Watcher 0.9x coma corrector, Datyson T7C guide camera, Angel Eyes 50mm guide scope
* Software: Polar alignment with SharpCap Pro, guiding with PHD2, capture with Astrophotography Tool (APT), stacking with Deep Sky Stacker (DSS), post-processing with StarTools, Photoshop CS2, Affinity Photo and Topaz Denoise AI, mangling with Facebook

 

Edited July 24, 2021 by BrendanC

[happy-kat]

Lovely composite, great expanse covered.

[Jonk]

I've given up using MS ICE, I don't think it is supported any more and is fairly old now.

I currently use Hugin for panoramas, so maybe give that a go?

[BrendanC]

Affinity Photo's panorama feature did the trick in the end.