Entries from January 2007
January 31st, 2007 · 1 Comment
In Part 1 of this series, we examined how to set up your camera to take effective source photos to create a panorama.
Update: fixed some bad HTML markup
All-righty, then. Now that you have your pictures that you want to stitch together, move them from your camera an into your computer. I find that it is much easier to create a separate folder for each Panorama you took.
Now, go and get yourself a copy of Autostitch. This program is free, although it is not Open Source. Read the license agreement for what you can and cannot do with pictures stitched together with Autostitch (short version: if your are making images for personal use, you’re all good.)
Unzip the files to a folder on your computer. Autostitch requires no installation, once you are unzipped, you are ready to go.
Create your First Panorama.
Ok, here we go. Start Autostitch by double clicking the autostitch.exe file. You’ll see Autostich’s rather minimal interface:
Just Select “open” from the “File” menu. Navigate to the folder you created with the Images for the Panorama, and select all those images. (CTRL+click to select multiple images)
Once you click the “Open” button on the dialog box, Autostich will get busy creating the Panorama. Depending on how many images you have, and the speed of your computer this assembly can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. A small window with a progress bar will let you know that Autostitch is doing it’s thing.
When the progress bar disappears, your panorama has been created. You will find a new file in the folder where your source images were called “Pano.jpg” Open that picture to see what you have created.
By default, Autostitch makes pretty small images. This is to keep rendering time down, so you can see what it will look like in a minimum amount of time.
If you are pleased with the result, you can have autostitch create a high-resolution version. Just go to “Edit” then “options”
Look for the “Output size” in the upper left hand corner. Select the “Scale%” radio button, and change the value to say 100%. Click OK, then repeat the steps to create the panorama. This will take MUCH longer to create. Have patience.
Here you can see the source images, and resulting panorama using autostitch.
If your panorama needs any adjustments, you can always follow this tutorial using Picasa.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
Have you created a panorama using this technique? Link to it in the comments, I’d love to see.
I know there are a whole mess of other panorama-creating programs out there, are there any easier / better than Autostitch?
[tags]Autostitch, Panorama, Picasa, tutorial[/tags]
Tags: Photo Editing · Technique
January 31st, 2007 · 1 Comment
Update: Fixed some bad HTML markup.
In Part 1, we’ll look at how to set your camera up to get a good series of pictures to make a panorama.
I really like creating panoramic images with my camera. A Panoramic image is a series of pictures taken with your regular camera, then stitched together using software on your computer to make one complete image.
Unfortunately, when I have tried to create them before, I have ended up with long pictures that look like they have been just kinda stuck together. The result are pictures with seams, or portions of the picture that just sort of dissolve away into thin air. Something like this detail from a larger Panorama.
< Thankfully there is a free software package that will greatly assist in creating panoramic images.
But first, I'll also share a couple few techniques I have found that make the final result a little better.
1a. If your camera has Panorama Assist, use it.
Many point and shoot digital cameras have a setting that will help you create you panoramas. For example, when using the Panorama Assist on my Nikon point and shoot after each shot, the LCD will display the left third of the image in the right third of the window. The idea being that as you rotate the camera, you simply overlap that bit in the next photo and the stitching will go much easier.
1b. If you don’t have Pano assist, Overlap your images by half a frame.
This may seem like overkill, but it will give the stitching software a better change to match the images up properly.
2. If you have a tripod, use it. Using a tripod to set up your shot and rotate camera will make lining up the shots much easier. If you try and hand hold the camera as you take pictures, you’ll want to overlap the images quite a bit so that the stitching software has a better chance of success. If you don’t, just try your best to keep the camera level and overlap the shots the best you can. Just plant your feet in one spot and put the camera up to you face and swivel your shoulders.
3a. If you can, set the Aperture, shutter speed, and focus ONCE (i.e. use the manual mode on your camera) for ALL the shots in the Panorama.
This may result in some too-dark areas, ans some too-light areas — but it will more closely resemble what you actually saw. If you don’t do this your panorama will probably come out with stripes for each photo where the exposure settings are a little different. So how do you know what to set? Look for the brightest area in your panorama — say towards the sun if you are outside, and set the camera to the Auto setting. Press the shutter button halfway down and see what the readings are — say for example it is Shutter of 200, Aperture of 5.6. . Switch back to Manual mode and dial those settings in.
3b. If you can’t change all those settings you can try the following:
- Using the “A” or aperture Priority mode, and setting the Aperture for all the pictures to be the same. At least the depth of field will stay the same. Also set the Focus at one spot (infinity is a good choice for landscapes)
- Using the “Landscape” auto setting in your camera. This will be a little icon or dial setting that looks like a mountain. That will try to set the focus at infinity and use a small aperture.
4. Shoot the Panorama Multiple Times.
If you are just not sure how to set the camera, then try shooting the panorama a few times using different settings. Use the “Exposure Compensation” feature of your camera. This is a little +/- gauge somewhere on your readout. If you set the camera to always use a -1, for example, then all of your pictures will come out a little under exposed. This is OK because you can use Picasa or another program to make it look better. Try taking the panorama with different amount of overlap.
So lets look at an example, call this the “Worst Case Scenario:
Click the picture to see a larger version on Flickr
In this picture, I just set the camera on “P” and did not use a tripod, I did try to overlap the pictures by about 1/3 of a frame. You can see a bit of striping in the picture where the exposure of the different frames were a little bit different.
See how the top border is not level, that’s because I did not use a tripod and did not keep the camera moving on one plane. With some cropping, you can get rid of those curvy borders.
Here is how a panorama will look if you use the Panorama Assist feature of your Camera, and a tripod.
Click the picture to see a larger version on Flickr
You can see all the pictures used to create this Panorama in my Web Album:
A Panorama does not Have to be a full circle. You can stitch together just a few pictures to simulate a wider angle lens than your camera has.
Here are the individual shots for this Panorama:
Next, we’ll look at how to assemble these pictures into one great looking Panorama.
Please comment if you have any other techniques for getting better photographs to use in a panorama.
[tags]Autostitch, Panorama, Picasa, tutorial[/tags]
Tags: Photo Editing · Technique
Part of an ongoing series on web pages extensions in Picasa.
One of the really nice features in Picasa is the ability to add new Web Page Export formats. This gives you the ability to create really beautiful web galleries for your photos just by following a simple wizard.
This extension called “Postcard Viewer” from airtight interactive simulates a grid of postcards that you can zoom in, and browse around..
First you need to get the postcard viewer extension. Head on over to their web site and download the package. Make sure you download the one designed for Picasa.
We have previously written up instructions for installing Picasa web Page Extensions. Use those instructions for getting the extension installed.
Also, previously we have seen how to publish your new Webpage using Picasa. Use those instructions to get Picasa all set to publish your new web page via FTP.
Here is a sample PostcardViewer web page.
[tags]picasa, airtight interactive, postcardviewer[/tags]
Tags: Extending Picasa · Picasa
January 25th, 2007 · 2 Comments
Part of an ongoing series on web pages extensions in Picasa.
One of the really nice features in Picasa is the ability to add new Web Page Export formats. This gives you the ability to create interesting web galleries for your photos just by following a simple wizard.
This extension called “Postcard Viewer” from airtight interactive is a flash-based viewer with left to right scrolling. The descriptions of the photo are superimposed right over the photo.
First you need to get the autoviewer extension. Head on over to their web site and download the package. Make sure you download the one designed for Picasa.
We have previously written up instructions for installing Picasa web Page Extensions. Use those instructions for getting the extension installed.
Also, previously we have seen how to publish your new Webpage using Picasa. Use those instructions to get Picasa all set to publish your new web page via FTP.
Here is a sample AutoViewer web page.
[tags]picasa, airtight interactive, autoviewer[/tags]
Tags: Extending Picasa · Photo Sharing · Picasa
Picasa has a very convenient one-click effect to create a Sepia tone image. Sepia tone images are great for creating an “old-time” photo effect. It is also nice to use Sepia tone as an alternative to pure black and white images.
You’ll need to get Picasa the photo editing software from Google to complete this tutorial.
In my opinion, the one-click version of Sepia that Picasa creates isn’t perfect.
Here is the one-click Sepia.
The images are too low on contrast, and the Sepia tone isn’t quite right for me. The one-click version is sort of a works-pretty-good-in-most-situations type deal. However, with a little tuning I think we can do better.
Here is the Sepia Tone image we want to get to:
Follow these steps to a better Sepia tone image:
- First Start with the image you want to sepia tone.
- Use Filtered B&W to create a pleasant B&W image. If there are people in the picture you might choose a yellow or Orange filter to improve skin tones.
- Then apply the sepia filter.
- Switch to the tuning tab, slide the highlights up one quarter of the way, and the shadows up to the mid point — these are approximate. The idea is to have a nice range of tones from deep rich darks to nice bright highlights.
- Switch back to the Effects tab, choose the Saturation effect and slide to the right approximately halfway between full desaturation and the midpoint.
Here is a comparison of before and after:
So, My parting questions for you are:
Do you like this kind of higher contrast “sepia”, or is the one-click better?
Can you think of where this kind of effect would work?
[tags]Mike DelGaudio, Picasa, Sepia, photo editing[/tags]
Tags: Photo Editing · Picasa · Technique
One of the really nice features in Picasa is the ability to add new Web Page Export formats. This gives you the ability to create really beautiful web galleries for your photos just by following a simple wizard.
This extension called “PiPiView” simulates the picture pile collage that is created by Picasa, but improves it and makes it interactive. .
First you need to get the PiPi Viewer extension. Head on over to their web site and download the package.
We have previously written up instructions for installing Picasa web Page Extensions. Use those instructions for getting PiPiViewer installed.
Also, previously we have seen how to publish your new Webpage using Picasa. Use those instructions to get Picasa all set to publish your new web page via FTP.
Here is a sample PiPiViewer collage.
[tags]picasa, pipiview, pipiviewer[/tags]
Tags: Extending Picasa · Picasa
January 22nd, 2007 · 1 Comment
Picasa allows you to create and install extensions to their “Make a web page” / “Publish Via FTP” process. Luckily the process is very simple.
First you need to locate where Picasa is installed:
For most people using a windows machine this will be:
C:\Program Files\Picasa2
Within the Picasa2 folder, you will find several additional folders. All of your web page extensions need to go into
the
C:\Program Files\Picasa2\web\templates\
folder.
Generally, the extensions you download will be in zip format.
Just use the built in Windows Extraction Wizard to unzip the downloaded files into this directory. (You can also use Stuffit or the open source 7-zip to unzip the files.
Using the unzip built into windows, just right click the zip file and choose “extract all”:
Follow the Extraction wizard, making sure you choose to unzip the files into the proper directory
Once the files have been unzipped. Restart Picasa and go to “Tools | Experimental” and choose “Publish Via FTP” or “Folder | Export as HTML page” to see your new extension in the list.
Tags: Extending Picasa · Picasa
January 22nd, 2007 · 2 Comments
We know that Picasa allows you to upload pictures to the Picasa Web Albums site.
In this post, we’ll see how to set up Picasa to upload pictures and the necessary web pages to create your own online photo gallery.
In Picasa 2, an “Experimental Feature” was added that adds to the “Make a Web page” feature, and includes the ability to FTP right to your web site. (FTP is a simple process that allows you to send files from your computer to another computer that can receive those files.)
What you will need:
- An FTP account on a web server that you can upload images to.
- The user ID and a password for that account
Configuring Publish Via FTP
First, find the “Publish Via FTP menu” Under Tools | Experimental.
Next we will be asked what size we want the pictures in our gallery to be. Bigger pictures take up more space in your account, and may be too larger to see on screen.
- If you just want your friends and family to see the pictures without downloading them, choose 640 or 800.
- Also give this gallery a name. Fir best results use only letters and numbers in your name, and no spaces.
Note that Picasa will make a copy of these web pages on your hard drive also.
Next you’ll be asked to choose a template. Picasa comes with a few basic templates to create your web gallery. Select a choice you like based on the previews.
Now you will be prompted to select the FTP account you want to use. Since (or if) you do not have this information already in Picasa, choose “Account Manager” and we will enter it now.
The Account Manager screen appears. Click “Add an Account”.
The Account Settings Screen appears. This page is the nitty gritty of the process. On this form enter a name for the Site you are uploading to, the domain of this site, and the “root”. The root is the folder on the FTP server that you want your web page to appear. Enter the folder or just “/”.
Enter the user ID and password that the FTP server owner (this is probably your ISP, or Web hosting service) provided to you when you signed up.
Enter the “optional Web URL” if you want to see the gallery after it is uploaded. (You may need to enter the url to your server AND the FTP root to see this. Like: http://www.mikedelgaudio.com/extend/Picasa)
Special note: these entries MAY be case sensitive, meaning CaPiTaliZation MatTers, so make sure you enter capital letters the way you mean them)
Once you have entered everything, click Verify Connection to see if you did things correctly.
I love a dialog box on my screen that says “Success”! We’re good to go and ready to upload. Click OK, and you will go back to the Account Manager screen, but with our newly added account in there. Click OK.
Which brings us back to the “Select Account” Screen. Your new account should be there in the Box. If not, select it from the drop down list and Click OK.
Yee-Haw, as they say. Picasa will create the web page and start shuttling the whole package up to your FTP account. You can monitor the goings-on by the Progress bars that appear.
Once they are done you can point your browser to the page that you created. The URL of your gallery will be a combination of the following:
- the URL of your web site (in my case http://www.mikedelgaudio.com)
- the “root” from the account manager (remember? “/extend/Picasa”)
- the Folder that you entered way back at the beginning (I entered “CreateWebPageDemo”)
- Optionally, you may need to add “index.html” — most web servers will do this for you, automagically.
Here is a sample of what the pages look like in your completed Gallery
Photo Chooser:
Photo Detail:
Yours may look different depending on the template you chose.
This is the URL to the web gallery we created in this demo: http://www.mikedelgaudio.com/extend/Picasa/CreateWebPageDemo/
Once you have done all the account setup once, you won’t need to do it again.
I hope you have found this post helpful. Let me know in the comments!
[tags]picasa,photo,upload[/tags]
Tags: Photo Sharing · Picasa · Uncategorized
Documenting Picasa has dug a bit deeper, and discovered that if you choose to purchase additional storage for the Picasa Web Albums that you can have more pictures than the previously thought limit. On this blog we discovered that for free accounts Picasa web Albums has a 500 image limit per post.
Tags: Photo Sharing · Picasa · Picasa Web Albums
Ian Talbot tells how to be a lighting detective on his blog Concerning Photography. He shows ow to interpret the quality of light and shadow you see in a picture to decipher how the light sources were arranged. So often the direction, strength and diffusion of the light gives the mood of the image, and it is certainly the crowning difference between a “snapshot” and an emotional image worth remembering.
His walkthrough is simple, and easy to understand. Worth reading.
[tags]photo, Ian Talbot, Concerning Photography[/tags]
Tags: Composition
