Entries tagged with photography - Channel 10

Polaroid Lives on in Windows Live Writer

sarahintampa — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:17:00 GMT

A lot of people were sad to hear that Polaroid planned to stop manufacturing their instant film this year. Now, as we’re only months away from the final retail stocks being completely sold out, we have to accept that we’ve finally reached the end of an era in photography. For folks like myself and others born before 1980 (and even some born since), Polaroid pictures were a big part of the family photo opps. They covered my corkboard bulletin boards in the 80’s and 90’s and even made their way into the family photo album on many occasions. But since the debut of digital camera, sales of Polaroid’s instant film slowed down to the point that it no longer made financial sense for the company to continue to manufacture the film. Well, at least the Polaroid can live on in a way, thanks to Windows Live Writer. When you insert a photo into Live Writer, you can choose “Instant Photo” from the border options available. That gives the photo the appearance of a Polaroid picture. No, you can’t shake it…but it’s all we’ve got left. Long live our blogged Polaroids!

Photokina 2008 - Drew Gardner shows us the 60MP P 65+

Nic — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Renowned British photographer Drew Gardner was at Photokina 2008 this year helping demonstrate the 60.5 mega pixel, Phase One P 65+ digital back.
Phase One is a Danish company that specializes in high-end, medium format cameras, digital backs and RAW processing software.
For those of you (like me) unfamiliar with the term digital back, Wikipedia tells us that it is "a device which attaches to the back of a camera in place of a film holder and contains an electronic image sensor. This lets cameras which were designed to use film take digital photographs".
The sensor on the P 65+ is absolutely mammoth, and comes with a price tag to match, but as Drew explains (and shows us) the results are both spectacular and well worth it.

Photokina 2008 - Seitz 6x17 Digital, 160 Million Pixel Camera

Nic — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:11:00 GMT

One second,... That's the time it takes for the Seitz 6x17 Digital camera to capture 160 Million Pixels!

We checked out the Seitz booth at Photokina 2008 and got the man himself to give us a demo of this monster slit-scan panoramic camera, the largest and fastest in its class.

If you like the idea of medium format panoramic photography but don't have a spare 25,000 Euros you might want to check out Microsoft Image Composite Editor.

Photokina 2008 - Minox Spy Cameras

Nic — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:33:00 GMT

The Channel 10 cameras were in Cologne, Germany last month for Photokina 2008 and on display was the latest and greatest in digital photography and imaging products and technologies.
One of the companies that caught my eye was Minox - manufacturer of the original miniature spy camera - who had a new line of covert picture taking devices that look like they've come straight out of Q's laboratory.
Check out Minox.com for more info

Straighten Up Your Photos With Live Photo Gallery

sarahintampa — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:52:00 GMT

If you’ve ever taken a snapshot in a hurry, then you know that those pictures can occasionally end up blurry, uncentered, and crooked. A good camera can help you take clearer, crisper action shots and a little cropping action can fixed the un-entered shots, but what about those photos that end up crooked? Even cropping a slightly sideways pic won’t fix that problem. However, with the new beta version of Windows Live Photo Gallery, there is a solution for crooked photos.

The new Live Photo Gallery actually has a built-in “Straighten Photo” feature. To use this feature, select your photo and click on the “Fix” button in the top toolbar. Then, just click the “Straighten Photo” option. Your picture will automatically straighten itself out! And if you need to fine-tune the adjustment, you can optionally use the slider to adjust the angle. Just move the slider to the right to rotate the picture clockwise and move it to the left for counter-clockwise. The grid that appears can help you align your photo perfectly.

Here’s an example of both the before and after (see below).

BEFORE:

AFTER:

(Thanks to Arwa Tyebkhan for this tip…and example photos!)

Photosynth + Windows Live Photo Gallery

sarahintampa — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:55:00 GMT

Martha Rotter recently discovered a nifty feature in the new version of Windows Live Photo Gallery. Apparently, if you have the Photosynth software installed on your PC, the first option under the new “Extras” menu in Photo Gallery will be “Create a Photosynth.” Once selected, you can then just navigate through your photo collections within Photo Gallery to locate and select the photos you want to be a part of the synth. After you have all the photos selected, you can just create a photosynth from right there in Photo Gallery. That’s some nice integration!

If you haven’t tried Photosynth yet, give it a shot! This amazing application lets you stitch your pics together to create panoramic images like you wouldn’t believe. Laura has a great instructional video to help you get started: check it out.

Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor) Released (for FREE!)

Nic — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:50:00 GMT

Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE), released today is an advanced, stand alone version of the panoramic image stitching feature found in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

From the ICE web site:
"...shoot a set of overlapping photographs of a scene from a single location, and Image Composite Editor creates a high-resolution panorama incorporating all your images at full resolution. Then save your stitched panorama in a wide variety of formats,... like JPEG and TIFF to multi-resolution tiled formats like HD View and Silverlight Deep Zoom"

More info here: HDView Blog
Download: http://research.microsoft.com/ivm/ice.html

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools 2.0 Released

Nic — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:00:00 GMT

From the Pro Photo Blog:

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools provides a set of tools for photographers allowing them to perform various tasks with their images—including RAW captures. The current version enables you to quickly geotag your photos, edit metadata, and organize your images by leveraging the power of Microsoft Live Local.

New features include:

Support for reading & writing XMP side car metadata enabling interoperability with Adobe products.
Viewing actual RAW images, in addition to thumbnails
Conversion of RAW files to JPEG, TIFF, and HD Photo using “As Shot” camera settings.
The ability to resize RAW images.
Support for 64-bit Windows
Support for geotagging international locales
Improved functionality for geotagging images.

More info: http://blogs.msdn.com/prophoto/archive/2008/09/17/new-version-of-pro-photo-tools-released.aspx

Download here: http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/tools.aspx

PPS08: David Riecks on Metadata

Nic — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:54:00 GMT

David Riecks presented findings from the Stock Artists Alliance Photo Metadata Project at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit. The project looked at how stock agencies ensure that their digital assets have the right kind of metadata so that they can accurately search through (and find stuff) in their massive libraries of images.

Apologies for my crazy British pronunciations... you'll get used to it ;-)

PPS08: Skip Cohen on Marketing for Photographers

Nic — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:48:00 GMT

Skip Cohen, president of Rangefinder Publishing and WPPI was at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit and spoke about the ever-changing marketing challenges facing professional photographers (which Skip defines as anyone paid for any level of photographic services - including enthusiasts).
Skip talks about how photographers can generate future business opportunities by maintaining long term relationships with clients and how smart photographers are building their own brand awareness by partnering with community groups and charities.

PPS08: Natalie Dybisz (aka Miss Aniela)

Nic — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:57:00 GMT

Natalie Dybisz - also known as Miss Aniela - is part of a new breed of photographers circumventing the traditional path to success in the world of fine art photography by utilizing photo sharing/social networking sites like flickr to build a fan base, launch a portfolio and get noticed.

Natalie's images - many of them self portraits - are unique in that they aren't shot with high-end equipment or studio lighting and often include multiple instances of herself in the same image (via some photoshop-magic).

Natalie presented at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit on her style of photography and how her flickr site turned into millions of views, thousands of fans and (real world) gallery shows in the UK and Spain.

PPS08: Frans Lanting - Life: A Journey Through Time

Nic — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:49:00 GMT

Seven years ago, world renowned nature photographer Frans Lanting took a photograph of horseshoe crabs coming out of the ocean on the east coast of the USA and remarked to himself that the scene he had just captured probably looked the same as it did millions and millions of years ago. He then wondered whether there were other examples of life on earth that could be captured today as they were when they first appeared on the planet...

Thus began the Life: A Journey Through Time project incorporating books, multimedia orchestral performances (composed by Philip Glass), a traveling photographic exhibition and interactive web site: LifeThroughTime.com

Frans spoke about his experiences working on the Life: A Journey Through Time project as part of his keynote address at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit.

PPS08: Kostas Mallios - Why the Pro Photo Summit?

Nic — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:08:00 GMT

Kostas Mallios, General Manager of the Microsoft Rich Media Group, chats with me about the 2008 Pro Photo Summit. We discuss the importance of photography in the technology space, why Microsoft hosts the summit each year, who attends the summit, what do they talk about and "where does all this talking take place?".

AutoCollage: A New Tool From Microsoft Research

sarahintampa — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:12:00 GMT

AutoCollage is a new photo mashup tool from Microsoft Research Cambridge which allows you to automatically create collages from a collection of your photos. The software cuts out interesting parts of the photos in your collection and pieces them together following natural features as boundaries between images. The photos are then blended together using sophisticated computer vision technology as well as other software which does face detection, object recognition, image blending, and other graphic techniques. The end result is a collage created from your very own photos.

Although the software is doing pretty complex stuff on the back end, the front end is surprisingly easy to use. You just point it to a folder containing your photos and click a button - that's it! AutoCollage will then goes to work. When the collage is complete - a process that only takes a few seconds - your resulting image can be printed, emailed, or set as your desktop wallpaper.

For great results, it's suggested that you use 7-30 photos for the best performance, but the software defaults to 12. AutoCollage works on both Vista and XP SP2+ and is available as a free download from here.

How To Use Photosynth In 4 Easy Steps

sarahintampa — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:01:00 GMT

So now that you’ve heard the big news about Photosynth, you’re probably dying to get started with your first synth. Well, get your camera ready, because here’s all you need to know as to how to use this new technology

STEP 1: TAKE PICTURES

When you’re creating your first synth, remember the rule of “3” – each part of the scene you shoot should appear in at least 3 separate photos from different locations. Try for at least 50% overlap when taking the pictures. Take a panamora shot and then move around – the wider the shot, the better.

STEP 2: EDITS

Photographers usually want to do all kinds of tweaking to pics, but with Photosnyth, there are things you don’t want to do, such as the following:

don’t crop
don’t do any geometric transformations like flips and perspective transforms
don’t use artistic filters (de-noise may be safe, though)
don’t use watermarks (Photosynth provides something for this itself)

You can, however, adjust color and contrast without any worries.

STEP 3: SYNTH IT

If you haven’t already, download the free software from http://photosynth.com. The software works alongside the web site, also a free service. From the Photosynth site, click on “Create” and pick the pictures you want to use. Give your creation a name and click on “Synth.” Photosynth automatically creates and uploads your synth which can then be accessed from any XP or Vista PC.

STEP 4: SHARE IT

Your finished synth can be embedded on web sites, blogs, social networks, or any other page where HTML can be edited. You can see other people’s synths that they’ve created and leave comments, too.

PhotoSynth- Learn how to do it

Laura — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:48:00 GMT

We all love taking digital photos but with Photosynth you can take them to the next level.

I'm sure you've all heard of this amazing new application that allows you to digitally stitch your pics together to create new 3D panoramic environments. In this piece you'll learn exactly how to make the most of Microsoft's new toy for photogs and then check out this video to see the behind the scenes action of how it was made.

And then go here for a bit of it's history.

ShutterSpeed EP04 - The Photosynth Team

Nic — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:00:00 GMT

By now most of you have probably heard of Photosynth. The cool new technology from Microsoft that allows you to explore collections of full resolution photos by relationship in an amazing, interactive 3D space.

From today (9PM PST) Photosynth is being released to the public which means anyone with access to a digital camera, PC and internet connection can create their own Photosynth collections. Just visit photosynth.net, download the app (approx 8MB) and start synthing.

To coincide with the release of Photosynth to the masses we thought it might be fun to sit down with 1/5th of the development team behind the technology to learn some more about how Photosynth works and how best to go about creating collections of photos specifically for synthing.

Joining me for this episode of ShutterSpeed is Live Labs and Photosynth Architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas (who you might recognize from this infamous TED presentation), Scientist Drew Steedley and Program Manager Scott Fynn.

Check out Max's interview with Rick Szeliski and Noah Snavely over on Channel 8 for more on the genesis (and genius!) of Photosynth. And for those of you about to grab your camera and go shoot some photos for a little synth action make sure you first watch Laura's how-to-synth video for tips and tricks.

Uusi Photosynth on nyt kaikkien saatavilla

jukkaw — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:01:00 GMT

Nyt se on sitten kaikkien käytössä ilmaiseksi.

Mikä ihme se photosynth taas olikaan?

Kuvittele, että otat matkalla paljon valokuvia jostakin hienosta nähtävyydestä ja haluaisit jakaa kokemuksesi muiden kanssa. Valokuvia on voinut jakaa verkossa jo pitkään, mutta mitä jos ladatessasi kaikki kuvat yhteen palveluun, siitä syntyisikin kolmiuloitteinen maailma, jossa näet kaikki kuvat oikeilla paikoillaan ja niiden välillä voi siirtyä käsittämättömän hienosti. Sitä on photosynth.

Täytyy siis kuvata paljon tavallisia kuvia, ladata ne palveluun ja kokea kuvat aivan uudella tavalla.

Nyt on aika tutustua siihen aivan itse.
Tutustu oheiseen videoon ja näe, kuinka helposti photosynth -kollaaseja pääsee tekemään.

Photosynthillä alkuun pääsy on helppoa:

Ihan aluksi, ota muutama tusina digikuvia, noin 20 – 300 vaaditaan riippuen paikan tai kuvattavan kohteen koosta. Ota kuvat hieman limittäin toisiinsa nähden, useasta eri paikasta ja kulmasta.
Seuraavaksi, lataa pieni sovellus tietokoneellesi osoitteesta www.photosynth.com. Tämä ohjelma toimii yhdessä Photosynth-sivuston kanssa ja on niin ikään ilmainen.
Lähetä valitut kuvat Photosynth-sivustolle helpon käyttöliittymän kautta. Kun kaikki kuvat ovat ladattuina ja valmiina, Photosynth-tekniikka hoitaa loput. Lopputulos on yksityiskohtainen, kolmiulotteinen kopio valokuvien paikasta tai kohteesta.
Kollaasiota, ”synthiä”, voidaan tarkastella mistä tahansa tuetusta tietokoneesta, jossa on laajakaistainen internet-yhteys. Tarvitaan vain Windows Live ID-tunnus ja salasana, jotta yksilöllinen Photosynth-tili voidaan luoda ja tarkastella synth-kollaasioita.
Valmis kollaasio voidaan helposti liittää myös osaksi muita sivustoja, blogeja tai sosiaalisia medioita kuten MySpace, Windows Live Spaces tai mille tahansa sivustolle, jossa html:ää voidaan muokata.

New 3D Photo Viewer From Microsoft Research

sarahintampa — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:23:00 GMT

If you thought Photosynth was cool, you haven’t seen anything yet! On his blog, Long Zheng shares with us an amazing video out of Microsoft Research that focuses on a new immersive 3D technology for manipulating digital photos. The technology, which appears to be an advancement of an older technology called Photo Tourism, allows for browsing through photo collections in 3D. In the video, the photos used to demonstrate the technology in action are taken from the flickr website. However, the technology could be used with a collection of images out of your own personal photo collection, too.

Like Photosynth, photos of the same object or location are stitched together, but this new technology goes beyond that to allow for a 3D model of the scene through seamless transitions between the photos as you move through them. In addition, the system also corrects the color balance and stabilizes the transitions as you zoom, rotate, and move through the images. With this system, you can navigate through the photos, zoom in and out, select different orbits, view both daytime or nighttime photos, and so much more. This technology doesn’t seem to have a real name yet – both the video and the website are simply titled “Finding Paths through the World’s Photos.”

This is the sort of thing that’s kind of hard to explain – it has to be seen to be believed. Check it out:

On the website, you can view the video, download the paper, and even download the source code.

PPS08: Icon's of Imaging Panel 01

Nic — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:01:00 GMT

The Microsoft Icons of Imaging is an exclusive group of (thirteen) industry leading photographers and digital imaging experts whose workflow is based within the Windows environment.

At the 2008 Pro Photo Summit we brought the Icon's together for a series of mini-panels and asked what was the biggest trend that they witnessed in the photography industry over the past five years and what trends they see continuing, emerging, evolving or declining in the next five.

Their answers may surprise you.

In this first panel is Jerry Ghionis, Bambi Cantrell and Matthew Jordan Smith.

Lenovo Multimedia Laptop

Nic — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:05:00 GMT

Traditionally laptops have been the lower-performance compromise you make for leaving your desktop. Lenovo has changed that paradigm by producing this monster machine. With the first Quad Core Extreme CPU ever on a laptop, an NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 (with 1GB video memory), RAID 0 or 1, and 8GB (!) of DDR3 RAM, this desktop hiding in a laptop makes no compromises.

Probably most interesting is the way Lenovo has positioned this to multimedia enthusiasts. The laptop has an integrated Wacom tablet, the screen has an option for a 400-nit (about twice as bright as some previous ThinkPads) WUXGA screen with built-in color-calibration sensor, and the front of the laptop has slots for your Flash Memory.

08:08:08 08/08/08

Laura — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:56:00 GMT

On the eighth of August two thousand and eight, when the clock is exactly eight seconds past eight minutes past eight o'clock, the time will read 08:08:08 08/08/08. We want to invite you to take a photograph at this precise moment. The moment will of course occur twice in each time zone, once in the morning and once at night- which means you will get two opportunities to photograph the moment as it flies by you.

Then send your photograph/s to Capture The Moment.

PPS08: Lou Lesko on Photography Piracy

Nic — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:18:00 GMT

Photographer Lou Lesko's presentation at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit was titled 'Let the photo pirates have their way: the advantages of not worrying about image-theft and actually giving some of your images away'.
A somewhat controversial subject, Lou's argument is that allowing your photos to be used without permission, but with attribution, can be beneficial in the long term.

PPS08: Future Pro Photographer Comp Winners

Nic — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:04:00 GMT

For the past three years the Microsoft Future Pro Photographer Competition has been held in conjunction with the annual Microsoft Pro Photo Summit to find talented up and coming student photographers from around the world.

This years winners - Arjan Koetsier, Whitney Dafoe, Colin Miller, and Ed Salter, along with Jeff Greene from Microsoft - talk to me about the competition and their winning entries.

More: http://blogs.msdn.com/prophoto/archive/2008/07/09/microsoft-pro-photo-summit-2.aspx

ShutterSpeed Episode 03 - Art Wolfe

Nic — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:21:00 GMT

Art Wolfe is one of the worlds best known wildlife and nature photographers whose career spans more than 30 years. From Africa to Antarctica, Art has travelled the globe capturing breathtaking images of flaura and fauna, people and places and everything in between.

Art was gracious enough to give me a tour of his Seattle Washington gallery and divulge a few of the secrets behind some of the beautiful, iconic images hanging on his gallery walls.

00:00-12:46 One-on-one with Art Wolfe
12:47-22:15 Art's favourite photos
22:16-32:10 Tour of the gallery and archives

Catch more of Art on Travel's to the Edge with Art Wolfe, the Microsoft Icon's of Imaging web site and www.artwolfe.com