A Photograph That Makes You Feel Like You're Flying
Eric Rougier, who I believe is one of the best panoramic photographers around, has created an absolutely incredible image. This image truly makes you feel that you are flying. I don't want to spoil it for you, I simply encourage you to view his VR photograph of flying over Paris (QuickTime required).
And actually, this is the second time he has successfully captured this amazing feeling of flight. His first effort gives you the sensation that you are floating in the middle of the first level of the Eiffel Tower.
Read More...
TEST: Wired Magazine's Version of Consumer Reports
I confess. This is something I'd read cover to cover. I always like the gizmo reviews in WIRED. Now, 117 pages of geek bliss. Everything you ever wanted to know about mobile phones, digital cameras, digital video cameras, HD TVs, DVRs... you get the idea. And the best part? You don't have to go to the news stand to pick it up. Instead, you can download a pdf of TEST right here (8 MB).
Read More...
A Little Histogram History for Ya
Anyone that is moderately interested in digital
photography is familiar with the term histogram.
Heck, all the camera manufacturers reference
histogram in their user's manual like we all know
what it is. But really, what is a histogram and why
do I care?
Project Playhouse (Part 7): All Done!
I finished the
playhouse just in time for my son's 3rd birthday
party. They were rescue heroes saving kitties from
trees and all sorts of other emergencies. The
project certainly ended up being a much larger
production that I first set out to accomplish.
However, I am confident that this fire station
playhouse will provide years of fun for our kid(s)?
as well as neighborhood friends.
I've created a "final" picture
gallery of the fire station playhouse if you
are interested in seeing what it ended up
looking like.
New Book Available - Interactive Panoramas: Techniques for Digital Panoramic Photography
This book details all of the necessary steps
involved in panoramic photography: from the
production of digital and analog picture sequences,
"stitching" using software tools (like REALVIZ
Stitcher, VR Worx and PanoTools), all the way to
publishing interactive panoramas on the Web (e.g.,
using QuickTime VR, PTViewer and VRML). The book
introduces the production of cylindrical and
spherical panoramas, as well as object movies and
explains how to link individual panoramas to
virtual tours.
Picture of the Month: iPod Ad Inspired Warhol
I was recently reading an article at Photoshop Support discussing
a simply technique for mimicking the artwork in
the iPod advertisements. So what the heck, I
gave it a try.
And you know what? It was pretty darn easy. I
decided to take it one step farther and make my
version of an Andy Warhol illustration.
Update 20 December 2004:
Too funny. There is now a website that will
"iPod Photo" your supplied photography. For
$20 bucks, you can have any of your photos
converted and sent back to ya. Even with
optional white ear buds.
Point, Click and Kiss it Goodbye
Jibjab Does it Again... On the Way to DC!
These guys are funny. First it was the "This Land is Your Land" parody, now they are singing Dixie. Um, I mean DC... Ah, just watch it. Too funny. So, who holds the copyright to Dixie? Are we going to hear from them too? OK, if you have no idea what I am talking about, read about the goobers at Ludlow Music who tried to sue these guys. I need to find something to hire JibJab for...
Read More...
Adobe Proposes Universal Digital Camera "Raw" Image Format
Adobe has published a specification for a new
universal file format for digital cameras. Dubbed
the Digital NeGative (DNG) format, Adobe's proposal
would not supersede the JPEG format used by almost
all digital cameras these days, but the native
formats such cameras offer users who want maximum,
image fidelity.
According to the Register UK
site, these raw formats hold the image as
taken, without the loss of data even mildest
JPEG conversion involves, or adjustments made by
the camera's video processing electronics. The
catch is that without compression, raw images
are very large, limiting the number of them the
camera can hold. Worse, different camera vendors
use different, proprietary raw formats.
What Do You Use a Toyota Car For? Apparently Anything Other Than Transportation
This one just caught my eye.
It appears that the fine folks at Toyota have
figured out how to connect about every gadget
you own (cameras, MP3 player, cell phone, PDA,
kitchen sink) to your car. Toyota plans to show
off their new "Toyota Hub" at the Mondial de
l'Automobile this weekend. If you can read
French, here is the original story: http://akiba.sorobangeeks.com/news_8686.html
Newest Addition to the Camera Collection: Kodak No 4 Bullet Special
Yup, this is
my second new camera to the collection this week.
What can I say. And this one I am quite excited
about. It has a pretty good story behind it.
The Eastman Kodak company had a competitor when
this camera first came out (1895) called the Boston
Camera Manufacturing Company. They had a very
popular camera called the Bulls-Eye Camera. Eastman
at first countered this new threat by copying it -
the Eastman Bullet Camera made its debut in 1895.
Both the Bullet and Bulls-Eye were simple rollfilm
cameras taking 3½ x 3½-inch exposures.
Final Score: Fair Use 1, Ludlow Music 0
Read More...
Bridges: A World Wide Panorama September 18-22, 2004
The theme for the next World Wide Panorama has been
announced. Bridges. It will be held September
18-22, 2004 (the Equinox is on the 22nd).
This will be the third time the The Geo-Images Project from UC
Berkeley has coordinated this worldwide
effort. For details on how to participate, the
official website will be
updated shortly.
Check Out the Last Two World Wide Efforts
On Saturday, March 20, 2004 more than 180
photographers in 40 countries around the world
celebrated the Equinox by creating VR panoramas.
This site showcases the
results of their efforts.
Mars Rover Opportunity: 3D 360 Degree Panoramic of Mars
After seeing the images
Hans Nyberg stitched together of the moon
landings, I decided to go up to the NASA
website and see what else they had posted. As it
turns out, there is tons of stuff. What I thought
was particularly cool was this image above (click
on it to see a larger view) produced by a set of
cameras with a slight offset to create this
anaglyphic image. Get those 3D glasses out (you can buy
'em at that link--$2 with PayPal) and checkout
the Mars surface in 3D!
Slim Devices: Squeezebox Upgradable Display... Now That's Cool
Buyer's remorse. That dreaded curse that plagues us
all right after we buy that new widget. Nowhere
does buyer's remorse run more rampant than through
the darkened home offices of super geeks
everywhere--right after they buy that new blinking
box (as my wife likes to call them). You know the
feeling... about two miles from the car dealer's
lot when you realize your shiny new car just
depreciated by about 50%. Poof, it's gone.
OK, I got off topic...
I have been a big fan of a small Silicon Valley
startup called Slim Devices for a few years. They
have a fantastic product that "connects" two of my
greatest (geek) loves -- my computer and my music.
They call it the Squeezebox and it allows all the
MP3s on your computer to be played through your
home stereo system. As opposed to the
less-than-tin-can-quality of the single speaker in
your PC.
Ludlow Music Should Lighten Up
If you haven't seen it yet, one of the funniest political satires in a long time can be found at JibJab. The animation depicts our dear friends Mr George W and John Kerry singing along to "This Land is Your Land." However, according to this Wired Magazine article, Ludlow Music has been threatening to sue JibJab for infringing on its copyright, saying JibJab never asked for permission to use the song. JibJab's creators have said they believe they have a right to use the song since it was used in a parody and as such is protected speech.
Read More...
In Search of a Shutter for a Kodak Panoram 4D -- Any Help Out There?
The
Panoram 4D that I purchased a couple of months
ago is missing the shutter mechanism. The lens
itself can swing just fine, but there is no shutter
release button or the mechanism to initiate
movement of the lens.
If you have an old Panoram 4D that could be sold
for parts, please let me know. Thanks
for the help!
35 Years Ago Today: Moon Landing - See It Today in a Panoramic View!
The second panorama is from the last mission (Apollo 17). The original photographs in this panorama were taken by Gene Cernan.
Both of the panoramic images were stitched by Hans Nyberg. Hans has done a great job stitching these images together. He has also provided some great historical information on his site too (when you click on the images above, you'll see what I mean). Finally, be sure and spend some time looking at the great stuff on Hans' site. A truly gifted photographer.
Read More...
XPoints: A Mac OS X Tool for Auto Selecting Control Points for Panoramic Images
Perhaps one of the most tedious parts of creating a
stitched, panoramic image produced from multiple
individual images is identifying the control points
in each image pair. What are control points?
Basically, control points are locations in two
adjoining (overlapping) images that are at the
exact same point.
To identify control points, one must have an
application like PTMac or PTGui which both have a great
user interface for creating the control point
pairs (click on the image to see a larger view).
To create a successful "stitch" of the source
images, there must be a minimum of three control
point pairs per set of neighboring images. So in
my case, I have 18 source images for this 360
degree panoramic image (18 x 3 = 64 control
point sets).
Newest Addition to the Camera Collection: Kodak Panoram 4D
I have been looking for a Panoram for some time. It
turns out, most Panoram's I have found over the
last several years are pretty beat up. This
one--the last model Kodak produced, is in pretty
good shape. According to Kodak Cameras: The First 100
Years, this model was manufactured from
1899 to 1924.
So what is so special about the Panorams? The
camera created a 142 degree wide image on the film
by having the lens sweep from left to right during
the exposure. To see how the lens moves, I have
created a page where you can "grab" the lens and
move it back and forth.
Project Playhouse (Part 6): Drywalling
OK I admit, I really
didn't plan on getting this carried away with the
playhouse. But once I realized it was starting to
turn out kinda cool, I decided I would drywall the
inside. Prior to this project, my drywalling
experience was limited to creating a six foot long
soffit in the house earlier in the year. Plus some
indispensable Spackling experience filling nail
holes from picture hangers in the house 
Audio Hijack: Great Way to Extract Audio From Live Concert DVDs
Well, that has now changed for me. I recently purchased Audio Hijack from Rogue Amoeba. This application allows you to record the audio from any source playing on your Mac--DVDs, streaming audio, you name it. And yes, it is Mac based. The recording can be virtually any file format... mp3, aif, etc. Read More...
XBlend: A Mac OS X Tool for Blend Multi-Image Panoramic Images
Such was the case when I took a 14 image panoramic of the Polihale coast in Kauai last summer. All these images where shot at the same shutter speed/f-stop combination, but I still ended up having some shifts.
The image below was created with these 14 source images, then stitched together in PTMac.
When I first heard about Enblend, I thought it might be a nice addition to my panoramic image creation workflow. Recently, the developer of PTMac created a Mac OS X front-end UI for Enblend 1.3. Called XBlend, it takes as its source multiple TIFF images output from an application such as PTMac. So, I thought I would give it a try.
Read More...
360 Degree Panorama Photography How-To Series (Part 3) Equipment Matters
1. All photos must be taken from the same place
2. All photos must be taken while in alignment with the lens' nodal point
The first rule is pretty straight forward, so I'll skip over that. However, what's a nodal point and why does that matter? Read on...
The nodal point of a lens is the point inside a lens where light paths cross before being focused onto the film plane--or in the case of a digital camera--the CCD. When taking the pictures for a 360 degree panoramic image, you want to rotate the camera around an imaginary line that runs through (or very close to) the nodal point of the camera lens. Failing to do this may result in shifts in the placement of the subject matter in your photos, this is called parallax error. (Graphic to left liberated from the Manfrotto website. See link below)
Read More...
Project Playhouse (Part 5): The Roof
What I ended up doing was a pretty simple design. With each of the walls already up, I had a nice 4 inch "cap" around the top of the playhouse. What I decided to do was create the roof as a separate component, then (somehow) attach it to the walls. Think of the roof as a hat.
Read More...
Home Automation: Mac Style
About five years ago, I started dabbling in home automation. You know, getting your lights to turn on and off when you want them to... stuff like that. I first had a product called Mousehouse that was, well a good "starter kit." It allowed me to, um... turn off and on lights at certain times. Most of the time.
When we moved into our new house, I really couldn't get the Mousehouse software to work consistently. And to top it off, I upgraded my machines from Mac OS 9 to OS X. Mousehouse was not OS X compatible, so I hung up my X-10 switches for a year or so. Then one day while reading MacAddict, I came across a story on a new OS X native home automation application called Indigo. I have to say, Indigo is hands down, one of the best apps I have used to date. As advertised, it did exactly what it was supposed to do... control my X-10 devices.
Read More...
Is There a 1888 Kodak Camera in the House? How About a Panoram?
Anyone who is willing to part with an 1888 Kodak
Camera, please let me know. I am trying to find one
to add my camera collection.
I am also looking to find a Kodak Panoram in
good condition. I'm yet to find one on eBay in
good shape.
360 Degree Panorama Photography How-To Series: (Part 2) Types of Panoramic Images
Read More...
Project Playhouse (Part 4): Loft, Winch and Roof
Read More...
SqueezeBox: The Best Way to Stream MP3s from Your Computer
When our son started walking a few years ago, having our 100 CD disk jukebox at grabbing/what's this?/oops! level became a bad idea. Not to mention that we had about 200 more CDs that weren't in it. What's more, it was a pain to find (and play) a particular CD or song. A CD jukebox just seemed so '80s anyway.
Well, when our CD changer started to make a grinding noise, we realized its end was near. The geek I am, I had no interest in buying another CD changer. I started researching a way to play MP3 files off my computer instead. I quickly found Slim Devices. There solution is perfect. A "blinking box" that connects to my home network--essentially connecting my computer to my stereo. Imagine my delight.
360 Degree Panorama Photography: How-To Series
I have been making 360 degree, panoramic
photographs for a few years now. When
completed, these images provide a unique way of
looking at the world around us. When these
panoramas are viewed on a computer, one has the
ability to pan around inside the image. Look
left, look right and even up and down. When
printed, the images create a new way to look at
something. The image above this paragraph
represents 360 degrees of view both vertically
as well as horizontally.
Project Playhouse (Part 3): Photos of First Weekend's Construction
The first weekend was a
great start. All supplies were purchased (at least
I thought) and the base and walls were framed and
stood up.
Link: Slideshow of
the first week's construction
Virtual Tour of Fire Station Playhouse
I just completed a virtual tour of the playhouse I built
last summer. You need to have QuickTime
installed to view the tour. And a high speed
connection to the net wouldn't be bad either.
Sorry, the file is about 4.5MB right now.
The tour starts off inside the fire station. You
can look left, right. Even straight up and straight
down. Do you hear something? Yup, that's the winch
you hear. The winch is used to lower the door
beneath the stairs. And if you click on that door,
you will be taken out back behind the fire station.
Once outside, you can look around out there too.
Up, down, left, right... you get the idea. To get
back inside, just click in the door way.
Link: Fire station
playhouse virtual tour