Slide Shows compared

Showing your album as a slide show can come in handy in many situations. Most online photo sharing services offer a slide show feature with automatic advance. Since Windows Live SkyDrive recently disabled this feature I have received many inquiries about how to present photos automatically.

Here is a comparison of a photo album as presented by Flickr, Picasaweb, myPicturetown and Shutterfly. The album, consisting of 16 reduced-resolution images (1024 pixel horizontal dimension), was uploaded to each photo sharing service.

Here is the set of photos and below are links to view the album – and run the slide show – in the three services:

 

My impressions:

Flickr

There is a short download delay, but the images download rapidly. The slide show runs right from the link, no need to click a play button. The slide show does not automatically cycle after it has played through. The default setting is to scale images to the browser window or to the full screen(F11). The option menu calls this quaintly “Embiggen small things to fill screen”.

It is possible to get to the author’s “Photostream” with a keyboard shortcut (“m”).

 

Picasaweb

The slide show has to be manually started with the “play” button in the control strip at the bottom. Tools for managing the slide show timing are right there. The images are not enlarged beyond the actual size. For this album the photos do not fill a large screen but are surrounded by black.

Not scaling has the advantage that the photos do not become unsharp as is the case when they are enlarged beyond their actual pixel size.

 

 

myPicturetown

With this service there is a significant download delay before the album appears. The slide show does not start by itself but is started with the “play” button (lower left). The slide show goes immediately to full screen and the images are scaled up to fill the screen.

Accompanying the slide show is a music track. The viewer can turn the music off or make another selection (from 5). By default the show recycles and starts over again and again.

 

Shutterfly

The Shutterfly slide show starts right away. Images are not enlarged beyond their actual size. The show plays just once and must be manually repeated.

The controls at the top of the photo remain even when full screen mode (F11) is selected.

 

 

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The viewer of these slide shows cannot get to other parts of the author’s shared photos, except for the Flickr show, as noted.

Obtaining the web address, URL, of a slide show is just a matter of starting a slide show when you are signed in to your account and copying the address from the browser address bar. This is not available for a show in myPicturetown. For that service, the address is obtained by a “share album” feature (it sends an email with the URL).

 

Which photo sharing service provides the best slide show?

That depends, of course, on your preferences. All of these photo sharing services, and there are many others, do things a little bit differently. We all have our on individual likes and dislikes. If you would like to share your opinion, please comment on this post.

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Technorati Tags: Photography,digital images,photo sharing,Flickr,Picasaweb,myPicturetown,Nikon myPicturetown,Shutterfly,slide show,online slide show,albums,photo album

© 2011 Ludwig Keck

When AutoFocus Fails

Modern digital cameras have marvelous autofocus systems. So good, in fact, that most of the time the autofocus mode is more accurate and certainly faster than manual focusing. Some cameras detect faces, even eyes, to focus on and can almost out-think the camera user.

There are circumstances, however, when the autofocus system can’t tell what you want to focus on. Subjects behind windows or fences are classic examples, although many cameras have even mastered those situations. Here is an example of a photo that had to be manually focused. The deer is among shrubbery with leaves in front of and behind the deer. Autofocus simply could not select the the intended subject.

The camera is likely to select the closest item in the focus area. This can result in missed focus even when the subject is not obscured.

My second example shows such a situation. There is no way for the camera to know if I want the pretty flower or the butterfly.The flower was closer to the camera and that is what the autofocus system selected (this photo is cropped, both subjects were much closer to the frame center in the original).

Most cameras have a “close up” mode which causes the focus system to use just a small area in the center. For this photo that would have worked. OK, I intentionally set the wrong mode to get this illustration.

Autofocus works so well that many users don’t even know how to focus manually. Some cameras do not even allow manual focus. Learn how your system works, know where the switch is located to select autofocus or manual focus.  So when that unusual situation presents itself, click to “M”, focus and get the shot. Don’t forget to reset the switch to autofocus so the camera is ready for the next photo.

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© 2011 Ludwig Keck

Technorati Tags: Photography,digital camera,digital images,autofocus,focus

Photos and Albums in the New SkyDrive – uploading

Many changes have been made to SkyDrive and the way you use it. Instead of rolling out a new version, updates have been released piecemeal and more can be expected. This article reviews how to use SkyDrive for your photos as it works in August 2011.

There are two ways to upload photos to your Windows Live SkyDrive: From SkyDrive – I call that pulling up, and from Windows Live Photo Gallery – my term is pushing up.

Uploading in SkyDrive

Even signing in has changed, so let’s start there.

When you go to home.live.com there is standard sign in with text boxes for your Windows Live ID and password. No longer can you select an ID from several choices. There is a “Keep me signed in” check box so you will be signed in automatically next time you open your browser.

On your Windows Live Home page the menu bar now includes SkyDrive. The drop-down menu offers choices for Documents, Photos and more. You can just click on SkyDrive and it takes you to a view of all of your contents. The contents may be shown as a list of “tiles” – small thumbnails. Tiles of photo albums play slide shows of the contents.

As the illustration here shows, document folders are depicted as folders. Each tile also shows the name of the folder or album. Click on an album tile to open the album.

It still is not possible to upload a folder with contents. You create an album or a folder by clicking the little folder icon above the contents listing.

To add photos, navigate to the folder where you wish to add files and click Add files.

If you have Silverlight installed a page opens that invites you to drop photos into the folder. This works beautifully. Open Windows Explorer to the pictures folder you want to upload. In Windows 7 you can clip Windows Explorer to one edge and the browser to the other and just drag the thumbnails from one to the other. You can select multiple photos and drag the “pile” over.

Note that there is a size control option in the upper right of the folder page. The default upload size is 1600 pixels (max dimension). You can also specify  that the photos are uploaded in their Original size or a small size called Medium (600px).

Upload actually starts when you drop the thumbnails. Once your selection is complete click Continue and allow the process to finish.

If you do not have Silverlight installed, or if that option is no longer available on your computer, you will see an upload page that looks like this:

When a Browse button is clicked a “Choose File to Upload” dialog opens. Unfortunately, only one file can be selected at a time, so you have to go through this multiple times.

Uploading from Windows Live Photo Gallery

A much easier way to upload is the other method which uploads photos from Windows Live Photo Gallery. You do not need the browser open, but it works best when you have selected “Keep me signed in”. Similarly you should sign in to Photo Gallery – this too is “sticky” and you will not need to do it each time.

Select the photos you wish to upload. Remember that Ctrl+A will select all the photos being displayed. Then click on the SkyDrive icon in the Share group of the Ribbon (Home tab).

Caution: Be sure that you have selected just the local folder from which you wish to upload. You can inadvertently select photos from multiple folders and they will wind up in just one SkyDrive album.

A “Publish on Windows Live SkyDrive” dialog allows you to select the destination album. The first choice allows you to create a new album.

You can specify who can see your photos in a new album. The default is Everyone (public).

As with the other method, you can specify that the process resizes your photos or uploads in the original size.

Click Publish to  start the actual upload process. On completion you will be offered to view the SkyDrive album.

 

Did you know that you can clip your SkyDrive to your Windows 7 taskbar? Drag the little SkyDrive icon that shows in front of the URL in your browser down to the taskbar and release. You can also release it on your desktop for a shortcut. With SkyDrive on your taskbar it is just one click away.

 

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© 2011 Ludwig Keck

Technorati Tags: SkyDrive,upload photos,create SkyDrive album,Photo Gallery,Windows Live Photo Gallery,photography,digital images.,digital photos

 

Vertical Panoramas

No, that is not an oxymoron. In fact, vertical panoramas are quite common. Most of us think of panoramas as wide views of spectacular landscapes, but they can be wide, or high, or just large and detailed images. Vertical panoramas have the nice advantage of fitting well into web pages as you can see here.

The panorama here is of a huge tulip poplar tree at McDaniel Farm Park in Duluth, Georgia, just starting to leaf out this spring. This image was composed of twelve individual photos.

So how does one make a vertical panorama?

The technique is the same as for a “normal”, horizontal, panorama. You start by taking overlapping pictures of the subject. I like to overlap quite generously so I don’t accidentally come up short. Here is one of the photos that make up this composite.

You can see the others by clicking on the photo (above), the link leads you to my Photosynth of the set.

To make a  composite set use Windows Live Photo Gallery. Select the image thumbnails you want to combine, click the Create tab then Panorama. The photos do not need to be in order, they do need to overlap. There is no need to tell Live Photo Gallery what kind of composite you want, it analyzes the images and combines them in the correct way. The panorama at the right was made that way and then cropped.

My favorite tool for complex composites is Microsoft Image Composite Editor. Click on the photo at right to see the uncropped output from “ICE” – also as a Photosynth.

I have already illustrated one way to show of a large composite with Photosynth. There is another way I like using Zoom.it:

Zoom.it of Giant Tulip Poplar Tree

The zoomit image is based on the WLPG panorama made as a full resolution JPG (100% quality setting). This made the image 48.4 MB – close to the SkyDrive upload limit of 50 MB. The image size is 4534 pixels wide by 11639 pixels high (this includes the black areas illustrating how the photos overlap).

 

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, story, how-to, Windows Live, Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Photos, ICE, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, Image Composite Editor, panorama, photography, stitching photos, digital pictures, digital images, digital photography, Photosynth, Zoom.it

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Technorati Tags: story,how-to,Windows Live,Photo Gallery,Photos,Windows Live Photo Gallery,ICE,Microsoft Image Composite Editor,panorama,Image Composite Editor,photography,stitching photos,digital pictures,digital images,digital photography,Photosynth,Zoom.it

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Panoramas of things that are straight

Panoramas are popular for showing all that you can see around you. But what if you want to show something that is straight? Consider a street. You are standing on one side and want to show everything on the other side up and down the street. Your camera lens is likely not wide enough to take in everything from full left to full right. A set of photos can be stitched together into a panorama. Windows Live Photo Gallery has a Create > Panorama feature that works quite well. I like to use Microsoft Composite Editor because it offers more adjustment features and is very easy to use.

All it takes is a set of photos that show the scene step by step. The content of the photos has to overlap about a third to help the stitching program do its job. Here is a panorama of a street scene.

The left end of the photo shows the street looking down to the left, and the right edge looks to the right. The street looks like it bends. The individual pictures were taken from one position – that is the normal way to make panoramas.

Here, to explain what happens in more detail, is a set of photos showing a straight wall of Fort Pulaski.

Six photos were taken from the same place. That’s what they look like. When you look to the left or the right the farther end of the wall looks smaller. That is normal, the way we see the world. Combining them into a panorama results in an image that has the same characteristics as the one of the street.

It doesn’t look straight. Can something be done? Yes. Instead of taking the pictures from one position, I took a set from six different positions. Each photo looks directly at the wall. I moved from one end to the other. Carefully staying the same distance from the wall. Here is my set:

Doing this is a bit tricky. Do not use a wide-angle lens setting. The best results are obtained when you are as far from the subject as possible. If you are very careful, and the subject is quite flat, the pictures can be stitched nicely. See, I didn’t use the street, I used a wall! I am never all that careful and my resulting panorama has some flaws, but it is not bad:

Now it looks like the wall that it really is. This was done using Image Composite Editor with the Stitch – Camera motion control set to Planar Motion 3. The default setting is Rotating Motion – for the “normal” panoramas that are taken from one point.

If you have not already discovered the links, each of the panoramas above can be seen larger by clicking on the images. The tool for that is “Zoom.it” – and that is another story.

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Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, story, how-to, Windows Live, Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, Image Composite Editor, panorama, stitching photos, Photos, photography, pictures, digital pictures, digital images

 

Technorati Tags: Photo Gallery,Windows Live Photo Gallery,Microsoft Image Composite Editor,Image Composite Editor,panorama,stitching photos,Photos,photography,pictures,digital pictures,digital images