Entries tagged with photos - Channel 10

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.

Animoto: An Automated Video Creation Tool

sarahintampa — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:20:00 GMT

Have you seen this? A web app called Animoto is announcing “the end of slideshows” thanks to their automatic video creation tool. You don’t have to create anything yourself – just point it to your media on the web (or upload from your PC) and Animoto’s Cinematic A.I. technology will create a completely customized video for you including a background track!

After you sign up for Animoto and start creating your first video, you’re promoted to either upload your photos from your computer or direct the app to use images you have stored on an online photo service like flickr, smugmug, Picasa, photobucket, or even Facebook! If you have your photos organized into albums, you can configure Animoto to retrieve the images just from one particular album.

You have to wait for a moment while the application retrieves your images. Ideally, for their 30-second video, you should have around 15 images – more than that, and some could be left off. If you want to make a longer video it’s only $3 – regardless of how many images are used.

For the music selection, you can upload a track from your PC or select one from their online collection, which lets you browse by genre (top 40, indie rock, hip hop, etc.) to find something appropriate. Note: though “Top 40” is a category, I’m either officially old or these are unsigned artists.

Finally, you’ll have your end product – a customized video created with their unique technology. Their app analyzes and combines the images and takes into account every detail about a song – genre, structure, energy, rhythm, instrumentation, and vocals. Every video created will have a distinct set of motion. The video can then be emailed to friends, posted to your social network profile, downloaded to your computer, uploaded to YouTube, embedded on your blog, and more.

Animoto isn’t a new service – they’ve been in the works since 2005 and started receiving a lot of blog coverage last year. However, I personally had not tried the site for myself until today, and now that I have, I have to say I’m highly impressed. The app was fast, slick, and dead-simple to use, and the end product looks great. Looks like I’ll be pimping my MySpace page this weekend!

Browsing Photos With Pictomio

sarahintampa — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:34:00 GMT

Pictomio is a new, downloadable app for Windows that makes browsing through your photos a really cool experience. The app has a slick, modern interface and lets you flip through your photos in 3D. Because of the 3D rendering, your graphics card will need to have some juice to take advantage of this software, but the end result is worth it. Pictomio very much reminds me of what the PicLens browser add-on offers, and makes me wonder if 3D browsing is the next big thing we're going to be seeing both on the web and in our software programs.

You can also use the program to view, organize, browse, and edit your photos’ metadata, but it stops short of being a full-on image editing program. Still, this program is a lot of fun and it’s definitely being added to my list of alternatives to Windows Explorer.

Thanks FreewareGenius

Virtual Earth Team Launches "GoVE"

sarahintampa — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:13:00 GMT

The Virtual Earth team has just launched a new program called GoVE which lets state and local governments, municipalities, and aerial photographers share their own imagery with Microsoft and get it published on Virtual Earth. After checking out maps.live.com to verify that the imagery they have it news and has a higher resolution of what's currently being offered online, the organizations can then contact the team by sending an email to NitroDesk is a program that helps photographers easily manage, upload, transfer, and sync their photos and/or videos from their PC to several online media sharing websites including PlanetEye, SmugMug, Zenfolio, Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, Facebook, ShutterPoint, and Windows Live Spaces for photos and Vimeo and YouTube for video. Nitrodesk also support workflow tools like Adobe LightRoom, Google Picasa2, and Microsoft Expression Media 2. With this latest release of Media Edition, users can now drag and drop photos, albums, or video from one site to another or upload to multiple sites simultaneously. For anyone who works with publishing their media to several different sites, NitroDesk Media Edition may just be worth the one-time fee of $29.99 to save you the hassle. To use this software, you’ll need Windows XP or Windows Vista, and Microsoft .Net Framework 3.0. You can watch a video about Nitrodesk here.

ShutterSpeed Episode 01

Nic — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:50:00 GMT

Welcome to the very first episode of ShutterSpeed the Channel 10 Digital Photography and Imaging Show.

On each episode of ShutterSpeed we'll help you understand your camera gear so that you can take better photos and show you new and cool ways to edit, share and display your images.

In this first episode Tim Grey, Michael Palermiti & Bill Crow join me in the studio to discuss online video storage and photo editing tools. We also get back to basics and talk about the principles of photography and what to look for in a digital camera.

I also visit the home studio of award winning photographer Phil Borges. Phil shows me the equipment he uses in the field - including his home-made lighting rig - and talks about some of the techniques he uses to capture his magnificent portraits.

We hope to make ShutterSpeed a regular series here on Channel 10. For comments on the program or ideas and suggestions for future episodes please email us at One Big Weekend which is Europe's biggest free music festival (What? A free music festival? That's awesome!) The festival, sponsored by BBC Radio 1, has a website going at http://bigweekend.external.bbc.co.uk, where they deployed Silverlight to take advantage of that awesome deep zooming technology to display photos from the event. As you click the navigational links on the left for the various days/times of the performances, the photo collage updates to include pictures from the acts that performed then. Check it out here.

Mother's Day Photo Contest: Portraits of Mom

sarahintampa — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:17:00 GMT

For this year's Mother's Day, the Windows Live Team is sponsoring a photo contest called "Portraits of Mom," where you submit a photo of mom from your Windows Live Space and get your friends and family to vote for it. During the contest's run, there are daily prizes, weekly prizes, and grand prizes that will be given out which include things like a Canon PIXMA mini 320 Photo Printer, a Canon PowerShot SD1100 Camera, a Canon PIXMA MP610 All-in-One, a Canon VIXIA HV30 Camcorder, and a perfect-for-mom, pink Sony VAIO TZ Series notebook. For more info on this contest, see the contest rules.

New for Photogs: Pro Photo Tools V1

sarahintampa — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:58:00 GMT

Just recently, a new tool for photographers was released which helps you better manage your digital photos. The tool is called Microsoft Pro Photo Tools V1 and this free application lets you geotag your photos as well as edit the photo's metadata - even in RAW format. The geotagging feature lets you organize your photos by location taken - info that can come from a GPS device or Live Search Maps. You can see some some screenshots of how this geotagging process works on the Windows Experience blog.

In addition to the Pro Photo Tools download, Microsoft also released Expression Media 2, a new version of its digital asset management software, which is designed to work with the Pro Tools software. Expression Media 2 helps save time when it comes to managing and organizing large collections of photos and other digital media, and it includes geotagging functionality built-in. Expression Media 2 also lets you quickly export of photos into multiple formats to produce slide shows, video, and interactive Microsoft Silverlight-powered web galleries.

“Geotagging is a hot new area in digital photography, and like other popular digital photo features, I expect photographers will be asking themselves how they ever lived without it,” said Ron Glaz, analyst at IDC. “Until now geotagging has been hard to do, requiring special expertise and tools. The time has come for an application that even the weekend photographer can use."

Well now with Pro Photo Tools V1, even the weekend photographer can do geotagging!

Twitter+Email+Flickr+Virtual Earth = Twisney.com!

sarahintampa — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:35:00 GMT

What do you get when you combine Disney World, Twitter, Flickr, and Microsoft's Virtual Earth? You get the awesome site Twisney.com! The site lets you send in email, IMs, text messages, or tweets in order to update the Virtual Earth map with your photos and news. When you send in your status update to Twisney.com, they match it to a location on the map by looking at the first few words of your message. You can use an abbreviation, a paraphrased name, or the location's full name as found on your map of Disney.

Examples:

btmr, on the front car of the train, let 'er rip!
thunder mountain, on the front car of the train, let 'er rip!
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, on the front car of the train, let 'er rip!
thunder mountain rr, on the front car of the train, let 'er rip!

If you're emailing in your update from a mobile phone, just attach the picture to the email, and send it to these instructions. That way, all your photos will be available from one page: www.twisney.com/username, which you can then share with your family and friends.

You can keep tabs on other Twisney users from your mobile phone from the mobile version of the site: http://www.twisney.com/mobile/overview

All the photos sent in to Twisney are uploaded to the Twisney group on flickr. You can also see them on a map here.

Attention Photogs: Cover Photo Contest

sarahintampa — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:31:00 GMT

Microsoft is currently sponsoring a contest over at Professional Photographer magazine where the winner will get their work on the front cover of the mag, which has a subscription base of nearly 50,000. What a great way to get your work out into the photo community! Entries will be judged on technical, compositional, and artistic merit. There's no entry fee, but the entries must be in by May 31st. You can enter from the magazine's web site, www.ppmag.com. (Via Microsoft Professional Photographer blog)

Geotag Your Photos Without GPS

sarahintampa — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:37:00 GMT

The Windows Live Photo and Video blog recently posted a great tutorial on how to geotag your photos without GPS. How is this possible? The trick to geotagging your pics is using a combination of Windows Live services - Windows Live Photo Gallery, Spaces, and Windows Live Maps. The blog post details all the steps, with screenshots, so it's easy for anyone to do. The end result is a Windows Live Maps collection collection of geotagged pictures! Awesome! Excellent post, guys - definitely worth a read for photographers and geotagging enthusiasts!

Get Microsoft Digital Image Starter Edition For Free

sarahintampa — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:20:00 GMT

Microsoft Digital Image Starter Edition 2006 was popular photo-editing software for users of Windows XP and below. The product has been discontinued, but fans can still download it for free from Microsoft Downloads. Digital Image Starter Edition provides easy-to-use tools that help you create, organize, and enhance your digital photos. The software contains 3 modules: the Library, where photos are organized, the Editor, where editing and retouching are done, and Photo Story, where you can create movies based on your photos. Despite it's age, Digital Image Starter edition is still a great program for beginners to the world of photo editing, and you can't beat the price!

Move Photos from Flickr to Spaces and More

sarahintampa — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:43:00 GMT

Nitrodesk Photographer's Edition is a WPF application that lets you connect to and manage your photos and photo albums across several different photo sharing services. With Nitrodesk, you can pick any online album and manage it in real-time - updating the album or photo properties, viewing and managing the comments, transferring the photos between services and much more. The app also allows you to backup your photos from an online photo-sharing website to your PC.

This program is great, especially if you want to move photos from one site to another, but don't have them all on your PC to re-upload. How convenient!! The software currently supports the following services: Google (Picasa Web Albums), Flickr, Facebook, ShutterPoint, SmugMug, and Windows Live Spaces.

You can download the beta version of the program here.

Stack your Photos with PicMe

sarahintampa — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:18:00 GMT

A freeware application for Windows called PicMe, scans your PC for your digital photos and then displays them in 3D stacks, like a digital shoe box. You can use PicMe to browse through your photos but you can also use the application to share them with your friends by using the integrated sharing feature. PicMe lets you share photos with friends on Flickr, Picassa, Facebook, or with other PicMe users. The free version lets you share up to 200 photos, but to share more, you'll have to pay. However, it's only $9.95/year for the next step up, which allows for 5000 photos. You can try PicMe by downloading the app from here.

Outlook Add-In for Photgraphers

sarahintampa — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:03:00 GMT

Microsoft has released a free Outlook add-in for professional photographers. The add-in, called "Pro Photo Shoot," lets photographers create lists of their equipment and then uses checkboxes next to the items to remember what to bring to the photo shoot. For example, while on the phone with the client, photographers can bring up the dialog box that lists all of their stuff, check off what they want, and the list is then stored in the body of the appointment. If you print out the appointment, the list is right there along with all the other details.

When you begin using the add-in, you'll notice a new button that appears in the ribbon (for Outlook 2007) or the task bar (for Outlook 2003) of the appointment. You can then press the "Equipment Pool" option to start entering the names and types of the equipment you own. You can also add more details, like purchase price, warranty information, etc. This can be a useful way to keep track of the items for insurance purposes, too. The add-in is available for download for either Outlook 2003 or 2007.

Another useful feature for photographers using Vista is the ability to tag, print, and handle "raw" photos, which are the unprocessed data from high-end cameras. Because Microsoft relies on camera manufacturers to supply the necessary codecs to work with these files, they have set up a website with links just for downloading the Vista Raw Image Codes. Currently, manufacturers on this list include Nikon, Canon, Sony, Pentax, and Olympus, as well as Ardry's codec for handle Adobe Systems' Digital Negative (DNF) format. Windows XP users can also use these codecs in the Windows Live Photo Gallery when installed.

Upload Photos from Your Camera to the Web

sarahintampa — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:57:00 GMT

The Eye-Fi Card is a breakthrough new product that everyone with a digital camera needs to know about. It's a 2GB SD card and wireless memory card that automatically uploads pictures from your digital camera or PC directly to the photo sharing site, photo printing site, blog, or social network of your choice. The Eye-Fi Card stores pictures like a regular SD card, up to 2 GB, and then uploads your photos automatically as soon as you return to your home network (or any open Wi-Fi network that doesn't require a login via an initial splash screen webpage...like Starbucks). Amazingly, the card already works with a myriad of services, including Kodak, Walmart, Snapfish, Photobucket, Facebook, Webshots, Phanfare, Shutterfly, flickr, TypePad, Vox, Sharpcast, and many more.

Organize Your Media with Photo Gallery & Spaces

sarahintampa — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:40:00 GMT

Windows Live Photo Gallery beta, one of Microsoft's new Windows Live Services, improves upon the built-in Photo Gallery in Windows Vista. The software, available for both Vista and XP users, offers many new features like better tagging, sorting, and image editing, including the ability to do panoramic stitches, histograms, image sharpening, cropping, exposure adjustments, color adjustments, and red eye fixes. You can add captions, turn your photos into screensavers or slideshows, and publish your photos and videos online. Videos can be easily uploaded to Soapbox (see how here).

The new Photo Import Tool automatically groups all the photos taken on your digital camera by date and time as you copy the files over to your PC. You can also select specific individual photos you want to import instead of being forced to import the entire batch of photos (like in the previous version of Windows Photo Gallery). RAW format is still supported, and additionally, Windows Live Spaces users will be pleased to find that high-res photos are now supported up to 1600x1600, if uploading from the Live Photo Gallery client.

Downloading from Spaces is easy, too. With the Photo Enthusiast Template, the integration with HP's Snapfish service for ordering prints, and the ability to point a Windows Live Domain to your Spaces page, Spaces becomes a great way to organize, manage, and showcase your digital photography. The easiest way to get the software is via the Windows Live Installer.

Use Windows Photo Gallery to Share Your Photos

sarahintampa — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:08:00 GMT

There are some great reasons to take your Windows Vista laptop on vacation with you, and, no, it's not to check your business email, you work-a-holics! Instead, travelers, after an enjoyable day of and sightseeing, can easily and quickly share their favorite photos of the day with their family and friends using Vista's new Photo Gallery. So you don't bog down recepient's inboxes with large attachment, the Photo Gallery lets you automatically resize your pictures when you send them without changing the size or quality of the photo saved on your computer. To use Photo Gallery, just follow these three easy steps:

1. Click the Start button, click All Programs, then click Windows Photo Gallery.
2. Click the picture you want to send & then click Email.
3. Select the size you want from the list, and then click Attach.

Comic Life beta breathes new life into your photos

Jesse — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:20:00 GMT

Last night the Plasq team released a beta of Comic Life for Windows, while some of us from the 10 team were watching the last piece of epic cinema. As you can see from our three minutes of handiwork, any single photo can be quickly turned into a hilarious piece of original art. This normally Mac development house has given the masses access to one of the more entertaining applications to come around in years, particularly if you’ve got a dedicated web-cam connected to your machine. If you install the beta, be sure to give the team as much quality feedback as you can, as that’s how devs know you really care ;)

Web 2.0 Expo: What’s the takeaway?

Jesse — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 22:53:00 GMT

Last week the O’Reilly machine cranked up a storm in downtown San Francisco, pulling as much of the light of the internet as possible into the first annual Web 2.0 Singularity Expo. Moscone West was washed over with a sea of people anxious to be a part of the conversation around how everyone can be a part of the post-bubble phenomenon. We attended simply to see how the ecosystem has matured since the term was coined back in 2004. Over the next few days leading up to MIX07, we’ll go in-depth on our own ideas about Web 2.0, but for the moment, enjoy some of the photos we snapped while walking round.