8-22 photsynth
waimokuI was looking for a program to knit togeher some of the photos I recently took in Hawaii - particularly photos of areas like Waimoku Falls on Maui. The falls are over 400' tall and cover a wall area over 300' wide - way too much for a single photo to encompass, especially if you want to catch some of the little touches and details of the area like the shot of my wife at the base of that falls on the left or the small flowers growing along the rock face.

lisaOf course you can do that through Photoshop, which I haven't figured out how to do yet, but a friend of mine mentioned a new program he had run across called Photosynth. I gave it a shot this morning and in about 20 minutes put together a decent shot of Waimoku Falls. The program takes all the photos you have of an area including wide angles and detail and merges them into a single series of shots overlapping, merging and sewing where possible - all done automatically. Check it out : Waimoku Falls. Just tap the slide show arrow for an auto-walk thru or step through individual shots by following the prompts in the upper right corner. Then hit back to get back here.

Now the show I have is not as comprehensive as I would like but that's my fault. I only have about 20 shots of the falls for the program to work with. If you watch the tutorial video, you'll see that the more photos you have, the better the result. They give you step by step instructions on how to take your series so that the show is everything you hope for. This can also be used for interior house shots to do virtual tours since the program allows you to view the show automatically or step through each shot, go forward, back, zoom in, etc.

Having done this once, I know from now on when I want to capture a terrific panorama or detail of a large area, I'll be taking numerous photos so Photosynth can do the job for me. It's actually pretty simple and does a very nice job. Give it a try at Photosynth.net.
 
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6 Comments on Photosynth - A great (& simple) photo program

AUG
23
2008
170,113 Points 2 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor

An associate was just telling us about this.   He made a pretty good house tour using it.  Awesome waterfall Gene.
3:26pm • #1
597,449 Points 106 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Hit Router

I carry a wide angle camera, which has minimized the need to stitch most of my shots.  It is especially helpful for shooting homes.
3:42pm • #2
348,521 Points 1 Featured Post

I live half time on Maui but didn't recognize the falls at first.  A quick search showed it's above 7 Pools and is one I've been to a few times.  The waterfall is spectacular as is the drive to get there.

The tools for working with photos are amazing these days.  I'm going to be checking out VisualTour.com as well which was recently recommended to me.
3:59pm • #3

Gene-

I to use a wide angle lens that minimizes alot of need to stitch images together, but when I do I use PTGui which not only will do panoramas but will blend the exposure across all the images and will do HDR images and HDR panoramas.
4:14pm • #4
AUG
25
2008
208,478 Points 1 Featured Post Outside Blog

Gene, This looks like a pretty cool program.  I will definitely be checking it out.  Thanks for sharing.
9:00am • #5
223,809 Points 35 Featured Posts

Photosynth is pretty cool but the more pictures you have the better the result. Special thanks to Bryant for pointing out the PTGui program. I tried it and like it even better for aome things. It is also very easy to work with and in 5 minutes you can compose a seamless panorama if you've got decent pictures - even if your pictures aren't quite decent it will help you get through it. Different type of end result from Photosynth but both very good. You can try PTGui for free but it costs $79 bucks if youj really want to work with it and save your results without a watermark.
2:10pm • #6

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