Saturday, August 23, 2008

HD Video to Photosynth?

Some exciting news came along the other day, abut Photosynth.  They've now made it possible to upload and create your own "synths".  If you're curious about what this software can do, check out this excellent video by Blaise Aguera y Arcas on the TED.com website.  One key issue I'm wondering about is the possibility to merge this technology with HD Video.  I don't see why you couldn't develop something that extracts the high definition frames from the video, maybe taking every 10th frame, and creating a 3-D model in Photosynth from say a short video around a house, or a long video through a city (similar to street view, but with way more potential for detail).  You could even zoom in on certain details. 
 
Although I don't have any HD video equipment, I'd like to try it with the simple video function on most point and shoot cameras.  Check back soon to see how this little (or big) project turns out.


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Theme: Night Photography

We'll start this photo blog off by including my heading picture within the theme: Night Photography. I've been into night photography for a while and the shots above were taken several years apart, from 2002 to 2008. The only one taken with a digital SLR (Nikon D80) is the lightning photo.

Lightning Photo (Calgary, Alberta) - This turned out to be at the right place at the right time, with the storm far enough away not to get any rain, a nice vantage point north of Calgary's Downtown, and a tiny tripod (no idea) for shutter speeds up to 30 seconds.

Mary-Go-Round (Leeds, UK) - Taken with a point and shoot, one of the favorite parts of this photo for me is the 1.50 price still visible in the centre.

Night Market (Marrakech, Morocco) - All I can say about this picture is that I think this is the stall that made me sick for the next week on that trip.

Plaza Mayor (Salamanca, Spain) - One of my favorite and earliest night shots, leaning against a column with my point and shoot, it turned out pretty well - showing the movement of the people.