Catching The Rain » Techniques

Imperial War Museum panorama

James — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:02:24 +0000

Another experimental panorama, this time at the Imperial War Museum. Most of the main attractions are set as highlights, but Microsoft Silverlight is very frustrating in that it doesn’t allow users to hover over something in the scene and find out more. In fact it’s not very good at displaying information at all – I’d have thought it would at least show captions from the titles and descriptions that you set!

Wait a little while and it should automatically go through the highlights, or just click on the thumbnails to the right (again, there must be something not quite right with a piece of software if you have to give people guidance on how to do the basics!)

I’d suggest opening full screen for maximum impact, or see the original on photosyth.net

Streamcombe Farm, gourmet B&B, 370 megapixel panorama

James — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:18:07 +0000

We went down to visit our friends Karen & Ian over the Bank Holiday weekend. As we went to leave it was glorious weather imaginable and it was a wrench to get away, but I had to quickly pop up the hill and shoot an experimental panorama, which I’ve stitched and uploaded using Microsoft tools for the first time.

If you don’t have Microsoft Silverlight you’ll have to install it, but it’s easy (just click on the button) and I think it’s worth it!

You can see the full version here, or better still click on the full-screen button to the right of the [-] & [+]

For the technically minded, this was stitched together from 3 rows of 18 portrait format images shot handheld (no tripod) at 70mm 1/320th f8 ISO200 on a Nikon D300. Stitching was done using Microsoft Image Composite Editor and uploaded, hosted and embedded (including highlights feature) on Microsoft Photosynth.

Phototrek in the New Forest

James — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:03:32 +0000

Way back last summer the kids bought me a voucher for my 40th birthday to go on a phototrek in the New Forest. After a failed first attempt thanks to storms back in November, I finally made it down there.

The treks are organised by local photographers Ian Badley and Barry Whitcher, under the banner of www.photonewforest.com/.

Turned out to be a great day, and although we didn’t get much sunshine the weather stayed kind to us. Would recommend these New Forest phototreks to anyone, beginner or expert.

Working with digital pictures

James — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 13:53:01 +0000

I recently discovered a great site in the form of Cambridge in Colour. The best parts for me, other than some nice photos, are the extensive and seemingly authoritative tutorials on digital photography, exploring issues like bit depth, sensors, colour spaces, and working with RAW files.

Overall there are nearly 30 tutorials, each clearly written and well illustrated.