JerryCentral

I have been shooting panoramas lately and stitching the multiple shot together with Panorama Factory. I bought this software several years back when I was shooting with a Nikon Cool-pix 990. I was pretty satisfied with that combination at the time. More recently I have been shooting a Canon 5d with a homemade panorama bracket that I fashioned out of angle aluminum and an upside down ball head. The combination of great Canon optics and the large pixel count of the 5d have got me excited about shooting panos again. Last week I shot a pano that was a stitching challenge, I set up the camera and pointed a 50mm lens into the woods at Knob Knoster State Park. In this early spring view there was a vast amount of fine detail as I captured every twig in fine detail. This set of files creates quite a problem for the stitching software. The first set I processed with Panorama Factory software had several errors. If you click the picture below it will enlarge this screen grab of two files opened in photo shop.

The left is the Panorama Factory and the right is the PTgui stitching software. With close examination of this 150mb file, the PTgui was amazing.

This another PT stitching from Las Vegas!! Click the picture twice to enlarge.

PTgui has a window where you can see the control points it is using to do the alignment, points can be changed and added.

Here is another screen grab from the interface….

Here is a finished PTgui stitched pano click it!!!

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Here are the help files for using the Dynamic Photo HDR!!

I found this post on OpensourcePhoto.net this morning. 

My reading about Blogging has suggested that the new world of the web will be conversational websites and that all websites will be Blogs. 

The traditional web site is too static and not interactive.  It does encourage the visitor to come back to the site.  In addition to that the regular posting and use of tags, categories and strategic text content will move the site up in the Google search much better than a fancy flash website.

 Jessica Claire is a fabulous wedding shooter and constantly leads the way with her business and her shooting.  Take a look at her new Blog/site!!

Here is a video we showed at Tyler’s basketball banquet.  I used a preset that I found for a 300 look and used a bit of the soundtrack music to make this show.  Here is a great site with an extensive set of resources for Lightroom! http://inside-lightroom.com/index.php

 Proshow now has a one click option to make the videos and upload to Youtube!!

Interesting controversy about a cover done by Annie Leibovitz hit the news today.  For the photography student it is interesting how the poetry of subject pose, expression, attitude plays to cause such controversy.  Also, the context of history plays here in the interpretation of this photo.  When we view photos we bring a vast history of images to bear on the interpretation of the photograph.  Do you think this was a natural accident or was Leibovitz actually producing a King Kong image?  Take look at the details of their dress and and expression and interaction, what does it mean?

Too often, black athletes are presented as angry, overly aggressive and overly sexual. Or sometimes, they’re just plain emasculated.

 

Here are some links for you books that will be your FINAL assignment and portfolio.

http://www.blurb.com/  Blurb is and interesting company with the option to self publish and sell your work after you create a book the pricing is good.  The books can be completed using their own software to design or you can design your pages outside and place completed pages.

http://www.lulu.com/  Similar to Blurb for self publishing and selling.  Photos can be added by Simply loading them from your computer into The Lulu Studio™ and, by dragging and dropping, arrange them and rearrange them until they’re in just the right order and position.  Looks like a book is $25 for a twenty page book.  This company uses an on-line software and does not requite a you to download or install software.

http://www.shutterfly.com/  I have used this company and the turn around time was good and the quality was OK.  On-line design software similar to LULU.

http://www.mypublisher.com/  Here is another company that will print your book.  Several students have used this company over the last couple years.  Looks a little more expensive that the other companies.

All these books can be printed for about $25+. 

You should spend some time creating a test book with each of these companies and review their pricing and sizes and production time.  You can create the book and not publish or print so you can share it or review it. 

Your book can be a theme or break it up into sections to feature different shoots. 

The minimum is 20 pages for this assignment.

Here is a 12×12 book that I am making for the Warrensburg Tigers Basketball Team

 I have been shooting my Canon 5d and a home made pano bracket to record some multi shot panos.  I am still using Panorama Factory software. 

Here is a Flickr Show!!

Here are a few from Las Vegas when we were at the WPPI convention.  The tungsten white balance against the darkening blue sky is dramatic.

I have been shooting my son’s basketball games all year.  Lisa used some lightroom techniques to sort through 70 gigs of files.  We designed the book in Fotofusion.

Here is the Flickr Slideshow.

This is a quick pano I shot with a Canon 5d and a 50mm lens using my homemade bracket. Four vertical shots were processed in Panorama Factory Software.