Digital Imaging Reset Week 5

This week week I decided to play a little more with the panorama – now using Canon’s PhotoStich software which works amazing for these kinds of projects. Here is a panorama picture stitched together and then converted to QuickTime VR which allows you to pan around the entire scenario. This was taken at the Christopher St. peer. Should have used a wider lens. It takes a little while to load completely (12Mb) start going to the left because for some reason they seem to load up first.


I also played around with some more depth of field and took some general pictures:

Thesis update video 2

Started coding the html interface mock-up following the iPhone’s specs. JavaScript monitors the iPhone orientation and changes the html dynamically. CSS styles are associated with each orientation – that is how I get the menu icons to be on top when the iPhone is in portrait and on the right when the iPhone is on landscape mode. Including video was also a bit of a hurdle but all figured out now – depending on the connection (WiFi vs Edge) the appropriate movie is shown – you actually have to put up 3 different files for each speed (the third one is for desktop viewing). Fortunately QuickTimePro does that automatically for you.

MOBILE PHOTOGRAPHY LESSON PLANS

Following Leslie’s advice I am going to build and not think too much for a bit.

Turns out that I will be able to mock up my interface pretty closely to what it would really look like if it was a real application for the iPhone – I am starting to play around with it – open with Safari: http://www.lucaslongo.com/iphone

Once the navigation is done, the only thing missing would be the control of camera features and some other built in functionalities. And that will require quite a bit more than some simple web pages.

I also realized that there will be a lot of content production on my side in terms of taking pictures to illustrate the concepts, creating videos and narration for the assignments.

In any case, I am thinking of creating 3 or 4 assignments/exercises:

MOBILE PHOTOGRAPHY LESSON PLANS

Hold it steady

1. Show accelerometer data
2. Show why shaking makes image blurry
3. Turn camera on
4. Alert if camera is shaking too much
5. Assignments:
* take a picture of an object on your desk trying to hold camera steady
* now put iPhone the desk and take a picture of the same object
6. Show the difference in the two pictures

Framing Your Subject – Rule of Thirds

1. Photos with grid appearing on them
2. Audio explains the interest points
3. Turn camera on
4. Buttons:
* grid toggle
* capture
* all pictures
* send picture
* rate pictures
* next assignment

Get close

1. Show wide shots and then close shots
2. Audio explains resolution limitation of camera
3. Turn camera on
4. Tell user to point camera to something far
5. Tell user to point to something close
6. Assignment – send 3 pictures of interesting details you never observed before
7. Buttons
* capture
* all pictures
* send picture
* rate pictures
* next assignment

Try Unusual Angles – Change your perspective

1. Show examples
2. Audio talks about always seeing from while walking.
3. Assignments
* take a picture from below, get close to the ground
* take a picture looking up
* take a picture looking down
* put the camera in an unusual place

Some other candidates:

Pay Attention to Lines
Interesting Reflections and Shadows
Portraits
Shoot from the hip
Simplicity
Different times of day

More advanced lessons:

Back lighting exercise
Shutter delay compensation
Avoiding Cluttered Backgrounds
Fast moving subjects
Groups of people
Landscapes
Focal Point

PicLens – web photo viewer plug-in!

Install the plugin from PicLens:
Then go to any site and click on the blue play button it installed on the top right of the browser window. It will look for pictures within that site and display them in a gorgeous “3D” wall. You can also search for images and get a feel for the vastness of the internet 🙂