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ARTICLES:
Creating
panoramic
images with AutoStich automatic stitching software.
In
beautiful landscapes and wide city views panoramic photographs are
indispensable. This way the photographer can show much more than
with
just one single photo could. Actually this way you can create images up
to 360 degrees wide.
This
article describes a simple objective way, how to create panoramic
images with AutoStitch automatic image stitching software. The
software is provided as free demo software. You can download AutoStitch
demo by following this link: http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.zip.
Demo
version
has
some limitations and will automatically expire after
some time of usage. This fact should not disturb You too much, because
even the demo version creates full size panoramic images and is easy to
use. You may download the demo of newer version of the software or buy
commercial software that is using the AutoStitch component, after demo
version expires.
We have made some hand shot photo series with regular affordable
digital photo cameras. After letting AutoStitch to automatically stitch
these
photos, results and final images will be shown .
Example
Photo Camera – Pentax Optio S12
These photos have been shot without tripod in sunny day near
Roomassaare commercial port.
We have changed the default options in the software to allow full scale
images with
JPEG quality 100 to achieve best image quality:
Next step is to open the images that will be stitched together (File
> Open ...).
Now the automatic image creation process
is starting.
After a while a full panoramic image is ready.
As we can see the first image of photos is not stitched. Probably
because overlapping area of images 1 and 2 was too short. The final
result is still pretty good. The original images were taken more
like a snapshots with photo camera with no panoramic mode
(regular green auto setting).
When viewing the image with 1 to 1 ratio, the quality is good enough.
After cropping the black part out:
NB! Click on the image to see bigger image...
Few tips to get
better results:
- use tripod to get less shaking and better
overlapping
- when starting panoramic image, the next photo
should overlap at least one third of the original photo
- when possible use panoramic image mode or
manual settings with your camera
- if one image is much more brighter than
the others - try to adjust the brightness to the same level as it
is on other photos. Do this before joining the photos together.
You are now ready to
start experimenting with panoramic images.
How
to Sell Your Photos on Internet and Earn some Extra Money?
Internet is full of suprises
and new
possibilities. Few years ago you had to have expensive
technology to
shoot photos at good quality. Luckily for us the time has changed these
rules. With a bit of patience and good luck you may be able to take
photos that you can sell on different photo stock web galleries.
This sounds
very complicated but
this is quite easy. You
need digital camera or digital drawing
pad, a bit patience and creativity. It takes a little time to
understand what kind of images are needed for stock. When you look
around on the webpages that we have collected in this article, you see
what kind of images are already online. There is no point in copying
images that are already online - this is not polite too. You may shoot
similar subjects but try to be more creative, try to think on your own
to geat photos at different angle and perspective.
Photo
©
Mb2006
|
Dreamstime.com
Where to
sell? Below are
few links to most popular and trusted stock photo sites that are
photographer friendly and up and running for you to start registering
free today! Be always careful and read the “Terms and conditions” of
your stock agency when signing up!
www.dreamstime.com – Free
signup, over million
users and thousands daily photo downloads. Sell the rights of your
photos at your own price. Keep 50% when selling rights of your image. Request
payments by bank check, Paypal or Moneybookers. You can start
uploading today! Good
referral program.
www.bigstockphoto.com – Free and
easy signup. Start uploading soon after
signup. Bigstockphoto.com has a good short
review time for uploaded photos (usually 1-3
days). You can earn more with referral program.
www.shutterstock.com – Free
signup, but you have
to send a copy of you ID card for verification. Before you can start
uploading and selling, 7 of 10
of your firstly uploaded images must be approved. Good referral program.
www.redbubble.com – Free
signup. Nice positive
web site with many
active users. You
will get a lot of feedback from this site. This not a regular stock
site. Redbubble let´s you sell your images as
prints clothings or posters.
What you will need? You can start with regular
digital photo camera. Some photo stock agencies consider acceptable
photos starting with 5-7 MP when the subject is interesting and the
overall photo is looking good. A photo that is made with a 10 MP camera
is better for for photo cropping and composing with available photo
software.
Buying
New
Photo
Camera?
Are
You going to buy a new photo camera? There will
always be available new and fancy looking cameras that have more
powerful specifications and more mega pixels. There are different
companies releasing new products every year. Most of them have
different products for people with different requirements.
Before
actually buying one you should ask yourself – is this
camera right for me!
What is important for you? Important is to think of the subject of your
photos. What
kind of photos you are going to take? Have you taken mostly photos of
your family, friends or would you like to take some nature photos in
sometimes difficult lighting conditions? Or maybe you have deeper
interest in photography and you would like to be able to use manual
settings? Do you want to have the freedom to use different lens to
achieve your goals better? Are you planning to sell your photos?
Photo
©
Anatols
|
Dreamstime.com
Do you want
to be sure that you
have found the right camera for you? It is important to make a
decision. Do not let other people tell you what is right for you. No
one knows you better than you yourself! It is good if somebody can be
helpful and recommend you what to buy. But this will be your camera, so
you have to choose it and make a decision. If you are not sure, (if you
don’t want to make the decision) then you have to take more time and
think this over.
Before you go
and buy it, find some sample photos made with this
camera. One good web site with many sample photos is (http://www.pbase.com/cameras).
NB! Many useful information is
available in the internet, just type “yourcameraname
review” or “yourcameraname
sample photos” in
Google or any other search engine and press enter.
About
Stock
Photography - what
is
Microstock Photography?
Selling
photos
for
stock may
be an
interesting and rewarding hobby for everyone. There
are stock photography agencies that buy images mostly from
proffesional photographers. Two largest of them are Getty Images and Corbis.
Micro stock agencies buy/sell images from smaller contributors
(including hobby photographers) with smaller price. Two large micro
stock agencies are Dreamstime
and Shutterstock.
Stock agencies have large online databases for images. Instead of
hiring a photographer images can be downloaded with different
licences.
How to get
photos online?
There are three different activities, before you get your images
online:
pure fun – shooting photos
pure work – key-wording &
uploading
success – starting with first photo
sell and hopefully never ending process
Photo © Marko | Photoisle.com
Lets
look at these three topics a little closer :)
Shooting
photos. You
can draw inspiration from different everyday situations. Some stock
photos will be used as an illustration on some web page, some might be
in the corner of a news article. Some business related photos might be
used on some company brochure or in commercial advertisement. If you
would like to sell a picture of an object then different objects
isolated on white background are needed by designers for various
purposes.
If there are
recognizable individuals on your photo you need their
written permit. Many sock sites have special model release form for
this. What if you have photos of famous people or if you have other
news worthy photos with recognizable people? You can then try to sell
these photos with editorial license. With images sold with editorial
license you should read carefully what are specific requirements
written the “Terms and conditions” rules of your stock agency.
What is
key-wording? If
you try to sell photos then it is very important that your photos are
easily findable. You can accomplish this if you add keywords (tags) to
your images. You can do this either in the right way or in the wrong
way.
The right way
is to add keywords that describe the main topic of your
photo or the objects/activities on the photo.
The wrong way
is to add very many popular words that do not describe
your photo. The result is that the photo buyer who looks for specific
photos will find many irrelevant photos in the search outcome. If the
buyer is patient then maybe he or she will look through all these
photos. If the buyer has limited time to find the right photo then
probably he will try to look for this photo in some other place.
Before adding
new keywords take some time to look at the photo you are
about to upload. Try to figure out what is the purpose of this photo?
Who would find this photo to be useful? If you would like to find this
exact photo among thousand other images then what words would you type
into the search box in your internet browser? Many stock sites require
at least ten keywords. Choose them wisely ;)
Uploading
photos. This
is a time consuming process too. Choose only the best images for
uploading. The best image for stock photography might be slightly
different from photos that you are used to see on the walls of
professional artistic photo galleries. Take a quick tour on any stock
site to see what is already uploaded.
If you would
like to upload images that are similar to the ones that
are already up you should make your images better to stand up among
other photos. You may try to beat other photos in quality ;) Or you
could
start uploading photos that are still rare and hard to find among the
photos that are already up.
NB! It is recommended to add
keywords to the image metadata (properties) before uploading. Most
stock sites can then receive image information and keywords
automatically after upload.
Success? Few years later when you
are experienced photo/image seller you might agree that this hobby has
became a part of your every-day life. Even if you have not earned a lot
of money you have still many good positive experiences. You may find
your photos used from different parts in the World. You can improve
your results when devoting yourself to photo subjects/topics that sell
more often. You always can try shooting photos with better quality to
build a stronger portfolio.
NB!
If You are willing
to write your own article to be published on this webpage, then please
contact us by e-mail info@photoisle.com ! We can not pay you for
your article, because this site is not commercial, but we can promote
your work by leaving your e-mail and homepage link with name under
every published article!
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