How To Use Photosynth

If you've not yet come across it you may be wondering what exactly Photosynth is.

Basically it is a system that takes still digital photographs, finds common points within them and pastes them onto a virtual 3 dimensional canvas.

These connected images are then presented as a moving, almost cinematic display, with the viewpoint constantly changing.

For instance with a Synth of a building the sequence could start looking at the front of the building, pan along towards the corner then rotate around that corner and then look at the side of the building and then on to the next corner.

With the right photographs the building could be viewed in it's entirety as if the viewer was walking all around it!

Close-up photos of various details of the building (a door or window for instance) would cause the view to 'zoom in' and back out before continuing moving around the building again.

The viewer would gain a far better impression of the shape and dimensions of the building than simply viewing a selection of still photos.

Photosynth has many uses and, no doubt, many I haven't yet come across!

Apart from the purely artistic use of putting together a working Synth for your personal enjoyment and for showing to others a few more practicle uses spring to mind.

How about:

Holiday Photos
Showing your family and friends those fabulous holiday snaps without hearing those embarrassing, stifled yawns?

Wedding Photos
If you take photos at a wedding with Photosynth in mind you could make a really interesting Synth to show to the guests and, of course, to the people who couldn't get to the event!

Local Area
Want to show someone where you live and local area? Why not build a Synth of your Village, Town or City (well, a part of it, at least). A synth of the local shops could prove useful in guiding someone unfamiliar with the location. Maybe this could be used in a commercial way to promote a particular business.

Business
Businesses such as Restaurants could (and already do) show their establishments on Photosynth. Nice to check out what that restaurant is like inside before you book. Maybe a menu could me incorporated in th Synth.

Selling
Selling your house, selling your car or even selling your boat? Make a Synth for use as Sales Literature. It would me much more informative than just a few still photos.

Garden
Record your garden through the seasons as a Synth. With the ever changing vegetation that could be a very interesting Synth.

Cataloging valuables
A synth of your valuable ornaments for insurance purposes might be worth exploring. Imagine an all round view of that Ming Vase showing every feature. It could make identifying when recovered much easier.

Construction
Building a new home. That would make a nice Synth with the building work at different stages of construction.

Close up
And don't forget that each individual photo can be selected and zoomed in very close and the tiniest detail easily viewed.

Well, that's a few to be going on with and I am sure there are many other uses I've not even thought of!

Synths can be set as Public or Unlisted. Unlisted accounts are not viewable to anyone but the Synther who created them so could be useful for more personal Synths such as Cataloging Valuables as mentioned above.

Public Synths are ideal for for promoting items for sale, sharing holiday photos, wedding photos etc.

Just send the URL of the particular Synth to whoever you want to share it with. They can then browse to that address, Photosynth will open and display that Synth on their PC.

Each account is allowed 1GB storage of Unlisted Synths and a massive and very generous 20GB for public ones, so you won't easily run out of space on any particular account.

Creating a Synth which achieves the ideal 100% Synthy can be tricky.

Once you've created your Synth check out the IMAGE view option. You will see all your photos laid out in a grid formation. They should all be together as a group with no gaps between them. If there are then your synth has not made the 100% rating and you will need to either remove the orphaned shots or add more photos the fill the gaps and link the groups together.

This brings me neatly to...

Tip Number 1
As it isn't possible to remove or add photos to an existing Synth make a new folder on your PC to keep sets of photos together. That way if you do need to edit your selection of photos it's just a matter of deleting any that don't make it from the folder or adding more into it. This selection can then be uploaded and the old Synth deleted and repeated until you get the Synth completely Synthy.

Tip 2
When taking photos for Synthing don't skimp on the number of photos you take. They are, effectively, free (taking photos on 35mm film and waiting for them to be developed and printed seems like an age ago, doesn't it?) so snap away! You can achieve 100% Synthy with just a few shots but with Photosynth 'the more the better'. You can always delete the ones that don't work, but you might be able to go back to take more to fill in the gaps until your next holiday! You will see Synths which consist of literally hundreds of photos so fill up that memory card, you can always buy another as they are very cheap at present.

Tip 3
Take some long distance shots as almost a background to your Synth then get in close and capture some the detail. Get enough of each and you will be amazed how your Synth zooms in and out between the two types of shot.

Tip 4
Make sure each photo has a generous amount of overlap with its neighbours. This will help Photosynth to match the shots to one another and help keep the Synth flowing smoothly with no gaps or orphaned photos shown seperately at the end of the presentation.

Tip 5
Learn how to use your Digital Camera to get the best results at the times of shooting. Photo editing software can often help a poorly lit or focussed shot but it can be very time consuming if there are a lot that need correcting. Read the camera's manual again. You may find suggestions in it that you glossed over when you first got the camera. There are many very good books on the subject which will help take your Digital Photography to a much higher level and are well worth the small cost. In the right hands that simple 'Point and Shoot' camera could take better pictures than the most expensive Digital SLR camera in the hands of a poor photographer!

Tip 6
If you do find some shots not quite up to scratch try running them through your photo editing software and looking for the 'Auto Fix' button. In many cases that can often salvage a very poor shot and make it suitable for Photosynth. It just might be the very one you need to get that 100% Synthy!

Tip 7
Modern Digital cameras don't suffer 'camera shake' like the older film cameras used to due to their far greater sensitivity in low light conditions.
Taking Synths in very poorly lit situations can work well as long as the images are sharp and not too dark. A strongly floodlit building at night makes a very interesting Synth but not so good if when zoomed in it becomes apparent that there is camera shake causing the image to be blurred. If possible use a tripod or some other form of steady support, a wall for instance. Put the camera into Timer Mode and wait for the picture to be taken. That way any moment caused by the shutter button being depressed will be eliminated.
Also make sure you have selected the 'Night' mode setting on the camera first.

Tip 8
Geotagging is now available on Photosynth. Tag your Synth with its location on the world map to show exactly where it is. Can be very useful for giving someone directions and showing them what the place looks like when they get there. Just send them the URL of your Synth!

Tip 9 Keep checking on the Photosynth website as new features are being added all the time. In fact I just noticed that Bing Maps now carries Photosynth Geotags! Find that location on the map and then view the Photosynths of that place. Brilliant!

I have taken many photos and Synthed many of them. My first one was made using some old photos from my son's holiday to Egypt before I'd even heard of Photosynth. It was a very simple Synth consisting of just 6 shots of Abu Simbel but Synthed at 100%. Beginner's luck perhaps. It's still listed. Search for 'Egypt Stephen and Louise's trip to Egypt' to see it.

One of my favourite's of St Pauls Catherdral in London. Over a hundred photos and that magic 100% Synthy! Search for 'St Pauls Cathedral 291008'. All the shots for this one were taken on either my Nokia N95 phone or my Olympus pocket camera on my way to and from work on many different days. The light quality changes between photos which gives it a rather interesting effect, in my opinion. See what you think.

As you can tell I am well and truly hooked on Photosynth and once you have tried it I'm sure you will understand why.