1. Get a Google account.
2. Go to the Google Reader service home.
3. Click "Add Subscription" on the left panel. Paste the link of the blog you would like to track and your are done.
Blogs that you have not read will be flagged. Isn't that great?! You can also mark some of them "Star" as favorites.
Looking back to my first post on panorama, I said: "I was so excited to found out this interesting tool. It is really easy to use and the result is great!".
This time, I am much much more excited because this tool is much much more easy to use! Here are some steps to begin.
1. Get the program here.
2. Extract the zip file and execute the autostitch.exe.
3. File > Open and then select all the photos you want to stitch and boom! You get your panorama.
Compared to the "Panorama Tool" I introduced earlier, I don't need to define similar points between the photos using AutoStitch. It does it all automatically. It's free for personal use and it has no limitation on the output quality. Try it!
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 25mm, f/11, 1/125s
The stitching was flawless. It automatically faded the non-static elements such as the moving cars which really impressed me.
Compared to my previous result using the "Panorama Tool", you could see several obvious flaws:
1. The large New York sign on the upper right corner
2. The truck head below the Pepsi Cola advertisement
3. A portion of a car below the US and France flags
I was trying shoot the lights but was really surprise to capture the deep blue sky. It was right after the sunset. The sky seen with my eyes was totally dark at that time but appeared to be deep blue to my camera. With this discovery, I learned that the time right after the sun had set is a good time for photographing!
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 18mm, f/3.5, 1/20s, ISO 800, hand-held
The Eiffel Tower at Paris VS The Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas.
When I went to Paris, I was only using a little Sony Cybershot U20, as big as a piece of sushi. So coincide that I took the 2 photos at the same angle.
Sony Cybershot U20, 5mm, f/4.0, 1/500s, ISO 100
Eiffel Tower at Paris, France
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 18mm, f/8, 1/250s, ISO 200
Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is an interesting, easy to use and free software. It runs 1,000 times faster than the Microsoft SyncToy!
Download the software from www.goodsync.com
Here are a few simple steps to use it.
1. Start the program. Select the "LEFT" folder and "RIGHT" folder. The "RIGHT" folder most probably going to be your backup destination.
2. You can limit the file type that you want to backup using the upper right "Files include into Sync" box. It can take pattern such as "*.JPG".
3. Now click on the "Analyze" button. This will generate a list of files that require actions.
4. For my case, I only want to propagate whatever action such as delete, new or rename that I had done on the "LEFT" to the "RIGHT". Nothing on the "RIGHT" should be propagated to the "LEFT". To achieve this, you need to click on the arrow pointing towards right on the first row. This will make all the arrows on the rest of the list pointing towards right.
5. Now click "Sync".
Done!
The casinos in Las Vegas are wide open on the floor of all hotels. I was very tempted to photograph the inside but I was never know for sure if that's allowed.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 18mm, f/3.5, 1/60s, ISO 800, hand-held
Can you see a guy with glass and black shirt on the right of this photo? He approached me right after this shot to prevent me from photographing inside their casino. That's when I started to know for sure that photographing is not allowed.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 18mm, f/3.5, 1/10s, ISO 400, hand-held
I like the color of this shot. Too bad that there is no gambling activity going on. But if there was any, I would not be allowed or dare to shoot.
The color inside the M&M Las Vegas is truly amazing! I don't think I need to describe further.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 31mm, f/4, 1/40s, ISO 400, hand-held
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 55mm, f/4.5, 1/40s, ISO 400, hand-held
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 18mm, f/3.5, 1/40s, ISO 400, hand-held
The photo tend to be a bit soft when the aperture is wide open.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 29mm, f/4, 1/40s, ISO 400, hand-held
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 29mm, f/8, 1/50s, ISO 400, hand-held
Just an attempt on different metering method. I was metering at the brightest part of the wall and created this "spotlight" effect.
Another interesting Noise Reduction result from Neat Image. This example should present a more obvious noise reduction.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 27mm, f/3.8, 1/10s, ISO 1600, hand-held
Before noise reduction.
After noise reduction.
The noise performance of D70 is very poor. Any setting above ISO 200 is going to create bad noisy photo. I have just found out this interesting freeware for Noise Reduction. Its free for non-commercial use. But the output file is limited to JPG High Quality only and no EXIF data will be saved. Anyway, it is still a great and easy tool to use. You can get it for free from here:
http://www.neatimage.com/
It is as simple as three steps.
1. Open input image.
2. Click on the "Device Noise Profile" tab. Inside this tab, click on the "Auto profile" button.
3. Click on the "Output Image" tab. Inside this tab, click on the "Apply" button and you are done!
You can compare both input and output images by switching between the tabs. The zooming of these images are synchronized.
To save the output image, just do Ctrl+S.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 18mm, f/20, 1/10s, hand-held
Before noise reduction.
After noise reduction. Click into both photos to see the original uploaded size.
This time when I was taking these photos, I had had panorama in my mind. I metered the middle spot and lock the meter before I start shooting from the left-hand-side. As a result, there would not be any uneven brightness seen after stitching all the photos. But there is one drawback. The sky was totally blown out especially at the extreme upper left and right. Well, I have no choice but to trade-off the sky for the foreground buildings. Unless, of course, I could do the High Dynamic Range trick, which I had never done before. But things are going to get too complicated then.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, 25mm, f/11, 1/125s
This panorama was compiled using a total of 7 pieces of photos. Try clicking on the photo to get a view of the original uploaded size.
I was very glad to find out that I had successfully captured this photos with just hand-holding my D70 down to the shutter speed of 1/8s. There is still a small amount of blur but I am satisfy with it.
It was my first evening at Las Vegas. I still remember the wind of that evening was very strong. Even the Bellagio Musical Fountain show was canceled. I had to lean myself against a street lamp and hold my breath for 2 seconds to gain the maximum stabilization. I had significantly sacrificed the depth-of-field for the stabilization when I used a f/3.5 aperture size. Else, the photo would have came out to be sharper.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, f/3.5, 1/8s
This is a crop of the above photo to examine the amount of blur. What do u think? Good enough for a hand-held 1/8s shutter speed?
All the photos below would have been taken much more easily if I had had my dream lens with me -- Nikkor 18-200mm VR. Unfortunately, the demand for this lens is so high that it is back-ordered for at least 1 month!
Anyway, if you believe me, all the photos below were actually taken by hand-holding my D70. I brought a chair from the food court and sat at the middle of the hall, right in front of the shop, using my elbow as the "tripod". If I have a VR lens, it would be much easier.
These photos were taken at San Francisco International Airport, on my way to Las Vegas.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, f/11, 1/3s
Nikon D70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, f/11, 1/3s
Nikon D70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, f/9, 1/5s
Interesting Multi-Exposure effect created using Picasa with the 3 photos above.
If you would like to try Picasa too, feel free to click on the "Google Pack" on the right panel to install.
Technical wise, this photo may not be acceptable due to the blur over almost the whole photo. But I like the motion of the kid running towards her father.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, f/2.5, 1/25s
Kid Running Towards Father
I am back from my exciting 9 days trip. I snapped about 2500 pieces of digital raw occupying a total space of 13.5GB! I believe this is going to take me more than one month to process through all these photos.
I plan to process them slowly and sharing them out along the process.
This evening, I had managed to manipulate all the photos taken on my flight to Las Vegas. One experience that I got from this trip was that the plane captain would normally make a brief announcement when the plane is approaching the airport and before he start descending. The best time to bring out your camera is after this announcement. This is the time when the plane starts descending and the city view starting to be visible. But 5 to 10 minutes later the captain would normally make another announcement requesting all electronic devices to be turned off. Hence, that is the short amount of time when you can take your best shot!
All the below shots were taken while the plane was about to land on San Francisco. I have no choice but to make them all black and white because the "haze" created due to the plane window glass was totally unacceptable. With the photos in black and white, I can still play around with the contrast and brightness.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, f/6.3, 1/100s
The San Francisco Bay
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, f/5.6, 1/80s
Houses Surrounding The Hill
Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-70mm, f/6.3, 1/100s
Cloud Over City
