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rickb
12-24-2007, 15:41
Question for the photo bugs.

I have a digital camera that came with photo software that allows me to stitch multiple photos together into a panoramic shot.

This is cool, but the super wide jpeg doesn't display well on the computer.

Are there any free programs that allow one to save these shots to a viewer like QuickTime so that these panoramas will be more presentable?

OregonHiker
12-24-2007, 17:00
Question for the photo bugs.

I have a digital camera that came with photo software that allows me to stitch multiple photos together into a panoramic shot.

This is cool, but the super wide jpeg doesn't display well on the computer.

Are there any free programs that allow one to save these shots to a viewer like QuickTime so that these panoramas will be more presentable?

You need to resize the picture so the width is less than the resolution width on your monitor. You may already have a program. I believe the commands for it may be image>resize>enter new width in pixels. Make your the aspect scale is checked on.

oso loco
12-25-2007, 00:55
Question for the photo bugs.

I have a digital camera that came with photo software that allows me to stitch multiple photos together into a panoramic shot.

This is cool, but the super wide jpeg doesn't display well on the computer.

Are there any free programs that allow one to save these shots to a viewer like QuickTime so that these panoramas will be more presentable?

Rick -
There are several answers - you should already have the first two available if you're using IE7 and Windows -

1. Windows Picture and Fax Viewer will display a panorama as full monitor screen width.

2. Internet Explorer will dispay a pan full screen width and if you rollover the picture the cursor will change to allow you to increase the display to full size (single click).

3. Irfanview will always open the pan full size - you'd have to adjust the display size every time. Irfanview provides a lot of other features though - I use it a LOT for photo work. Irfanview is free - go here: http://www.irfanview.com/

4. Not necessarily free, although I got it that way with my last Nikon - Arcsoft Panorama Maker. You can make panoramas with it - and you can open previously made panoramas with it. When you open them, they'll be the width of the Arcsoft screen, but you can open them to full size with a single click.

I've started to use a lot of panoramas on the website (www.spiriteaglehome.com (http://www.spiriteaglehome.com) ). Each of the 2007 journal and GDT pages has a modified panorama as a header. And I've put more than a few in the 2007 photo galleries. But those aren't up yet - I'm still working on them - another couple weeks I'll have the first ones up.

Hmmm - getting panoramas printed is another bucket of worms. But it can be done.

If you have more questions get back to me privately - I don't check WB (or a lot of the other forums) very often. I'm retired - and I'm just too busy to play.

Smile
12-25-2007, 01:03
Do you have Adobe pHotoshop elements 2? You can get this pretty cheap at Staples or another office store like that.

Just click file / open / choose Photomerge
choose the photos and it does it for you! Very simple and easy and great for top of mountain hiking shots.

:)

rafe
12-25-2007, 01:15
There are a number of inexpensive (or free) image-viewing programs that will let you zoom, pan, and scroll your images and perform simple image resizing, cropping, etc. Try, for example, XnView or IrfanView or even GIMP for Windows. As you get more serious with photography, maybe pick up Photoshop Elements or PaintShop Pro.

Most decent web browsers these days (IE, Firefox, etc.) are able to pan/scroll JPG images and size them either at 1:1 or to fit the screen with a single click of the mouse.

Be aware that image browsers only modify the appearance of your JPG image on your monitor -- they don't modify the image itself, unless you specifically ask them to.

You might also want to check out Zoomify (http://www.zoomify.com/) -- but that's for folks who have their own websites and/or photo-hosting service.

Fiddler
12-25-2007, 07:41
Check out www.download.com (http://www.download.com) for a lot of shareware and freeware on just about anything. Some good free photo apps there.

rickb
12-28-2007, 08:07
Thanks for all the help.

There are some amazing 360* photos on the web. Some even let you pan in all directions including up and down.

Not sure if I will ever be ready to tak things that far, but who knows. I'd like to see some shots like these along the AT!

http://www.panoramas.dk/7-wonders/index.html

woodsy
12-28-2007, 09:39
I've been playing with the panorama feature on my camera some.
The trick to a good 2 or 3 stitch picture is finding prominent landmarks to end one picture with in order to align and start the next picture. And remember visually where you ended the last picture.
looking through the 2 or 3" LCD when aligning can be difficult without a prominent landmark.

rickb
12-28-2007, 14:44
I have a not-too-expensive Cannon that will actually show you the prior picture in the view finder (off to one side) so you can line up you subsequent shots with just a bit of overlap. I have been making up strips of 12+ shots with ease, and am looking forward to moving beyond the practice phase.

What those guys are doing with at the link I posted simply blows my mind, however.