Wiggle gifs a great way to view some cool 3D photos.

Been enjoying my Poppy 3D camera, an iPhone accessory that allows me to take 3D photos and videos.  The latest Poppy 3D app for the camera allows users to make cool wiggle gifs, so others can view their 3D photos in an unusual way without using the Poppy.  

Poppy3D.com is a creative community for 3D photography.

Check out my Poppy GIF - http://www.poppy3d.com/g/rXdJdZ4d 

Another one of my Poppy GIFs - http://www.poppy3d.com/g/rq9qrlV5 

And yes, I did snorkel with the sharks and rays, too!

Tweet

Time to Get Serious about Taking 3D Photos

Now that my production Poppy has arrived, it is time to get serious and take some 3D photos. But what exactly is the best way to shoot bang up 3D photos. Shooting 3D images gives you that feeling that you are right there in the moment, adding a new dimension to your memories and allowing you to get close up and personal with your images.

The following are some tips for first time Poppy 3D photographers:

• Poppy photos should be taken horizontal or in landscape mode, as the resulting images need to be side by side horizontally to view correctly.

• Lighting should come from behind you. Lights in back or over the object to be photographed can result in a sudden burst or flare of light that interrupts your image.

• For the best results and to achieve a dramatic 3D effect, try to shoot your photo with several depths or multiple subjects at different distances in the frame.

• Remember the best 3D effects are those closest to you, rather than objects or subjects farther away. Try standing close to your main subject to achieve the best 3D effect.

• A good time to try out a tripod with your Poppy is in low light conditions. When lighting is low, you need a steadier hand and slower shutter speeds to avoid blurry images.

• Remember to keep your camera horizontal when shooting to avoid a tilted image, which may not be correctable later.

• Remember that when photographing objects that are less than 3 feet away, the background objects should be within a 3X range or no further than 3 times the distance to the foreground object.

Now, you are ready to produce some great 3D images with your Poppy that will amaze and delight your family and friends.

Word is that a new Poppy3d app is on its way that will allow some image improvement for those of us still using iPhone 4 devices. In the meantime, practicing the tips I've outlined will help secure some great composition for those 3D photos.

Thanks Ethan and Joe for a fun new iPhone accessory!

Tweet

Poppy Plans to Take iPhone Users to a New Dimension - 3D

Very proud and excited for two Seattle entrepreneurs. Check out Poppy!

CrunchBase Information

Poppy

Information provided by CrunchBase

Tweet

Solution for Transfering Photos from iPad to Computer and Back

When transferring photos between your mobile devices like iPad and iPhone or to your MacBook Air and back, you need to consider the amount of time and bandwidth or data transferred via the cloud.    As an alternate solution, one should consider one of the excellent apps available to do this efficiently and seamlessly.

How It Can Be Accomplished with PhotoSync

PhotoSynch is such an app available for the Mac and also the iPhone/iPad devices.  PhotoSync allows synching photos in both directions without hassle, using an easy-to-use interface, which allows transfer of all photos or a selection of photos. 

* This transfer from device to computer and computer to device can be accomplished via a wireless connection or 3G/LTE. The device to device transfer is available using bluetooth and wifi.
* The number of photos you plan to transfer can be limitless, but I haven't tried that yet.
* You can share photos to other sites such as Facebook, Dropbox, Picasa, and others like Google Drive (the new Google Docs).

* It also has Web Browser viewing capabilities where you can view your photos in a web page from a computer on your same network.
* Transfer is done in the background, allowing iPhone and iPad users to continue with phone calls or games.
* You can select the size to send, which computer to use as your default storage.

* You can setup defaults in the settings of the app for quick transfers and also choose to send to a certain folder or to iPhoto on your computer directly when receiving or sending photos.

Support for Mac and Windows Companion App

The iPad/iPhone app is relatively inexpensive for your iPad/iPhone and comes free for use on your desktop or Mac laptop (Mac OS X10.5 or higher Intel and PPC supported).  There is also a Windows PhotoSynch companion app that works for those using a PC as their default computer (Windows XP SP 2 or higher, Windows Vista or higher, Windows 7).  Location services needs to be enabled in order to use the app successfully.

For those who don't want to use a cloud server or have limited wifi capability or your internet connection is down this is a great solution as it offers a means to transfer photos and videos between devices and computers using a local network. I give PhotoSync a thumbsup rating of 5 stars for all my fellow travelers and photographers.






Tweet

Using Prospective to Capture the Moment

While visiting a sugar cane museum in Port Louis, on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, I learned a good photo tip.  At the museum there was the Beau Plan's historical chimney-stack, constructed in 1895 by A. Felix, an architect that stood 33 meters (over 100 feet) tall.

I wanted to take a photo of this very tall tower or smoke stack.   This presented a problem - how best to obtain this type of photo.  Normally buildings are so tall that one can't really get the entire building in the photo by looking up and snapping the photo.   Normally, one would step back to try and get an angle on the object that would work while photographing.  The area by the smoke stack was not conducive to backing up, as we were inside an enclosure which surrounded the tower.  So I attempted to just look up and snap the photo which did not work.

Then, I noticed that there was a mirror slanted along the wall of the enclosure that was tilted in such a way as to reflect the tower onto the mirror.  Cleverly, I decided to take a photo of the tower using the mirror.  My first attempt was not successful, as I failed to realize that I would be in the photo.  I ended up with the photo shown below (a self-portrait):

 Stepping further away from the mirror I was able to capture only the tower.  The results below:

Still not satisfied, I stepped to the side and took the best shot by angling the camera from a completely different prospective. See best photo below:

A valuable lesson in photography is to look up, look down and change your position to get the prospective you need on the object you are photographing.  You never know what you might see or capture.

Tweet

Creating a Panoramic Photo from Multiple Photos using Photo Elements

While on my voyage I was fortunate to take five 2 hour workshops from Raul Touzon, a National Geographic photographer.  As I am new to photo taking, I found his workshops and explanations invaluable and easy to follow.

One of his suggestions was to create panoramic photos of the areas that you visit.  This gives you a more realistic photo of the actual place you visit.  Anyone can take a photo of a palm tree, and that palm tree could be from numerous places around the globe.  But if you take a series of frames of the landscape and then use 'stitching' software to automatically create the panorama of the area you are visiting you will truly have a unique picture of that place. 

I was not sure if I had the skills to try this while in Madagascar and Seychelles and since we have landed in Maputo, Mozambique just a short while ago, I decided to take a photo of the view of the harbor from my deck.   I took the center frame as I normally would do to get the harbor photo.  Then it occurred to me that I should take multiple frames and try out the technique that Raul had presented and encouraged us to try.   So I proceeded to take frames to the right of the first center frame and then to the left.  I secretly wondered if this stitching software would handle my non-sequenced photos.

I then opened up Photo Elements and tried to find the option for creating a panoramic.  This option is not so obvious, so I typed in "panorama" in the help box under the help menu and the help directed me to the option.   The option is under the File>New menu option:

 

Under that menu was the Option "Photomerge Panorama ...   I then selected the six or seven frames I had taken and used those to create the first panoramic type in the list of types of panoramas.  It worked!  My first panorama of the harbor and dock area of Maputo, Mozambique is certainly not as glamorous as the beautiful beaches and scenes we experienced in the Seychelles and Madagascar, but it provided a new incentive for me to give this option more consideration on my upcoming journey within Africa.  Thanks to Raul, I will be extending my horizons and exploring more options in photography.  

Tweet