Mattias Lindberg : Photography

AutoCollage: Automatically arrage photos in a collage

mattlind — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:10:50 GMT

Microsoft Research has released a tool that analyze all the pictures in a folder, picks the "most interesting" ones and makes a blended collage. You can download a trial version at http://research.microsoft.com/AutoCollage/ that runs for 30 days, then you have to buy a license from the online store.

I have tried this tool for an hour and I think AutoCollage does a great job of creating a collage which can be used to share highlights from an event; wedding, vacation, weekend in Stockholm, etc. I don't primarily see these collages as something you print and put in an album (but perhaps it could be used as a cover page to an album), more probably it will be useful for digitally sharing your experience with friends and family. But perhaps printing them big and use as banners is one possible usage.

AutoCollage is a first release and may not have every feature you wish for but it does a good enough job for me.

Below is an example of a collage created using some images from my hobby (bird photography), an MS event and some private pictures. Note that AutoCollage takes into consideration the shapes of flower and makes an irregular crop. It also blends the lighter parts of the boys head and the wedding ring.

Microsoft and Phase One Form Strategic Alliance to Improve Digital Photography Solutions

mattlind — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:13:30 GMT

Today it was announced that Microsoft and danish company Phase One will work together to improve the experience of Windows users. Phase One is known both for their superb digital backs for medium format camera (up to 39 MP sensors) as well as their very popular RAW converter program Capture One (C1). To me this is great news, a high profile RAW converter company will team up with MS to enhance the experience!

Even though this is great news to improve the out-of-the-box Windows experience I don't see myself replacing Adobe Lightroom in the near future...

Performance of High ISO

mattlind — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 21:09:14 GMT

Begin the owner of a Canon 30D along with a wide range of lenses I often get asked advice on which camera to buy. As I use Canon myself I usually recommend Canon 400D but Nikon also has several cameras with a good price-performance.

My argument for buying a DSLR instead of a compact camera is that the picture quality much higher in a DSLR (regardless if you use RAW or JPEG), and the advantage gets bigger and bigger as you bump up the ISO. However, I have not had any good proof for my statement except the few pictures I have taken myself with friends' compact cameras.

Recently dpreview.com provided me with the evidence I need. Please read the article Compact Camera High ISO modes: Separating the facts from the hype and consider the facts!

The article also contains an illustration of the relative size of different sensors. When you look at this it becomes quite obvious why DSLRs have an advantage over compact cameras.

MS announces HD Photo

mattlind — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:29:19 GMT

Microsoft has announced HD Photo, formerly known as Windows Media Photo. Bill Crow has much more information about this and you can also read a news article.

HD Photo seems to be aimed at competing with JPEG as a format for the future. The best feature (when compared to JPEG) seems to be higher compression ratio while maintaining more information (less destructive), and it also includes a lossless option. There may have been other formats that have been better than JPEG, but the influence of Microsoft in the computer industry may increase the chances for this format to gain momentum (especially if the standardization effort is successful). However, it's a big task to replace JPEG...