Moose wrote:
> Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>
>
>>So, are you gonna tell us how you blended these most excellent
>>composites
>>
>
> Belatedly, yes. I also have added a couple more composites to the
> gallery <http://moosemystic.net/Gallery/tech/Combos/>.
----------------------------------------------------------
On a related note of compositing images: I recently took in a
restoration job for a WWII era tinted 8x10 B&W portrait which had been
seriously abused. Someone must have gotten PO'd at the young woman
pictured there (who is now 82) since the photo had been ripped in half.
The two halves of the print had been attached to a cardboard backing
and then covered with a piece of bubbled, wrinkled and yellowed plastic
sheeting. At first glance I thought it would be fairly easy work since
the registration of the torn halves was pretty good. I would simply
remove the yellowed plastic, scan the print and fix the jagged white
tear line.
Ho, ho! Wrong. Turns out the bubbled, wrinkled and yellowed plastic
sheeting was adhesive backed and permanently adhered to the print. But
all of that is beside the main point.
I first tried scanning the print at 300 dpi on my cheap flat bed
scanner. I figured that it would be OK since the dynamic range of the
print was very low. The result was just atrocious. Not usable. Gotta
get me one of them Epson 4900's or Canon 9950F's I guess.
I decided to do it with the Minolta A1 but was curious about compositing
two images (upper and lower halves) to make a very high resolution copy.
Since I don't have a copy stand I shot the two images using two studio
flash units set at 45 degrees to the print.
Then came the question of how to put them together. There wasn't much
overlap in the two parts but each of them contained the jagged white
tear line. I figured any panoramic software should be able to piece
them together.
I first tried "Autostitch" since it's so easy to use... turn it on and
let it rip. Unfortunately, Autostitch went bonkers on this simple task.
It put the two pieces together but ended up warping the result into a
distorted trapezoid. Still haven't figured out that result.
Then I remembered PTGui. I bought a copy of PTGui years ago and have
almost never used it. However, I'd recently gotten an email notice that
a free upgrade was available to me. I had downloaded and installed it
but hadn't even tried it. My recollection of using it was tedious
positioning of registration points. But I decided to give it a whirl.
Much to my pleasant surprise I discovered that it has an automatic mode.
I just pointed the software to the two pieces and it automagically put
them together for me. It's task may have been simplified by the
prominent white tear line running across both photos but I am a happy
camper to have a high resolution image now put together so easily.
Now on to the repair work. The rest won't be so easy.
Chuck Norcutt
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|