Over the past weekend, I got acquainted with the Hugin panorama program. This is an open source free application that pulls together several overlapping images and creates a single image as output. It’s best to show an example, I think. Here’s four images from the right-hand side of the output panorama.
And here’s the full panorama:
I have a FreeBSD-based box acting as a file server. One thing digital photography does is allow one to accumulate a lot of photo files.
The system that seems to work for Diane and I is to put photos into directories named for the date and broad subject the pictures were taken, say “2008_203-hawks”. But the files are large, so browsing photos across the network can try one’s patience.
I started a script on Sunday that is working backwards through these photo directories. In each directory, it finds original JPEG files and applies the “jhead” autorotate procedure to them. If no thumbnails and other size photos are there, it creates an “alt” directory, then makes a thumbnail, a version sized for the web, and another version sized for use in PowerPoint presentations. The original, thumbnail, and web size versions are being put in the “alt” subdirectory, leaving just the PowerPoint sized files.
Those are large enough to provide a good view on screen, while being small enough to transfer efficiently across the home network.
The script has gotten back to photos taken in early 2006 so far.
Via FreeBSD, I’m using the XnView program for browsing. So far, that seems to be working well enough.
I celebrated my 48th birthday a little over a week ago. I got a package from Jeff Shallit, whose avocation is minerals. Diane and I have met up before with Jeff and his family in the desert southwest, a destination he enjoys particularly for the opportunity to apply geological knowledge and find minerals for himself. Last fall, I accompanied Jeff to a mineral and gem show in Detroit. I had expressed some interest in a couple of types of minerals, and Jeff kindly sent along a couple of samples.
First up is a piece of pyrite, FeS2. This one comes from Navajun, La Rioja Province, Spain. It is a cube, 19.03×19.20×19.31 mm in size. (Electronic readout calipers are cool.) The surfaces are almost mirror-like, and it is somewhat challenging to show any surface texture on the pyrite at all.
And the second is a sample of fluorite, this one from the Rogerley Mine, Frosterley, County Durham, England.
But the real attraction of fluorite isn’t evident until you hit it with ultraviolet light. I took apart a UV light keychain LED bob and a cheap Garrity LED flashlight, and replaced the Garrity white LED with the UV LED from the keychain bob. (Actually, I’ve brought the leads out to a two-place screw-in terminal. I can swap out LEDs for the light of choice.) This gives me a handy UV source I can use in close-ups.
The photo setup is based on a copy stand I made from an old, cheap enlarger. I got rid of the head and simply use the attachment point to mount my camera. The background is a sheet of coarse-grit sandpaper glued down on mounting board. I tilted the whole thing to take the pyrite shot, since with everything flat one sees only two faces on the cube from directly above. The camera is a Nikon D2Xs, and the lens is my old Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AIS manual-focus lens. I was shooting at 100 ISO, and given the mixed lighting, the exposure was several seconds at a small f-stop.
My Nikon D2Xs has an orientation sensor, so if I take a vertically-oriented photo, that information gets placed in the EXIF data in the JPEG file. Depending upon my viewing software, I may be presented the photo horizontally, or in the correct vertical orientation. Since I often am looking to do batch processing of all the files taken at a particular event, it would be nice if the EXIF data could be applied before making resized pictures, where I may need to manually rotate three versions of the original.
Enter JPEG-EXIF AutoRotate, a software package that brings together several utilities to do this job. When installed, this adds several options to the context menu under Win32 operating systems. One can ask for a file to be rotated, or selected files, or selected folders, possibly including subfolders. Best of all, the rotation is performed without incurring a loss due to JPEG de-compression/re-compression cycles. So now, at least with my most recent camera, I can reduce some of the workflow: download, autorotate, then run my resize script.
The only thing better would be if they included a way to invoke it from the command line. I haven’t dug through all of that site, though, so maybe they mention something of the sort there.
Something else that would be useful would be if someone could do the same job for Mac OS X and Unix systems.
Update: I should have noticed that a command prompt pops up when autorotation is selected from the context menu. I still apparently need to either copy the relevant executable files to somewhere in my path, or set the path to include their current installation directory, but I feel I’m close to having that working.
Update: The elements of doing this via the command line are there. Three utilities, “jhead”, “jpegtran”, and “mogrify” from ImageMagick are installed by the software I linked above. The context menu items launch batch files. The relevant command for autorotate of all JPEGs in a directory is then:
“C:\path to\jhead” -autorot -ft “dir with jpeg files”\*.jpg
So now I have this incorporated into my general resize batch process. It launches autorotate, then handles resizing, normalizing, and unsharp mask at three different final image sizes.
These photos are from an outing on October 28th, when we headed down to the Dansville area to check out some public hunting land there. Michigan has a fairly extensive system of privately-owned, but publicly accessible land in addition to state-owned parks and wildlife areas.
The first place we tried had a large field of soybeans left standing. We arrived early, and everything was covered in frost when we got there. While we didn’t scare up any rabbits, the hawks and Ritka worked the field well.
Sometimes things happen to fall into place. I was tracking Rusty flying over the field, and she happened to cross such that the moon showed up in the photo.
Here Shelby is heading to perch on a glove.
Shelby and Ritka checking out a part of the field.
And here is Ritka bounding through the frosted soybeans well before breakfast.
All the photos were taken with a Nikon D2Xs and Nikkor VR 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 800, and cropped, resampled, and contrast adjusted in Corel Photo-Paint.
I’m hoping that things are getting back into a groove where I can put up pictures of raptors on a weekly basis again.
Our birds are getting out some now. The leaves are turning color and falling here. The temperature is falling, too. I’ve been told that “road construction” season will soon be over, giving way to “winter” here in Michigan.
The lighting wasn’t great; we started our walk close to dusk. But Rusty followed us well and paid attention to the dogs, who didn’t find anything for her on this trip.
Nikon D2Xs, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, ISO 800.
Nikon has announced two new digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. One of the things promised in their press materials is that their new top-of-the-line camera, the D3, will feature a CMOS imager approximately the same size as a 35mm film negative. Nikon has resisted, to this point, the call to provide a “full-frame” imager. They have instead produced a series of high-end cameras using the so-called “DX” format, which is about 23 by 15mm instead of 36 by 24mm. Since the same lenses that were used for 35mm film photography get used on the Nikon DSLRs, this led to the “crop factor” of 1.5x: if you use, say, a 50mm lens on a DX DSLR, the view you get is the same as a 75mm lens on a film SLR. This has been a boon for those shooting long; suddenly, telephotos seem to have more reach. However, wide-angle photography with a DX DSLR requires some exotic glass to deliver those wide-open views. Even kit zoom lenses for entry-level DX DSLRs now feature wide ends of 17 or 18mm, something that was in the exotic ultrawide glass range just a few years ago when film ruled. Of course, the trade-off is that the entry-level kit lenses are specially designed for the DX format, and will not “cover” a full 35mm film negative at the wide end of the range.
The Nikon D3 promises something for everyone, though. Continuing the notion of “crop modes” used on the Nikon D2X and D2Xs, the D3 offers a “full-frame” mode, or what Nikon calls “FX” format, of 12 megapixels; a crop mode delivering a 5×4 ratio, or “ideal format”, which I think gives somewhere around 10 megapixels in the image; and a “DX” mode, with about 5.7 megapixels in the image. The camera automatically recognizes the specialized DX lenses and puts itself into DX crop mode.
The Nikon D2Xs, like the one I use, has a 12 megapixel imager. What are some of the differences? 12 megapixels spread over a lot more imager real estate has allowed Nikon to do some cool things. First, the photosites are larger. There are two results that come from this: higher sensitivity and lower noise. The D3 specs say the low ISO available will be ISO 200. OK, so what about the high end? It goes up to ISO 6400 in normal mode, and then from there it uses “boost” modes to go up to ISO 25,000. There are some sample images available. One of those is an ISO 6400 shot. If the production model maintains at least the quality of the sample camera, I think that we are entering a new era in imaging. I was disappointed that Nikon did not include a boosted sample at the extreme end of the ISO range, but I can hope that that lack will soon be remedied.
Another change they’ve made is that the imager can be set to use 14-bit digitization instead of 12-bit. There’s all sorts of caveats that go with that, but the potential is there to have seriously extended dynamic range if that feature is used. Fuji’s approach to extending dynamic range was to add photosites to collect highlight tonality. Nikon’s was to change the analog-to-digital conversion range. It will be interesting to see how that works in practice.
The other DSLR Nikon announced is the D300, a DX format camera offering a 12 megapixel imager, with ISO up to 6400 with boosting. It also features the new 51-point autofocus module and a bunch of options that even last year’s D200 doesn’t have.
But it looks like the D3 has the potential to be something other than a simple step in imaging technology. It could be a leap, something that will change the way photography gets done.
I’ve just come inside from watching the lunar eclipse. It was approaching totality as my sightline dropped below the treeline. I did have the telescope and camera out, but I don’t know yet whether I’ve got anything usable. I’ll put something up later if so.
Those night owls or early risers in the western USA, western Canada, Hawaii, Alaska, other points in the Pacific Basin have a bit of time left to view the eclipse.
In 2003, we went out for a walk with Rusty, Beater, and Biter at Tierra Santa near San Diego.
Fuji S2 Pro, Nikkor G 70-300mm lens.
Over at Seed Media’s Scienceblogs, PZ Myers of the immensely popular Pharyngula weblog has been named as a defendant with Seed Media in a libel lawsuit brought by Stuart Pivar, a New York art collector and author. Pivar wrote books stating his ideas about biological development; Myers, a developmental biologist, wrote scathing reviews of those books. From what little I know about developmental biology and premised on the descriptions in PZ’s reviews, I’m with PZ on the baselessness of the arguments made by Pivar concerning biological development. Pivar is claiming $15 million in damages. Jim Lippard has more information, including links to various of the documents and further commentary on other weblogs.
It needs to be said that in science, scientists disagree vociferously over the status of ideas, and may say some pretty cold stuff about what other people offer as hypotheses and theories. All of this is to be expected. Unfortunately, some people simply do not distinguish between an attack upon an idea that they have had and their own person. Being wrong is not a mortal or even venial sin in science. Failing to take notice of the available evidence, though, may legitimately lead people to conclude that there is something at fault with the person and not just that they happen to be wrong about something.
Now for something completely different. It seems that I’m getting involved in some legal disputation myself. A friend of Diane and mine called this evening to say that she was looking up curly-coated retriever merchandise on Cafepress, and was surprised to find that her own dog was featured on a large number of items on the site. She recognized the image as one that I had taken back in 2000 at a flyball tournament, and that she had a version up on her own curly-coat retriever web page by my permission:
OK, now have a look at the Cafepress site of “Gifts of Love”, and their store section featuring a silhouette of a curly-coated retriever.
Looks familiar, doesn’t it?
I pulled in both the original and a silhouette image into CorelDraw, applied transparency to the silhouette, and used the image resize feature to overlay the two. They match up exactly on head shape, ear position, body shape, image angle, and front leg position. The silhouette fills in the left leg where it was obscured by the jump, and adds a visible tail. I’ve sent off a complaint to the Cafepress intellectual property rights people, so we’ll see how this goes down.
Update 2007/08/23: CafePress has removed most of the infringing images from their site. I’ve pointed out a couple of stragglers, and requested a report of how much the infringing party made off of the derivative image.
Further update: Cafepress has given me the address of the infringing party; he’s in Selangor. They also noted that they don’t reveal financial data without a warrant or subpoena.
Update 2007/08/28: Stuart Pivar has dropped his defamation case against PZ Myers and Seed Media Group. However, Pivar’s lawyer is making noises about suing Peter Irons, a prominent retired law professor who corresponded with Pivar urging him to withdraw the case.
Here’s a falcon on a block perch in the weathering yard at the 2001 California Hawking Club meet in Bakersfield.
Canon Pro 90 IS camera used here. This was one of the second generation super-zoom compact digital cameras, featuring image stabilization and 2.6 megapixels. Contrast touched up in Corel PhotoPaint.
Here’s another view of the mantis from a couple of weeks ago:
And here is a picture taken yesterday down at the pond:
I briefly saw the ducks, too; a group of about eight ducks flew off as soon as I approached the pond. The geese hung around until Diane and Ritka arrived, then decided to leave, too.
Shelby comes to the glove. Notice that his feet have not quite made contact. Also, you can see from the photo that he has very long legs. It is hard to appreciate just how long a reach a Harris’s hawk has from looking at it perched somewhere. Another thing you can see is that Shelby is in the midst of molting, especially in looking at the feathers of his left wing, where there are some gaps where the old feathers have dropped out, but the new feathers have not yet grown in.
Nikon D2Xs, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens.
Harris’s hawks are the only raptors known to hunt cooperatively. Falconers have only started taking advantage of this in the past few decades. The fact that early reports of groups of these hawks shared kills was originally taken as meaning that they were behaviorally like vultures. The actual situation turned out to be much more interesting. Here’s a picture of our three birds at the end of 2002, Rusty with the two males we had trapped about five weeks earlier.
Fuji S2 Pro, Nikkor G 70-300mm.
Back in 2002, Diane’s apprentice Andrea was getting her passage tiercel red-tailed hawk, Lavan, trained. Part of that involved free-flying Lavan to bagged game. These are two pictures from one of those outings.
Fuji S2 Pro, Nikkor G 70-300mm lens.
Here’s a picture from the end of the year in 2002. We had Rusty out in the field with the two new hawks, Beater and Biter, who we had trapped in mid-November.
Fuji S2 Pro, Nikkor G 70-300mm lens, probably ISO 800.
Here’s a picture from my birthday back in 2003. A tiercel red-tailed hawk follows Andrea higher into the hills. Tiercel is falconry jargon for male raptors. Since most raptor species have a gender-based dimorphism with the females being larger, falconers have noted the difference and applied it. In some cases, the differences between genders extend to behavior, such as prey choice. For Harris’s hawks, the males are somewhat more agile flyers and can be faster than the hens, so some falconers have used them for hunting prey birds like quail.
Photo details: Fuji S2 Pro camera, Nikkor G 70-300mm lens.
I apologize for the skipped week last week. My main workstation finally stopped functioning around last Thursday. It was based on an ECS K7S5A motherboard, which was a pretty hot performer back in 2001. Right now I’m using our video/graphics workstation to get stuff done, but I hate to clutter up this machine with office suites, stats packages, and compilers.
This week, the picture shows Rusty on her way to try to catch something she has spotted. The way she flies is noticeably different when she thinks she is chasing something from when she is just heading to a new perch.
Nikon D2Xs, Nikkor AFS VR 70-200mm f/2.8, ISO 800.
Here’s a couple more from our December trip to the San Diego area.
Fuji S2 camera, Nikkor AFS VR 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.
These two pictures are from an outing in 2005 in San Diego. Rusty and Beater scouted different areas of the field we were at, and set up to watch for prey movement.
Fuji S2 Pro camera, Nikkor AFS VR 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.
CafePress Shop