How to Take Photos to Make a Good Photosynth

Creating a Photosynth can be a fun and useful way of sharing photos. However, Photosynth sometimes has problems figuring out how all your photos should go together. This guide will help you take photos that will work well and create a good end result

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Digital Camera

1. The first step is to take lots of photos, the more information Photosynth has to recreate the scene, the more likely it will do it correctly.

2. Make sure there are some wide angle shots or ones taken from further away, this lets the software understand how everything fits together

3. Make sure pictures overlap quite a bit, between 30-50% should be good

4. Taking panoramas (shooting in one location as your rotate) will also help the software recreate the scene. Depending on the size of your Photosynth, you may want to take multiple ones from various places.

5. 
    
   Example

   If you want to move around to take a picture from another angle, be sure to do so in small increments. Take a few steps and then take a picture, take a few more steps and then another picture. Repeat this as necessary to create a smooth transition. See picture for an example

6. Similarly if you are zooming in, take intermediate pictures and your Photosynth will turn out better.

7. Understand the limitations of the software. It will have difficultly analyzing pictures of repeating shapes (the tree trunks in a forest for example). Shiny objects can be difficult for the software to analyze and more not turn out as well

8. Have fun and take lots of pictures!

Tips & Warnings

• Microsoft has a guide with some more detailed advice for specific situations. A link is provided in the resources section
• For help actually creating the Photosynth, see the Related Articles section

Resources

• Microsoft's Guide