Photosynth

So, for this week's blog I wanted to find something new to write about... something that I haven't heard about. After some digging through emerging technology and photography blogs, I found something cool. It's called Photosynth and is a product of Microsoft. It basically lets you combine tons of images of a given location and uses algorithms to look for similarities within photos to reconstruct them into a 3-D representation of the location you took them.

As a photographer, when I am shooting a subject, I carefully frame my subject in such a manner that the people who view my images are only seeing what I want them to see. I think that doing this successfully is one aspect that separates good photographers from great photographers. Composition has always been a part of the art form. But, as a consumer of photography I often wonder what was happening around that image when it was taken. What was happening just off of frame left, or even behind the photographer. What did this location look like? And maybe that is part of the mystery that makes photography so intriguing. But now, with the use of Photosynth, this is possible.

Below is a video of Photosynth in action.


I can see this product being a wonderful tool for architectural or landscape photographers, because they aren't just able to provide a 360 degree view of their location, but rather a three dimensional look at the surroundings. This is a tool and resource for photographers and definitely has it's place in the photography industry.