A couple weeks ago, the Deep Zoom Composer Team announced an update to Deep Zoom Composer that was first released at MIX this year. You can download the new version here (version 0.9.0.2). I decided to use Deep Zoom Composer myself to create my very own Read More......(
read more)
Written by Windows Vista Team Blog on May 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Certified for Windows Vista and Contributors and Digital Photography and Featured News and Windows Vista.
A couple weeks ago, the Deep Zoom Composer Team announced an update to Deep Zoom Composer that was first released at MIX this year. You can download the new version here (version 0.9.0.2). I decided to use Deep Zoom Composer myself to create my very own Read More......(
read more)
Written by Windows Vista Team Blog on May 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Certified for Windows Vista and Contributors and Digital Photography and Featured News and Windows Vista.
A couple weeks ago, the Deep Zoom Composer Team
announced an update to
Deep Zoom Composer that was first released at MIX this year. You can download the new version
here (version 0.9.0.2). I decided to use Deep Zoom Composer myself to create my very own Deep Zoom Collections.
If you recall, I took a roadtrip around the Pacific Northwest with a friend and took quite a bit of photos with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi (a Certified for Windows Vista camera). I used many of the photos to create some panoramic shots with Windows Live Photo Gallery. Click here to view the shots as well as the post about my trip. However I still had tons of photos left over from the trip. I decided to use some leftover photos taken from the top of the Space Needle in Seattle, WA to create my very first Deep Zoom Collection.
Deep Zoom Collection*: Top of Space Needle in Seattle, WA
* Silverlight 2.0 Beta is required to view Deep Zoom Collections. If you don't have Silverlight 2.0 installed, it will ask you to install it to view the Deep Zoom Collection.
Creating a Deep Zoom Collection is really easy with Deep Zoom Composer. Almost anyone can create their own Deep Zoom Collection.
All I needed to do was import the photos I wanted to include in the collection into Deep Zoom Composer and compose them onto what is called the "artboard". I can drag and drop photos I imported from the image selector on the right-hand side onto the artboard and arrange the photos however I want in variety of sizes and alignments. Deep Zoom Composer includes alignment presets (located on the toolbar at the bottom of the artboard).
Once I was done composing my Deep Zoom Collection, I went to the Export tab and exported my project out as a Silverlight Project. In exporting out a project, be sure to export as a collection and not a composition. If you export out as a composition - it flattens your entire arrangement of images into one giant image. Exporting as a collection is like a collection of "compositions" - with each image being a composition. You'll notice things look better when you export as a collection. I made this mistake the first time.
After the export of my project is finished, I am presented with several options - such as being able to preview my Deep Zoom Collection in a browser.
So how did I get my Deep Zoom Collection onto the web? All I needed to do was FTP all the files within the "DeepZoomOutput_Web" directory which is under the Project Folder (see above screenshot on how to quickly access your Project Folder) into a directory here on the Windows Vista Team Blog.
Give Deep Zoom Composer a try yourself. I would love to see some of your Deep Zoom Collections. Leave a link in comments. Let me know what you think of mine. I hope to regularly do Deep Zoom Collections here. Special thanks to the Deep Zoom Composer Team for helping me with my first Deep Zoom Collection!
Written by Brandon LeBlanc on May 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Certified for Windows Vista and Contributors and Digital Photography and Featured News and Windows Vista.
A couple weeks ago, the Deep Zoom Composer Team
announced an update to
Deep Zoom Composer that was first released at MIX this year. You can download the new version
here (version 0.9.0.2). I decided to use Deep Zoom Composer myself to create my very own Deep Zoom Collections.
If you recall, I took a roadtrip around the Pacific Northwest with a friend and took quite a bit of photos with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi (a Certified for Windows Vista camera). I used many of the photos to create some panoramic shots with Windows Live Photo Gallery. Click here to view the shots as well as the post about my trip. However I still had tons of photos left over from the trip. I decided to use some leftover photos taken from the top of the Space Needle in Seattle, WA to create my very first Deep Zoom Collection.
Deep Zoom Collection*: Top of Space Needle in Seattle, WA
* Silverlight 2.0 Beta is required to view Deep Zoom Collections. If you don't have Silverlight 2.0 installed, it will ask you to install it to view the Deep Zoom Collection.
Creating a Deep Zoom Collection is really easy with Deep Zoom Composer. Almost anyone can create their own Deep Zoom Collection.
All I needed to do was import the photos I wanted to include in the collection into Deep Zoom Composer and compose them onto what is called the "artboard". I can drag and drop photos I imported from the image selector on the right-hand side onto the artboard and arrange the photos however I want in variety of sizes and alignments. Deep Zoom Composer includes alignment presets (located on the toolbar at the bottom of the artboard).
Once I was done composing my Deep Zoom Collection, I went to the Export tab and exported my project out as a Silverlight Project. In exporting out a project, be sure to export as a collection and not a composition. If you export out as a composition - it flattens your entire arrangement of images into one giant image. Exporting as a collection is like a collection of "compositions" - with each image being a composition. You'll notice things look better when you export as a collection. I made this mistake the first time.
After the export of my project is finished, I am presented with several options - such as being able to preview my Deep Zoom Collection in a browser.
So how did I get my Deep Zoom Collection onto the web? All I needed to do was FTP all the files within the "DeepZoomOutput_Web" directory which is under the Project Folder (see above screenshot on how to quickly access your Project Folder) into a directory here on the Windows Vista Team Blog.
Give Deep Zoom Composer a try yourself. I would love to see some of your Deep Zoom Collections. Leave a link in comments. Let me know what you think of mine. I hope to regularly do Deep Zoom Collections here. Special thanks to the Deep Zoom Composer Team for helping me with my first Deep Zoom Collection!
Written by Brandon LeBlanc on May 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Certified for Windows Vista and Contributors and Digital Photography and Featured News and Windows Vista.
Last week I posted an update on Certified from Windows Vista products in which at the end of the post I mentioned I had something else planned in regards to Certified for Windows Vista. Here at Microsoft in Redmond, the Windows Vista Logo Team made a Read More......(
read more)
Written by Windows Vista Team Blog on May 12th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Certified for Windows Vista and Contributors and Featured News and Wallpapers and Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Vista and download.
Last week I
posted an update on
Certified from Windows Vista products in which at the end of the post I mentioned I had something else planned in regards to Certified for Windows Vista. Here at Microsoft in Redmond, the Windows Vista Logo Team made a poster that was put up around campus showcasing the Certified for Windows Vista logo. I thought the poster was really neat so I asked Deryl if he wouldn't mind if we released it as desktop wallpaper here for you to add Certified for Windows Vista to your desktop.
Below are links to download the Certified for Windows Vista wallpaper for your desktop (depending of course on your screen resolution) courtesy of Windows Live SkyDrive:
Enjoy the wallpaper!
For those not really interested in this wallpaper - you might check out another wallpaper of mine I released last month. I also hope to create some more wallpapers for you here in the coming months.
Written by Brandon LeBlanc on May 12th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Certified for Windows Vista and Contributors and Featured News and Wallpapers and Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Vista and download.
I caught up with Deryl McCartney, Marketing Manager for the Windows Vista Logo Program , to get a general update on Certified for Windows Vista product as of today. Just to re-cap: Certified for Windows Vista products are products that carry the above Read More......(
read more)
Written by Windows Vista Team Blog on May 9th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Certified for Windows Vista and Contributors and Featured News and Hardware and Sidebar Gadget.
I caught up with Deryl McCartney, Marketing Manager for the Windows Vista Logo Program, to get a general update on Certified for Windows Vista product as of today.
Just to re-cap: Certified for Windows Vista products are products that carry the above logo. This logo represents a group of applications and hardware that have gone through an extensive certification process that means they work great with Windows Vista. We want users who are looking for devices, applications, or PC components to easily be able to identify the ones that will give them the best experience in Windows Vista today. When I go into a store looking for something for my PCs I always "look for the logo".
As of April, we currently have over 5,000 products that are Certified for Windows Vista. Since last July, the amount of Certified for Windows Vista products has almost doubled! As you can see - we've seen quite a bit of growth with new Certified for Windows Vista products entering the market.
Deryl is very excited about some of the new Certified for Windows Vista products hitting the market today and wanted me to share a few with you:
He also tells me that there is a special section off http://www.windowsvista.com/ designed to showcase all the great Certified for Windows Vista products (right-hand side) worth checking out.
And there is even a Sidebar Gadget for you to add to your Windows Vista desktop that keeps you up-to-date with all the Certified for Windows Vista products and lets you search for specific products to see whether they are certified or not. Download the Gadget here.
I've covered my experiences with several Certified for Windows Vista devices here on the Windows Experience Blog recently:
I expect to be talking about some hot new Certified with Windows Vista devices in the very near future. And of course I expect to get regular updates from Deryl too!
And stay tuned as I have something else planned in regards to Certified for Windows Vista I think you'll like as well.
Written by Brandon LeBlanc on May 9th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Certified for Windows Vista and Contributors and Featured News and Hardware and Sidebar Gadget.
For the last week, I had been using one of the photos I took on my recent trip around Washington State as my desktop wallpaper. It was an image I took in the Columbia River Gorge near an abandoned railroad track. I got down really close to the railroad track for a really interesting shot. I think it looks really neat as a desktop wallpaper so I thought I'd create a range of different sizes of the image to share with you - the readers of the Windows Vista Team Blog - to use as your desktop wallpaper on your PC.
I've created a range of sizes of the wallpaper for you to download depending on your display resolution via Windows Live SkyDrive:
The shot was taken using the Certified for Windows Vista DSLR Canon Digital Rebel XTi.
Let me know what you think!
Written by Brandon LeBlanc on April 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Certified for Windows Vista and Contributors and Digital Photography and Featured News and Wallpapers and Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Vista.
This last weekend, my friend and I headed into Central Washington State for a "Spring Break" roadtrip adventure. Our first stop was Seattle, and then we headed over the Snoqualmie Pass into Central Washington where we stopped by Grand Coulee Dam before heading down to the Tri-Cities area before heading home. I took with me my Dell XPS M1530 (PRODUCT) RED Laptop with me running of course Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED. I also took my
Canon HV20 HD Camcorder, and a
Canon Digital Rebel XTi - both of which are Certified for Windows Vista.
On the road, I focused mostly on photography. Many of the places we visited didn't really work well for video and I didn't feel me standing in front of the camera playing "tour guide" would be of any real value. I relied heavily of course on Windows Vista and Windows Live Photo Gallery to import and manage my photos. Because the Canon Digital Rebel XTi is Certified for Windows Vista - it was hassle free to import sometimes up to 400 pictures into Windows Live Photo Gallery. And the photos themselves averaged about 3MB each as I was shooting in the highest quality possible at 10.1 megapixels.
In using Windows Live Photo Gallery, I have the ability to create a panoramic stitch from the photos I took - probably my most favorite feature in Windows Live Photo Gallery. In shooting photos - I made sure I was shooting with the intent to create stitches. What does that mean really? I would take a picture from one angle, then the next, then the next - which would then allow for Windows Live Photo Gallery to create excellent stitches. I'll probably do a video on exactly how I shoot for stitching later on.
So now I have a few really cool panoramic stitches to share of the places we stopped on our roadtrip. I go through them in chronological order with some commentary to add context to each photo.
While in Seattle, we ended up walking down to the waterfront from the Space Needle. I took this shot on the roof of the Bell Harbor Conference Center:
Later on, we decided to head on up to the observation deck of the Space Needle. I was able to get several awesome panoramic shots of Seattle from the top of the Space Needle. Here is the first series of shots I took - looking northwest out toward Puget Sound:
Then I took some shots to create this shot overlooking Elliot Bay:
This is Seattle and probably my favorite panoramic stitch of the Seattle bunch:
And finally this is looking east towards the Cascade Mountain Range. You can see Lake Union on the lower left:
The next day - we headed over the Snoqualmie Pass toward Central Washington State and the Grand Coulee Dam. Up over the pass, it got quite snowy which was a nice (and interesting) change of scenery:
About 100 miles later we were here overlooking the Columbia River near Vantage, WA:
Back on the road heading to Grand Coulee Dam - we ended up stopping in the middle of nowhere for this shot:
In Central Washington, there is quite a bit of interesting geological features (part of why we headed out here). Here is a panoramic shot of Dry Falls. Dry Falls about 10,000-15,000 years ago was a huge water fall carved out by ice age flooding. You can read more about the history of Dry Falls here. But to be here and see it in person was absolutely amazing:
We finally reached Grand Coulee Dam. It's pretty big. They say it is the largest concrete structure in the United States. And you can see - there is quite a bit of concrete! We wanted to get a dam tour but it so happens that the very day we drove hundreds of miles to see the dam was the day they decided to do maintenance on the elevators for the tours. This is another one of my favorite shots from the trip:
Our trip ended the next day on Oregon Coast outside Tillamook, OR:
Hopefully you've enjoyed seeing these panoramic stitches of some of these amazing places. Creating your own stitches in Windows Live Photo Gallery is really easy too - all you need is a digital camera and to be able to import into Windows Live Photo Gallery. You can download Windows Live Photo Gallery, part of the Windows Live suite, here.
I'd like to give a shout out to Canon for loaning me the Canon Digital Rebel XTi for the trip. It is a pretty slick camera and as these shots show, it takes some pretty good photos. If you are looking for a DSLR - definitely take a look at this camera.
Written by Brandon LeBlanc on March 26th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Certified for Windows Vista and Contributors and Digital Photography and Featured News and Panoramic and Photography and Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Vista.
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