You select the right frame from a huge number of options, we show you how the photo will look in the selected frame, and you can have the photo, professionally printed and professionally framed, delivered within a few days.

Picture Frame Express are specialists. They have a huge number of profiles in stock, and build frames to order. You select the frame, we send them the print, they build your frame, frame your print, and send it to you.

How it works:
You find the photo (or photos) you are interested in.
You visit the Picure Frame Express website, and find one or more frames you like.

Then you tell us about the photo(s), the frame(s), and the size you would like.

We create a small copy of your selected photo, use the clever Picture Frames Express website to create one or more previews, and email them to you, so you can see exactly what the framed photo will look like:

If you are happy with the framed photo, you let us know. We'll send you an electronic invoice (that you can pay via PayPal, or with any credit- or debit card), and get the ball rolling.

You pay just our normal print prices, plus the price for the frame that you can see on the website. We have to send the photo to Picture Frame Express, they have to send the framed photo to you, so there are two shipping and handling charges on top. Nevertheless, the total price is most likely a lot cheaper than the price you would pay for the frame alone at your local picture frame shop!

The post Framed Fine Art Prints appeared first on Blog - News and Information about the business and work.

The depth of field depends on the aperture of the camera lens ? the smaller the aperture, the wider the depth of field. Up to a limit, when diffraction makes the photo unsharp again.

Distance from the camera is the other big factor ? the further away, the wider the depth of field.

Unfortunately, smaller the distance, the narrower the depth of field!

Full frame camera, 50m lens at f/16: At a distance of 5m, the depth of field is 98m, but if the distance is down to 0.5m, the depth of field is just 0.09m, that?s 9cm. At 0.2m it?s just 1cm.

Using the same camera with f/5.6, the values are very different: At 5m ? 3.8m, at 50cm ? 3cm, at 20cm- a few millimetres.

What if I need an image that?s pin-sharp, from the nearest to the furthest point of my object, but can?t have it, straight from the camera?

Modern software comes to the rescue. If I take a range of photos, focusing at different distances, the software can pick the ?sharp bits?, and combine them to one, single, sharp photo.

This slide projector has been photographed at f/5.6, so the depth of field is small. Below you see all the photos taken. You can select a single one by clicking on one of the yellow thumbnails:

The results are not always perfect. Careful inspection is required, and quite a bit of editing can be needed to put things right:

• Moving objects, like clouds, can appear sharp in more than one photo;
• The software can get it wrong when detecting sharp areas.

If everything is right, the resulting image will be pin-sharp, from front to back:


Click on the photo above for a large version of the resulting, sharp image.

Click here for a large version of this demonstration (opens in a new window)

Focus stacking is essential for creating professional interactive panoramas with close distances; typical examples are panoramas of the inside of an aircraft or boat.

Even the panorama of a large room can benefit significantly from focus stacking: In the Hall of Lincoln College Oxford, a gigapixel panorama, the table, the plates, the glasses, and the cutlery are close to the camera. With focus stacking you can zoom in on them, and they are just nice and sharp. Without focus stacking there would be a blurred area.

It's time consuming to create multiple photos of every segment of a panorama, often combined with exposure bracketing, which multiplies the number of photos required. It's more time consuming to process all the photos - with focus stacking, HDR, and other techniques, but the result will be a bespoke panorama that's very different from cheap automated processes.

Click on the image above to open the panorama in a new window
Look down, zoom in the the table, and have a close look at the cutlery!

The post Depth of Field and Focus Stacking appeared first on Blog - News and Information about the business and work.

50.6 Megapixels! Who needs that? The critics seemed to love the announcement of the Canon 5DS, and the Canon 5DS R, as much as many photographers did.

Of course the 5DS is a camera for a niche market. The image files are huge, so it's not the right tool for fast action (where the Canon 1DX or Canon 1D Mark IV are simply better). The ISO range is limited, in comparison to the 5D Mark III.

For interactive panoramas, the Canon 5DS and the 5DS R could be the perfect tool to
- reduce the time to shoot the panorama and
- reduce the time to process the panorama.

The amount of time on location is a critical factor. Not because the photographer wants to finish the job quickly - the parameters around change. The position of the sun changes, and with it the location of the shadows. The weather can change, and with the weather the ambient light can change significantly.

Every interactive panorama is shot in overlapping segments. The resolution that can be achieved depends on the focal length of the lens and the sensor size. The Canon 5DS can deliver about 2.5 times the number of pixels a 5D MkII and MkIII can.
In other words: A wider angle lens can achieve the same resolution.

Using a wider angle lens means less segments to photograph. Less segments means faster work - for the photography, and for the processing of the resulting images.

What's the real difference? Let's assume a resolution of 1000 pixels for 10cm of a target, and let's assume we are using a 24mm lens on a full frame camera:

On a Canon 5D Mark III we have 5760 x 3840 pixels. 1000 pixels on the longer side means 35mm * (1000 pixels / 5760 pixels) = 6.08mm of the sensor are needed.

On the Canon 5DS we have 8688 x 5792 pixels. 1000 pixels on the longer side means 35mm * (1000 pixels / 8688 pixels) = 4.03mm are needed - a third less.

If the required resolution would need a 24mm lens on a Mark III, then the same resolution could can be achieved with 16mm focal length on the Canon 5DS. That makes a huge difference when it comes to the number of sectors requited:

For a 24mm lens, assuming a 25-30% overlap horizontally and vertically, three rows of photos would be needed, 30 photos (segments) in total. For a 16mm lens, only two rows are needed , 14 photos in total. That's less than half.

With the Canon 5DS, the same interactive panorama could be shot in half the time it takes on a Canon 5D Mark III.

Would the Canon 5DS or the 5DS R be the better option? Moir? isn't much of a problem in interactive panoramas, but sharpness is critical. A curtain in a room could be an issue in rare cases, sharpness is critical anytime. It remains to be seen how significant the differences between the 5DS and the 5DS R are in real life. In theory, the Canon 5DS R, with the low pass filter cancelled out, should be the better option.

What lens?

50.6 Megapixels on a full frame sensor - to achieve sharp images, the lens has to be as outstanding as the camera. Canon has announced what might be the perfect lens for the new camera and interactive panoramas - the Canon EF11-24mm f/4L USM. Together with the Canon 5DS R, it should be the best possible combination for years to come.

According to the review on the Ken Rocckwell website, it is an awesome lens: "There is no lens on Earth like this, and there never has been. This is the world's widest lens, and it has super-high performance as well".

The test images in the DPReview review samples confirm that this lens, even at 11mm, is exceptionally sharp even at the edges. This is important for panoramas, they are stitched together, using overlapping areas on all sides, and more detail and sharpness in the overlapping areas is a huge advantage for precise stitching.

Can't wait to shoot an interactive panorama with this lens!

Links:
Interactive panoramas created with Canon cameras and lenses
Product information Canon 5DS and Canon 5DS R
Product information Canon EF11-24mm f/4L USM
Sample images Canon 5DS
Canon EF11-24mm/f4L USM review (Ken Rockwell)Canon EF11-24mm/f4L USM review (The Digital Picture)

The post Why the Canon 5DS is perfect for interactive panoramas appeared first on Blog - News and Information about the business and work.

NO ACCESS to the aircraft
Click to enlarge

When you visit a museum, the last thing you want is a NO ACCESS sign or a barrier that prevents you from viewing an exhibit. And human nature being what it is, being told Don?t touch or Keep out often encourages you to do just the opposite.

The Tangmere Military Aviation Museum has a rare aircraft on display: A cold war, early jet age bomber, the English Electric Canberra. The door to the aircraft is normally open, but it?s NO ACCESS.

A lot can be seen through the open door:

• On the right there is a dark tunnel to the bomb-aimer station.
• On the left is a dark and narrow passage leading to the navigator?s station ? which is out of sight.
• Ahead is the cockpit ? but only the area where the pilot?s feet would have been is at eye level.

Canberra cockpit at the museum
Click to enlarge

The Canberra is a bomber, not an airliner. It was designed for air crew wearing helmets, not for visitors who would bang their heads (and other body parts) left, right, and centre. NO ACCESS.

There's a lot to see inside. If visitors could climb in, they'd ask a lot of questions about all the strange, unusual, and interesting things surrounding the pilot, navigator, and bomb aimer. To answer all the questions, one of the friendly and knowledgeable volunteers who run the museum would have to climb inside the fuselage as well ? perhaps too close for comfort, for both visitor and volunteer!

Technology comes to the rescue ? a virtual tour. It?s a combination of interactive panoramas (often called 360 panoramas or 360? panoramas). The viewer can use a little ?map? to switch from one panorama to another, or use visual links that make the switch very intuitive.

A console is placed outside the aircraft, with a normal desktop computer built in. With just a 27? monitor and a mouse, visitors can now explore the inside of the aircraft in great detail. Even if they are wheelchair bound.

Console next to the Canberra
Click to enlarge

The computer is configured to run the virtual tour, and nothing else. Visitors can virtually ?move around? between the cockpit, the navigator station, and the bomb aimer station. The open door of the aircraft, next to the console, ties the virtual and the real world together.

Moving the mouse over any of the controls, instruments, and switches pops up information about the item, answering almost all the ?what?s that? questions. There's a lot to explore:

Zoomed in view with description
Click to enlarge

The cockpit

Shot from the pilot?s eye level, the interactive cockpit panorama puts the viewer, virtually, on the pilot?s seat. Unlike a real pilot, the viewer can look in any direction, and zoom in on any detail. There is tnformation about 130 different items, thanks to the museum?s volunteers who collected and verified all the details.

The aircraft door was attached again, and closed for a part of the photography, to make the panorama more ?aircraft? than ?museum exhibit?.

Cockpit interactive panorama
Click to enlarge

The navigator station

Behind the cockpit is the navigator station, with an ejector seat for the navigator on the left, and an ejector seat for the bomb aimer on the right (when not in the nose of the aircraft).

This area used to be almost completely dark ? there was nothing to see, ?no access? for visitors. For the navigator panorama work the museum brought the aircraft?s electrical systems, and internal lighting, back to life. They even found a 1950s military aviation map for the map table.

Information about 125 items is available on a mouse move.

Navigator interactive panorama
Click to enlarge

The bomb aimer station

In the nose of the aircraft is the bomb aimer station. Not part of the original design, it was added when the planned bombing radar was not ready for production. The bomb aimer had to leave his ejector seat in the rear, and then crawl through a narrow tunnel on the bottom of the cockpit front into the nose of the aircraft.

The area used to be in the dark and out of sight for visitors. It?s a narrow and very confined space, but the bomb aimer panorama gives the viewer an idea of the real bomb aimer?s field of view.

Bomb Aimer interactive panorama
Click to enlarge

The photography

A 360 panorama is based on photos that cover overlapping segments of the complete area around the camera. To put the theory into practice, it needs a solid tripod, a panoramic head assembly, and a computer to remotely control the camera.

Camera setup in the cockpit
Click to enlarge

The engine start-up sound

The sound of the Rolls Royce Avon RA7 turbojets has been provided by Just Flight.
Starting an engine in a Canberra (as in allmost all aircraft) means a few more steps than just pressing an "engine start" button, but for the virtual tour, one of the two engine start buttons will fire up the engine.

On the bottom of the dashboard, left and right of the control column, are the engine switches. On the very left is the Port Engine Master Switch, followed by the Starboarf Engine Master Switch.

The switches closest to the left and right of the control column are the ignition switches, next to them are the actual engine start switches. They are shielded - it would be an expensive mistake trying to start an already running engine.

Because the switches are shielded, they can be a bit hard to find. This screenshot should help:

Canberra engine start buttons
Click to enlarge

The resulting virtual tour - click on the logo to start!

Click to switch to FULL SCREEN MODE
Click to switch the map at the top left on and off
Click to start automatic rotation of the interactive panorama

?Click here if you are using a smartphone or tablet?

Comments from the museum

The Aircraft

The English Electric Canberra, or Martin B-57 Canberra in the U.S., was a medium bomber of the early jet age, designed to be able to fly higher than the fighter aircraft of the time. Canberras have been in service will air forces all over the world from 1951 to 2006.

The aircraft at the Tangmere Military Aviation Museum is a Canberra B.2, delivered to the RAF in 1952, where it served in various squadron for almost 40 years. It has been stationed, with 245 Squadron, at Tangmere in the early 1960s.

Links

Tangmere Military Aviation Museum
"New Interactive Exhibition" - about the virtual tour at the museum
"Canberra B2 cockpit" - about the museum's Canberra
English Electric Canberra on Wikipedia

Subscribe to the Panoramas Newletter

The post How a virtual tour helps a museum ? the Canberra bomber appeared first on Blog - News and Information about the business and work.

Bromford Junction
Click to enlarge

?2014 BCNS Marathon Challenge Image Library - 240 photos

The canals and waterways played a key role in the UK's industrial development. The introduction of canals made the growth of the Birmingham area to the country's then industrial heartland possible, growing the Birmingham canals network to 174 navigable miles of waterways.

With the end of commercial transport on the narrow waterways, more and more of the canals were abandoned and closed - today, 114 of the 174 miles have survived.

The Birmingham Canal Navigations Society (BCNS) organises an annual event to encourage the navigation of the less used waterways - the BCNS 24 hours Marathon Challenge, a friendly competiton for boaters. Starting anywhere on the BCN, and ending, in 2014, at Hawne Basin, on the Dudley No. 2 Canal in the south of Birmingham, the participants have 30 hours (including six hours of mandatory rest) to navigate as many miles and locks of the Birmingham Canal Navigations network as possible.

In 2013, I had the pleasure of being a guest on narrowboat Felonious Mongoose, 420 photos documenting the event can be found in the 2013 BCNS Marathon Challenge Image Library.

For the 2014 Marathon Challenge I have been lucky enough to be a guest on Felonious Mongoose again. For almost the whole weekend the weather varied between heavy and very heavy rain, with a negative impact on the photography.

2014 BCNS Marathon Challenge Image Library - 240 photos

An interactive panorama have been created after the event:

Hawne Basin, for Coombeswood Canal Trust

Hawne Basin, Dudley No. 2 Canal
Click to open the panorama

Links:

Birmingham Canal Navigations Society website
Hawne Basin (Coombeswood Canal Trust)
Lapal Canal Trust
Canal Planner

The post BCN Society 24 hour Marathon Challenge 2014 appeared first on Blog - News and Information about the business and work.

A week after the Henley Royal Regatta, a rather different rowing event took place. Instead of high-tech, lightweight, sleek and nimble boats, 30 ton, dumb steel Thames? barges were competing. HGVs instead of Formula One cars.

Like the Boat Race and the Henley Royal Regatta, the "racetrack" was the River Thames. The tidal Thames, between Greenwich Pier and Westminster Bridge, seven long miles along spectacular landmarks like Canary Wharf, HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge, the London Eye, and the Houses of Parliament.

The background to this event is rather different ? the Thames used to be the main artery for goods traffic in and out of London, when Lightermen used their skills and their knowledge of the tide and currents to navigate their unpowered barges by oars (called "sweeps") alone.

The Thames barges were used to transport goods between moored seagoing vessels and warehouses along the Thames.

At the time when Thames Lightermen were in charge of goods transport, the Thames Watermen, the cabbies of the time, were in charge of public transport. The lightermen are another link to an event featured on this website, the Lord Mayor's Show, where the new Lord Mayor is brought to the City of London by Lightermen on a rowing barge, following a centuries-old tradition.

Again I have been following the race on the umpire?s launch (the ?John Harriot?, a high speed Thames launch by Thames Executive Charters). The image library covers the race day, from the preparations in the morning, to the the prize-giving in the afternoon.

Many more photos of the 2013 Thames Barge Driving race are available. If you are looking for images of a particular boat, a rower, or a spectator on one of the following vessels, please get in contact!

Links:
Thames Barge Driving Match
Port of London Authority

The post Thames Barge Driving Race 2013 appeared first on Blog - News and Information about the business and work.

Albion Junction, New Main Line
Click to enlarge

2013 BCNS Marathon Challenge Image Library

Trying to compress centuries of history into a few sentences:

The BCN, the Birmingham Canal Navigation, is a network of canals in the Midlands of the UK. These canals were the arteries of the Industrial Revolution, the autobahns of the 18^th and 19^th century.

The BCN stands for coal, iron, and limestone, for the transition from rural England to an industrial powerhouse, from the early beginnings to the end of the canal era to today.

The Canals

Gas Street Basin: Old canal office buildings dwarfed by new office blocks
Click to enlarge

Going back a few hundred years ? goods transport was a bit of a problem. Horse and cart meant a very limited transport capacity, and the quality of the ?roads? depended very much on the weather. If a river, or any other natural waterway existed, boats allowed much larger transport volumes, but water levels depended on the weather as well.

In case of the Midlands, there was coal, iron, and limestone, but no river. A canal was an ingenious solution. A relatively constant water level, no current, and it could be built where it was needed, very much like a modern road. Canals boats offered, compared to horse and cart, enormous transport capacities at low cost.
There was coal in the Birmingham/Wolverhampton area, and there was iron ore, there was limestone, all were heavy, so they were used locally. With canals, raw materials could be transported in vast quantities, and finished products could be transported as well.

The industrial revolution, only possible because of the transport capacity of the canals, meant the birth and rapid growth of a vast industrial area. It meant more and more canals, to link new suburbs, new factories, new collieries together,? to link that industrial hub to the rest of the country, and, via the existing harbours, to the world.

The early canals followed the contours of the land. Built by workers using pick, shovel, and wheelbarrows,? they were, at the time, ?as high-tech as a 200mph railway is today.

Canal technology and engineering rapidly evolved, later canals did not follow the contours of the land, they re-shaped the land for the canals by using embankments, cuttings, ?aqueducts and tunnels to make the journeys shorter, quicker, and cheaper.

The BCN

The historic maps of the Birmingham Canal Navigation look like the roadmap of a modern, major city. Canals everywhere, going up and down the hills, meeting at junctions, with ?parking areas? and ?motorway interchange? type junctions. With canals from the earliest and the later days of the canal age, meeting each other and crossing each other.

Today a factory has a car park, and ramps for the loading and unloading of goods from trucks or railway wagons ? in the canal age it was a? canal basin. The history of the canal basins reflects the industrial history of the heart of England.

The BCN Challenge

The British canal network has become more and more popular, and the canals are a wonderful place to be. The industrial past can be almost forgotten ? open countryside, rolling hills, and stunning views instead of iron works and ?black satanic mills?.

The Birmingham Canal Network has open countryside, rolling hills, and stunning views as well, but it also has inner city canals. These have improved beyond recognition, the canals now being a cherished part of the cityscape. But this large network of canals is not as much used as the popular ?canal rings?, and perhaps a bit off the public radar.

The BCN Challenge, an annual event organized by the BCNS, the Birmingham Canal Navigation Society, ?not only draws public attention to the BCN, it takes boaters, many perhaps for the first time, into this under-used part of the network. The ?black satanic mills? have long gone, the urban parts of the network have seen great improvements.

The Farmers Bridge flight of locks in the city centre of Birmingham in 1988
Click to enlarge

2013 BCNS Marathon Challenge Image Library

Links:

Birmingham Canal Navigations Society website
Canal Planner

The post BCN Society 24 hour Marathon Challenge 2013 appeared first on Blog - News and Information about the business and work.

To order images, digital or fine art print, please:

• Find the image you like and click on the shopping trolley icon in the top right corner of the image;
• A new window will open automatically;
• Select size and quantity;
• Click ?Add to Cart? button;
• Return to images gallery and repeat for each image you would like to buy;
• When you finished click the ?View cart? button at the top right corner of the image gallery screen;
• A new window will open automatically;
• Check the list of images selected and click on the PayPal button (even if you don't have a PayPal account);
• A new payment window will open automatically;
• Either log in to your PayPal account or select ?Don?t have a PayPal account? option to pay by credit card.

Digital images FOR PRIVATE USE ONLY come in 3 sizes/resolutions and prices:

• Large images which carry considerable amount of detail best suited as screen savers, digital photos and for printing ? priced at ?14.50 each.
• Medium images best suited for website where larger and more detailed images are needed and suitable for printing ? priced at ?9.50 each;
• Small images best suited for use on social media such as Facebook ? priced at ?6.50 each;

Please contact us for the prices for businesses and organisations!

Images available as fine art prints are printed on matte or glossy paper using very high quality professional printer and are available all sizes. The prices for some typical sizes are:

• 24? x 36? ?? ?165;
• 20? x 30?? ? ?135;
• 20? x 24?? ? ?89;
• 16? x 20?? ? ?65;
• 12? x 16??? ? ?40;
• ? 8? x 12??? ? ?24;

If you would like your Fine Art Prints mounted or framed by us? please contact us directly for options and prices.

We also provide bespoke services so if would like to order prints in nonstandard sizes or printed on a different media such as metallic paper or canvas or edited e.g. splitting one photo containing two people into two images or different types of paper,? then please?contact us directly for a quotation.
All prices listed above include VAT but if you would like a VAT invoice for your business, please contact us directly.

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