As Kip mentioned in his post about the Photosynth release, I’ve been playing about with Photosynth. I was that is, ’til it decided it won’t publish any more of my Synths. I made two, deleted one and then it’s seems to get stuck on publishing with every next one I’ve tried. I’m not the only one with this issue either, an employee just answered it has to do with the writing to the back-end which can take some time especially if the server load is high…I’ll leave the current try open then and be patient (fingers crossed). Hope it’s just start-up issues, just as PhotoZoom took ages to render at the beginning too.
Anyway, what can I tell you about it so far? Let’s start by showing you a video from the Photosynth Team on how to make a Synth:
Now you have some impression, on to my personal experience with it.
After failing to create an account directly on the website from the Sign-in page found on http://photosynth.net/learn.aspx …
I went ahead and downloaded/installed it. You will get to the install by clicking on the “Go” button on the Home page
Please note the minimum system requirements in the screenshot above. Installing went like a breeze, quick and easy as did creating a profile (account) from the app itself. You get prompted to create one and led to the site to create the profile, after which you can return to the Photosynth app to create your synth.
So after that I was wondering what to make a Synth of, hmmm tough one…decided to make one of a wooden fish from Mexico that I got from my neighbour as a present (watching his house when he’s on hols). So after taking loads of pictures of the fish I started the Photosynth app, named the Synth, added in all the pictures, chose a thumbnail and clicked the Synth button to upload.
Only 53% synthy, bah, well I guess it’s not that easy to get a 100% synthy one with an object…first try though and as with everything practice makes the master. What also helps is to read the The Photosynth Photography Guide (1Mbyte pdf).
Back to my first try, now it’s up there I want to share it, how can we do that? We can copy and paste the URL into an email message or click the “Share” button (the envelope) on the bottom right of the Synths’s page. The button to the left of that one is to get the embed code so you can share it on your own site/blog or social networking sites such as Windows Live Spaces.
Now what’s that flag doing there? Well that is to report that Synth (Photosynth Code of Conduct). When you click on it you get a code you have to paste into the Abuse Reporting Form linked to in that same window.
Curious how my first try worked out? Here it is, using the embed code given:
Have fun with Photosynth, you have 20 GB of space at your disposal, this adds to the already existing amount of storage you get from Microsoft.
Participate on the forums
Photosynth Blog
Press Release (includes 4 videos of Microsoft Live Labs introducing Photosynth)
Integrating Photosynth with Virtual Earth
Update: In another forum thread ScottF (employee) replied that uploads have been disabled for now while they try and fix the problems that arose. So no more play for now, not even for Scott. Let’s hope they sort it soon!
