by Enoch Chapman
19. May 2010 22:03
Most people in this day and age are using digital photography. The world of finding just the right picture to make your statement has gone the way of the do-do. With digital photography we can snap a photo anytime we want and delete anytime we want. As a business owner this is great because we can capture events, products, and moments our business uses to display we are more than a brick-and-motor entity … we are REAL people.
Now there are a number of great photo gallery websites out there many people use: Flickr, PhotoBucket, Picasa, just to name a few. And with each of these online photo repositories you can create galleries and showcases that your company can use on it’s website. This is a great way to establish your brand in the social sphere without using your server space. It is also great for SEO, but I’ll use that for another blog post topic of discussion.
However, I don’t want to talk about the static “photo gallery” but I want to share a thought on spatial photo galleries. This came about because of surfing on a little website created by Microsoft Research Labs called Photosynth. Photosynth is an entirely new way to think about your online galleries. The best example is to showcase the online Notre Dame gallery.
This demo showcases what a Photosynth gallery can do. Not only do you see the one picture that is taken, but now your photos are projected within a 3D space which can be maneuvered through. Imagine having your storefront, business or consulting gig showcased in a traversable 3D space. Think of what your customers could expect to see if they were able to move about your business and see what it is that you really do. Imagine placing in your customer’s minds the experience of walking through your doors before they ever move in that direction.
The best part is all you have to do is take the photos. The Photosynth system takes care of the rest. As long as there are points of reference for the tool to find in common with the photos PhotoSynth will make the connections. So you take a couple hundred photos around your showcase and let the tool do the rest for you. And notice the granularity and detail you can create. Not only do you create a panoramic view, but you can zoom into detail and showcase items that are hard to see and PhotoSynth will create the zoom in detail for you. Not a bad tool … plus you can embed it into your website.
So what is your 10 minute tip of the day? Take your digital camera and start snapping photos that you think would be great to merge together. Maybe it’s the outside of your building, Maybe it’s the inside of your office. Maybe it’s a detailed spec of your products or brands that you sell. Then take your Microsoft Live Account that you created (if you don’t have it see Signing Up for the Big 3), create a PhotoSynth account and upload your files. Once that is done you can embed your new gallery into your website and have something pretty cool to show people.
Once you have that done make sure to tell people to check out your new tool to play with on your website. Not only is it fun, but it will help increase your traffic … and that’s pretty cool.