Multimatic: Examples

This is the examples page for Multimatic. Home, manual, downloads.

First, a disclaimer: I am not a good photographer. These are not supposed to be amazing pictures. I'm just showing what kind of effects are possible. I just went out one afternoon after writing this code, took some photos, and had a play. If you are curious, I took the shots on a Canon Powershot S60, set to the Small image size (640x480) and rapid-shot.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge

Here are some photos of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I used the ActionSampler stock layout to stick them all in one image (a neat simple use of Multimatic, although not really its purpose):

dir: examples/bridge
layout: ActionSampler
resize: 25%
vignette: 2

If I'd taken those shots with a Super Sampler (or at least, a Super Sampler with normal color sensitivity and a normal lens), it might look like this:

dir: examples/bridge
layout: horizontal
slice: vertical
slice-size: 25%
slice-location: centre, random 20
vignette: 3
output: bridge_
shots: 5

The image above uses a piece from the centre of each image from a sequence. There's not always a sequence of pictures available, so here's an example of re-using slices from a single image:

files: examples/bridge/IMG_0020.JPG
choose: 6
layout: horizontal
slice: vertical
slice-size: 20%
slice-location: move from 0% to 100%
rotate: each -10, random 5
vignette: 3
output: bridge_single_
shots: 5
crop: yes

Because the image gets cropped as it gets rotated, each successive slice in this example is a bit further zoomed in. It's an interesting effect, and the rotation here kind of re-constructs the arch of the bridge.

Shadows

Some photos of shadows, basically the same composition each time. Since there's five of them, I used a 3-by-2 grid layout to show all of the pictures.

dir: shadows
layout: grid
grid-width: 3
grid-height: 2
resize: 25%
vignette: 2

This leaves a black square at the end. To fill the grid, I can choose to use 6 pictures, so the first frame is repeated:

dir: shadows
choose: 6
layout: grid
grid-width: 3
grid-height: 2
resize: 25%
vignette: 2

If you really wanted to, you could do something like this:

dir: shadows
choose: random 900
layout: grid
grid-width: 30
grid-height: 30
resize: 3%
vignette: 0

So back to the original five pictures of shadows: Since the shadow itself is pretty much static as it moves over the ground, it's possible to build a composite image of one big shadow by moving the slice-location from top to bottom:

dir: shadows1
layout: vertical
slice: horizontal
slice-size: 20%
slice-location: move from 0% to 100%, random 10
output: shadow_
resize: 50%
vignette: 1
shots: 5

More Shadows

Eight more photos of shadows, this time with the camera angle and frame composition changing. Here they are as an Oktomat:

dir: shadows2
layout: Oktomat
resize: 25%

This time, I chose to combine four random images, taking a slice from somewhere near the top of the frame. Sounds pretty random, but this was one of the results:

dir: shadows2
choose: random 4
layout: vertical
slice: horizontal
slice-size: 25%
slice-location: random from 0% to 30%
output: shadow_
vignette: 2
resize: 50%
shots: 5

I think that it tells a nice story. Each shot that is generated selects a new random set, and new random locations, so this it's very non-deterministic. Making lots of developments (here, it was five) lets you explore a single setting.

Walking

Here's some classic Lomo-fodder: slightly-blurred, slightly-over-exposed pictures of the ground:

dir: walking
layout: ActionSampler
vignette: 2
resize: 25%

The ActionSampler layout is perfect for these types of shots, but maybe it's not enough? Here's a version where all the photos are rotated slightly - but all to the same amount:

dir: walking
choose: 4
layout: ActionSampler
rotate: 30
resize: 25%
crop: yes
output: walking_
vignette: 2

And here's a version where the rotation, and the photo ordering, is random:

dir: walking
choose: random 4
layout: ActionSampler
rotate: random 45
crop: yes
output: walking_
shots: 5
vignette: 2

Glasses

Another simple example, here are some photos where I rotated the camera and aimed vaguely at my girlfriend's glasses. She looks bemused because, well, wouldn't you if someone was wobbling a camera in front of your face?

dir: glasses
choose: 4
layout: ActionSampler
vignette: 2
resize: 25%

And here they are, using a traditional SuperSampler layout:

dir: glasses
choose: 4
layout: horizontal
slice: vertical
slice-size: 20%
slice-location: 40%, random 10
output: glasses_
shots: 4
vignette: 2
resize: 50%

The photo above uses vertical slices to match the vertical orientation of the glasses in the originals. Below, it's possible to rotate the originals and take horizontal slices for a different effect:

dir: glasses
choose: 4
layout: vertical
slice: horizontal
slice-size: 20%
slice-location: 40%, random 10
output: glasses_
shots: 10
vignette: 2
rotate: 90
resize: 50%
crop: yes