I am getting much success in photo sets for inhabited room interiors full of clutter, occlusion - and expanses of featureless plaster. Photos nearly all register into one component and I know how few photos will achieve this.
But no luck in connecting rooms through doorways - any ideas?
Hi,
are doorways open ? No doors ? If so, you can use common CPs that help connect both datasets (rooms). Just make sure the same CP is visible on at least 3 images from both datasets.
Hope it helps.
Hi,
also please check this information https://support.capturingreality.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001485012-How-to-put-together-more-components-
Is this saying that placing CPs is the necessary way to link rooms through doorways?
Is it not do-able simply by the right kind of linking photos, so the two rooms’ photos ‘automatically’ register into a single Component, if necessary using the tweaks in the above link (which I do anyway)?
I’m up for making two separate models of the two rooms, then ‘Merge Components only’ - but is Michal saying it has to be done by placing CPs?
I really want to believe that CPs are a last resort, and should not be necessary given good photo set(s).
CPs will help for sure if you have problems with normal overlap workflow. It’s not requirement however. Depends on your capturing workflow and situation.
You can check also this thread https://support.capturingreality.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360000096131-Workflow-Process-Interior-Image-Alignment-
I’d forgotten that one - v gd.
Bottom line is you need to treat the door like any other connection of two loops. After all, the door is just a comparatively narrow part of the whole model… 
Sorry Gotz, you’ve prob explained but I’m not sure what you mean by ‘connection of two loops’ - can you shortcut me please, with particular reference to this connecting doorway situation. Much obliged.
Having ‘tiled’ my photos with two sets of shots more or less perp to both faces of the wall i.e. ea set in a different, adjoining room, I have to make connecting photos through the doorway, so RC can register both photo sets together, into a single Component, whether by Aligning all in a single model, or by Aligning in two separate models (with the connecting photos added to both photo sets) and then ‘Merge Components only’.
So the connecting photos have to both transition from longer to closer-range shots, and also transition through 180o in less than 30o steps. That means a lot of shots, and experience tells me that very systematic and careful shooting to a formula or pattern that RC likes, is by far quickest, with least shots, and reliably effective.
It’s just that I haven’t found that pattern or formula yet, for the connecting doorway situation, either by thinking it through geometrically, or by experimentation. What I have ought to work, by the thinking-through approach - but it doesn’t.
I’m wondering if, with flash, a deep shadow is being cast on the near part of one room or the other, which makes photos that ought to be common to both, look v different to RC. About to revert to long shutter on tripod, without flash, to get rid of such shadow.
Hi Tom,
you basically answer the question by yourself. You need to give RC enough images to slowly transition. As for the best way to do that, everybody has to figure that out for themselves - it depends on so many things. Shadows from a flash is certainly a possibility and switching it on and off as needed probably the best way to handle it.
What I realized only not too long ago is that RC can work best with surfaces that are close to parallel to the sensor plane (pointing the camera orthogonally at them), hugely angled surfaces ( more than 20-30°)are very difficult because the features change magnitudes more than with parallel surfaces.
So Gotz can I ask you directly -
Do you agree, at a doorway, a 180o transition has to be made, between the two photo sets of the two room-faces of the same wall?
So, after transitioning in to say one jamb (vertical side) of the door frame, photograph it at 0o (looking perpendicular to the wall face), 30o, 60o, walking yourself through the doorway, 90o (now looking along the length of the wall), 120o, 150o, 180o (now looking perpendicular to the other face of same wall)?
And/or do same up under the head (top) of the door frame?
Or is that much too complicated?
Hi Tom,
depends a bit on the object, but in general I would say too complicated and also not overly accurate because the whole transition will revolve around narrow surfaces that on top of everything are often painted with a glossy finish.
I only did it once ages ago so that I could quickly document a few rooms - there was not enough time for taking measurements before it was demolished.
You can see how I move forward through the door (I did it in the other direction as well) and also slightly turn to the left (because that was my area of interest). But the main point is that I use the background that I see through the door and the wall around the door as the faces for transition. And even though the shoot war very unsystematic (as you can see), the walls come out pretty good, as in they are all equally thick (or thin). So that seems to work.
At the top however, it did not work as well because there is a long dark hallway with fewer features, so I had to add a few CPs to help it along.
If the walls are too featureless, maybe the ceiling would work as well? It’s the same distance to the camera all the way through the door and nothing is obstructing the view as would be the case when using the floor…
I think I understand … so not concentrating particularly on the doorway/frame itself - instead, as you say, on what can be seen beyond, going in both directions.
Because fragments of the far wall of Room A can be seen through the doorway while photographing Room B, and vice versa. A revelation - of course.
That means fully photgraphing all walls of both rooms as well as the walk through the doorway, before Aligning. Plus, before walking through, taking skew views from Room A through the doorway into Room B, to left and right, to the max. Neat.
Not sure I understand your alternative suggestion to link via the ceiling?
Thank you very much for pulling these pics from your archive, complete with Inspect view.
BTW, in Inspect - you still say that dark blue means less connections, light blue/green more, yellow/orange more again, cerise, then red the most connections?
Finally, how did you get that plan view, without all the ceiling etc blocking the view? I haven’t found how to get ‘inside’ a hollow image like a room. Ortho projection - is that a static, exported image, or something you can move around in?
Hey Tom, no problem. As long as you ask concise and intriguing questions, I am happy to share my thoughts. You’ve tought me a few things as well!
Yes, angled shots are also very important. I always think of spinning a web.
The ceiling could be used as a surface to transition from one room to the other, it is in most cases much closer than the opposite walls and at a similar distance in bot rooms. I imagine pointing the camera at the ceiling and then walking through the door, paying attention that the remaining part of the wall above the lintel does not obscure too much or throws shadows.
Yes, the color coding has been explained a few times by Devs and I thought it is also in the help - but then I am sure you would have noticed it.
I did no trick at all, the ceiling and floor are just not very well covered and so the walls stand out since the tie point density is much higher.
“I imagine pointing the camera at the ceiling and then walking through the door, paying attention that the remaining part of the wall above the lintel does not obscure too much or throws shadows.”
Unfortunately, if using flash, while still in Room A, I’ve found that’s exactly what does throw deep shadow onto the nearest visible bits of Room B - and as you pass under the door head into Room B, the shadow switches onto nearest visible bits of Room A. So the same features look maybe unrecognisably different.
With a single flash unit, that’s true whether the flash is on or off camera - just depends which room it’s in. Unfortunately I don’t at present have off-camera flash facility. Maybe with two flash units one in ea room. Or single off-camera flash unit exactly on the door threshold looking up, if the wall has little thickness.
Still, will try again.
If, in the first idea, relying on far wall seen through the doorway, need to well iluminate both rooms at same time? Two flash units again.
Connection shots don’t need to be perfect - just good enough. So maybe no flash for those?
As for he first option, I only used my tiny on-board flash and it did the trick…
Blimey, I look forward to finding out how to make it as easy as you do!
Maybe the trick was that I didn’t have too much time to think?
It took only about 20 minutes or so…
I also noticed to build a path of images for merging “components” is easier then using the CP stuff, also more stable. I learned a lot by the good old try and error method.
“Maybe the trick was that I didn’t have too much time to think?”
It’s only people who have learned the trade the hard way (like Picasso) who get to say that.
“to build a path of images for merging “components” is easier … also more stable. I learned a lot by the good old try and error method.”
Exactly. It’s a matter of getting almost muscle-memory, so you get it right first time without having to go back for excessive folder-bloating extra shots. I hope.