Zen-Dreams » Photography

Rotate a video under Linux

Anthony — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:00:40 +0000

These days we are filming a lot our two daughters, in fact the youngest is now walking and we decided to collect as much videos for family as we can because we will move to Canada before the end of this year. Problem is, videos are taken using a Digital camera (Nikon E5200) and most of the time we turn around the camera so that our daughters can be filmed from the bottom to the top. But when looking at the video on a computer or a tv screen, we have to turn our heads around to see it.

The other “problem” is that at home, there is only GNU/Linux computers (2 laptops and a server), therefore, I needed to find a software running under GNU/Linux and allowing to do some basic video manipulation. That’s where Avidemux comes in handy. Just for information, Avidemux also exists under Windows and Mac OSX.

To install it, under Ubuntu, nothing more than a simple:

sudo apt-get install avidemux

Once installed, you will just need a few steps to turn around your video, but also using one of the numerous filters included with the software, such as crop, resize, colors, contrasts, sharp, etc…

After opening your video, you just need to add the Rotate filter and choose the correct angle (you can check using the preview button that everything is correct):

Once you chose the filter, you will have to re-encode the video so that the filter is processed. To do so, you will have to choose a new video format on the left of the main window. One very interesting thing with Avidemux is it’s capacity to create .flv videos, so that you can include your own videos on your website using a flash applet.

After the video processing is over, you should get something like this:

Before :

After :

This article was originally published on Zen-Dreams.com — Reproduction without authorization is strictly prohibited.

Looking for a WordPress Profesionnal, Hire me

Manage your Photo collection under Linux

Anthony — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:30:31 +0000

As an Amateur photographer, and being a GNU/Linux user, I need a great piece of software to manage my photo collection with over 13589 shots. That’s where those two applications comes in handy : F-Spot(gnome) & Digikam(kde).

I’m not a big fan of F-Spot, sadly for me, as it’s Gnome’s integrated photo management app. I’m a Digikam user, which forces me to have kde libs installed.

Digikam is an open source software, as a part of the KDE package.

It’s main purpose is obviously to help you manage your photo collection. You can organize them using one of the many tools provided, such as folders management, date and time (EXIF if available, otherwise, it will use the file’s creation date) or finally, via the Tag system.

Digikam’s user interface is presented using a 3 column display. Left column is used to show your collectioni (folder tree, dates, tags, saved searches).

The main column presents you with thumbnails of your photos or even the photo if you select it. This way you are able to see details of your pictures.

And finally, the third one shows you additional information such as EXIF recorded in the file, IPTC and even GPS (automatic on some cameras).

This same column allows you to add comments, tags and notes on your photos to help you retrieve them via the integrated Search Engine.

One of the other great function of Digikam is the possibility to use Kipi plugins such as uploading photos to a gallery2 server. You can also edit photos directly inside the tool, RAW photos are managed natively using Digikam

This article was originally published on Zen-Dreams.com — Reproduction without authorization is strictly prohibited.

Looking for a WordPress Profesionnal, Hire me

Flickr filesystem under GNU/Linux

Anthony — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:36:28 +0000

Seen on Lifehacker:

Flickrfs is a filesystem plugged into fuse allowing to manage your flickr account directly through your system, without connecting to the application, running under GNU/Linux. In fact, it allows you to browse your tags, sets, etc, like any folder on your computer. The differences being, it’s your flickr account.

Any photo located in these folders have a metafile attached to them containing keywords, title, description, licence, etc…, for this photo.

Via the configuration file, you can also decide the size of the uploaded photos so that it will automatically resize them before uploading them to flickr’s server. Of course, any modification is immediate and transparently managed.

For more informations, you can go to the documentation.

Photo by myrtti.

Install in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install libfuse2 fuse-utils python2.4-fuse Imagemagick
sudo modprobe fuse
sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/fusermount
sudo chmod u+s /usr/bin/fusermount
sudo chmod 666 /dev/fuse

Download Flickrfs on Sourceforge, then untar the archive:

tar -xzvf flickrfs-*.tar.gz

The only thing left, automatic mounting ;)

This article was originally published on Zen-Dreams.com — Reproduction without authorization is strictly prohibited.

Looking for a WordPress Profesionnal, Hire me