The Camera

Zero Movement

When taking the two images required by Maskerade, the camera and the object being photographed must remain perfectly still. For this reason, the camera should be mounted very solidly to a sturdy tripod or camera mount. In addition, it is preferable to release the shutter by remote control so that you don't introduce any movement when pressing the shutter release button on the camera. This is relatively easy to do (and sometimes the only option) with most high-end studio digital cameras, but users of lower-end cameras need to be aware and make the additional effort. (See note in 'Digital or Film?')

Digital or Film?

The first release of Maskerade only supports RGB images, so it is best suited for use with digital cameras. Any type of camera is suitable, from a low-end video camera to a high end scanning back. In fact, the majority of the images that you see in this manual and on the web site were captured with a Sony DVCAM and imported through an analog video card (no, not even through FireWire), so you don't need a high-end device to get good results. All you need is a device that can capture two images while maintaining pixel-level alignment between the two images.

With an analog video camera, you can capture a few seconds of video for each shot, then capture a still frame from the video with a capture card. If you have a newer video camera with a FireWire port, the job of getting the image onto the computer is even easier. You can capture video if you like, or you can use most of these cameras in a still frame mode to grab two images. Either way, just make sure that automatic exposure is not used (with most good cameras, you can turn this off) or the exposure of the two images may be two different for Maskerade to compensate for. Video cameras usually maintain good image registration and produce very good results with Maskerade.

With a high-end digital camera like a one-shot, a 3-shot, or a scanning back, the job is easy. Just maintain a consistent exposure on the foreground subject between the two shots. If the camera captures more than 24-bit color, you will need to use the camera's software to compress the dynamic range and export a suitable 24-bit image. Make sure that you export the two images using identical settings and cropping. If the settings are not the same, you will get unpredictable results. If the files aren't the same pixel dimensions, you won't be able to open them simultaneously in Maskerade.

Note:
In a future release, Maskerade will support images that are scanned from film. Since there is no way of guaranteeing pixel-level registration between images when they are scanned, this needs to be done in Maskerade before a mask can be generated. Maskerade will provide tools for sub-pixel translation and rotation to properly align the two images. When this capability is implemented, even two images captured with a digital camera can be aligned and registered if the camera happens to move.