Digital Humanities
Creating 3D Meshes from 2D Photographs
Tools
Video: Camera and shooting recommendations for Photogrammetry
Avoid glossy, transparent, mobile objects (a polarizing filter can help with shiny objects)
Fixed (not zoom), glass (not plastic) lenses produce superior results
If the lens is zoom, lock in a certain focal length – never zoom in or out with the camera
You can use zoom into the object by moving yourself (the camera) not the lens
A small aperture (large depth of field – F16, vs F2, for example) is very important as the entire scene (including the background) must be in focus
Diffuse, shadowless light is best
Try to use a tripod (and a monopod for above object shots) and a remote shutter release
Place a ruler in the scene if scale is important to you
Shoot at 5 to 10 degree intervals (72 photos per circle of the object)
You can move around the object, or have the object rotate in front of the camera
If the object is not rich in color/texture, add other non reflective items into the frame to help use for reference when generating the mesh
The order of photos is very important. Do not break the sequence – stick to a single rotational direction
An object that is rich in details should have a transitional sequence moving into and then rotating around the object to focus in on details
A flat object should be shot by changing positions, not by staying on one spot and creating a ‘panorama’ series of photos
Avoid white walls and featureless, regular surfaces
The object should take 70% of the pixels being shot
Never move the object, move the camera
Rich objects should have 150 photos
20- 50 mm lens is best
Shoot with RAW
Only ever edit in RAW
Open Photoshop
Select all RAW images
Amount/Radius/Detail/Masking should all have their initial sliders set to “0”
Tone Curve – distribute the curve
Basics – Cloudy, etc.
Save as…
Presenting 3D Models (Online or Embedded)
Network Visualization Options
Inserting Class Polls Directly into PowerPoint
Data Recommendations for CartoDB, Palladio, and other DH Mapping tools
Your goal is to create a .csv file with data that is uniform, consistent, and simple.
Avoid notes and comments within your data, or any unnecessary diacritics.
Do not use different fonts, colors, etc.
Each column header must be unique and may use letters, spaces, and numbers. Do not use any special alphanumeric characters, such as underscores ‘_’ or dashes ‘-‘
Do not have a gap between the column header and the data
No cell should be empty (use a “0” to fill empty/null values)
This ‘CSV Fingerprints’ tool can be very helpful in spotting any mistakes in your .csv files.
Dates should be entered in the following format Year-Month-Day (2014-01-01). Years must always be rendered as four digit integers. Thus years between 0 CE and 1000 CE should still be rendered as 0001 or 0999. Negative dates should follow the same format, but preceded by a minus sign (ie. -200-01-01). If using Excel, be sure to specify that the column reads as “Text” rather than dates, so that Excel doesn’t change the dates into its own format.
Location information should be rendered as latitude and longitude. Palladio, for example, requires that these numbers be separated by a comma: 41.95, 12.5. (This Geocoding tool may be of help for those who have a list of place names but no associated coordinates: http://gis.ucla.edu/geocoder)
Converting RAW files to .jpg
DH Resources at Fordham
Fordham DH
Fordham Library Guide: Digital Humanities
Resources on the Web
Choosing (Map) Colors
Text Analysis
Online Publishing/ Authoring