It seems that every day we hear news of a new software application that will do amazing things with your pictures. All over the world, researchers are applying heavy duty technology to improving photographs. We've had special software from Microsoft to open people's eyes and even a program to make you more beautiful. Now there's a new application from Snapmania that removes tourists from your holiday snaps.
The theory is simple - take a number of shots of the same scene using a tripod and the same exposure values. The software from Snapmania then analyses the pictures and removes the bits that have changed. Since the buildings etc won't have moved and the tourists hopefully will, you should be left with just the scene and none of those annoying people.
This isn't software you can download - you upload your pictures to Snapmania and submit them to a batch queue. A while later you get an email telling you the outcome. If the software has been able to make a decent composite then it is available for you to view and download.
There's a lot more to Snapmania though. Once you have an account you can do all kinds of organisational things with your pictures, edit them, build slideshows etc. Of course this is all just a lure to get you to upload your pictures to their server. Once they are there it is very easy to order prints, mousemats, cushions and the full range of photo gifts you'd expect. What sets the site apart is the easy drag and drop interface and some of the add on features. For example, you can build a flash slideshow from your pictures and download it to your computer. I was impressed at how little the application looked like a website. Once I had placed my pictures online it was just like working in an album application such as Picasa.
I'll admit it - I went to their site to check out the tourist remover and spend half an hour moving my pictures around and creating pretty webpages. Of course the tourist remover is a gimmick to get you to visit but there's enough features on the site to keep you there once you arrive. Oh, and as long as you don't buy any of the gifts or prints it's all free too.
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