(Fun Stuff) PHOTO QUILTING - USING A MOSAIC OF PHOTOS TO RE-CREATE A PHOTO

Click here to show the Photo Quilting Screen.

From the main menu, you can click on "FILE" main menu item. Then click on the "Photo Quilt" menu item. You can also click on the Quilt button located on the Quick Tools panel.

The Photo Quilting feature allows you to take a photo and to re-produce it from a bunch of smaller photos. This is like the famous Lincoln portrait using a photo mosaic. When you look real close at the poster, you see a whole bunch of war scenes, but from a distance you see Lincoln. Not only can you do this, but there are many more features as well, such as texturizing the photo.

You can use this feature in many ways, but there are 4 common ways that produce the most desirable results:

Photo Quilt Options and Controls Description

Trouble Shooting

Performance Enhancing

Producing A Quilted Photo From Images

Producing A Quilted Photo From Letters

Producing A Quilted Photo From Solid Colors

Producing A Texturized Photo From A Selected Texture

Photo Quilt Options and Controls Description

Visual Appearance Options

Where thumbnails come from:

Folder Of Photos (Thumbnails of photos)

Type Writer Letters (Thumbnails of letters)

Black & White (Solid Colors, no thumbnails)

Many Shades Of Gray (Solid Colors, no thumbnails)

Many Shades Of Color (Solid Colors, no thumbnails)

Few Shades Of Gray (Solid Colors, no thumbnails)

Few Shades Of Color (Solid Colors, no thumbnails)

Little Shades Of Gray (Solid Colors, no thumbnails)

Little Shades Of Color (Solid Colors, no thumbnails)

Typically, you would select "Folder Of Photos" to produce a quilted photo produced from a folder of photos. Also "Type Writer Letters" is pretty cool if you want the old fashioned computer generated look. All of the other options produce an image using solid block coloring.

Texturize Photo:
If you want to texturize a photo to make it look like it's on a canvas or to make it look like it's painted on bricks, then check this option and select the appropriate texture image. The texture images are grouped in several types (Brick, Canvas, Etch, Pattern, Swirls, Wood). You have 3 more options that you can play with as well.

Invert: Makes a negative out of the texture image (interesting results)

How Much Colorization: Allows you to control how much color from the texture image is transferred to the final quilted image.

How Much Strength: Allows you to control how strong/visible the texture is in the final quilted image.

Black & White Photo:
You can force the output of the quilting to produce a photo that looks like a black & white photo. (No Colors, all shades of gray)

More Variety:
Makes it so that you have less repeating thumbnails next to each other. The more variety you choose, then the quality of the final image can degrade slightly. Use this option if you are a fanatic about having duplicate thumbnails next to each other.

Try Mirrors:
This is a useful option since it allows you to use the mirrored versions of the thumbnails. Since a mirrored thumbnail may fit better in the final quilted photo, the quality of your final output gets better. This adds a little time to the quilting process.

Photo Panning:
This takes a cropped portion of each thumbnail to see if it can make a better fit in the final quilted image. If you use the most panning, then small cropped areas are used from the thumbnails. This "can" produce a better final image, although it adds to the quilting process time. NOTE: If you have a thumbnails of the sky (large areas of solid color), then using heavy panning can produce a final image that doesn't appear to have any thumbnails. You may just see a bunch of solid colored areas. Play with it and fine tune to your needs.

Dither (For small photo collections)
Typically you would NOT use this feature. If you have a large number of rows (>60) or a poor folder of thumbnails (not very good mix of colors), then sometimes this can produce a little better image.


Enhancement Cheats
Add Source Colors:
Slide the top slider to the right in order to make the final image have better colorization. IE: The thumbnails get "tinted" to match the photo being quilted. Slide the bottom slider in order to more acurately tint the thumbnails. Bottom slider set to the left means that the tinting uses a single avaerage color applied across the whole thumbnail. Bottom slider set to the right means that the tinting uses the exact coloring from the photo being quilted. Play with small quilt rows (3) and you will see the effects more visibly.

Add Source Brightness:
Slide the top slider to the right in order to make the final image have better brightness/darkness. IE: The thumbnails get "brighter/darker" to match the photo being quilted. Slide the bottom slider in order to more acurately brighten/darken the thumbnails. Bottom slider set to the left means that the brightness uses a single avaerage brightness applied across the whole thumbnail. Bottom slider set to the right means that the brightness uses the exact brightness from the photo being quilted. Play with small quilt rows (3) and you will see the effects more visibly.

Thumbnail Framing:

No Thumbnail Framing: Default - no special framing

Square Thumbnail Framing: A black rectangle is framed around each thumbnail

Circle Thumbnail Framing: A black circle is framed around each thumbnail

Solid Colors:
The area of each thumbnail is averaged to a single solid color. When used with the "Circle Thumbnail Framing" it produces a pleasing appearance.

Output Size Options

Keep Aspect Ratio:
When checked, the output size numbers are increased to keep the same aspect ratio. So, as you change the width, the height is automatically adjusted. And as you change the height, the width is automatically adjusted. When un-checked, you can change the width or height and the other is not automatically adjusted.

Output Size:
This controls the image dimension of the final quilted photo output. If you are wanting to print a 4x6 then typically a 640x430 is good enough. If you want to print a 8x10, then 1500x1200. If you want to print at 13x19, then 3000x2052 is good.

Shape Of Quilt Patches:
This controls how each thumbnail appears in the quilted photo.

Square Shaped: Each thumbnail appears as a square (width same as height)

Landscape Shaped: Each thumbnail appears as a landscape image (wider than tall)

Portrait Shaped: Each thumbnail appears as a portrait image (taller than wide)

NOTE: If you are using a folder of images that is are landscape, then choose landscape, otherwise your thumbnails will look too skinny. Also, if your folder of images are portrait shaped, then choose portrait, otherwise the thumbnails will appear too fat. If you have a MIXTURE of landscape and portrait images in your folder, then a good compromise is to pick "Square Shaped".

Quilt Rows:
This deterimines how many rows of quilted thumbnails appear in the final output image. The more rows you use, the better the final quilted image will appear. Of course, the more rows you use, the "smaller" each thumbnail appears.


Producing A Quilted Photo From Images

Since there are so many controls, you may be interested in knowing how to just produce a quilted photo from a selected folder of images.

First, just click on the "Defaults" button so that all the controls are set to default values, in case you have been playing with them.

On the right side of the window, you will see the "Select Quilt Folder" panel. You can browse around to find the folder of images you want to use as the thumbnails for the quilted photo output. Then click the "Make Quilted Photo" button. If you want better coloring, you can slide the "Add Source Colors" sliders to the right. If you want better brightness, you can slide the "Add Source Brightness" sliders to the right. Optionally, you can click the "Photo Panning" checkbox. Once you have a quilted photo that is acceptable, then click the "Save" button.


Producing A Quilted Photo From Letters

Since there are so many controls, you may be interested in knowing how to just produce a quilted photo from old typewriter letters.

First, just click on the "Defaults" button so that all the controls are set to default values, in case you have been playing with them.

The first pulldown in the "Visual Appearance Options" panel allows you to select "Typewriter Letters". Select it. If you want better coloring, you can UN-CHECK the "Add Source Colors" checkbox. If you want better brightness, you can slide the "Add Source Brightness" sliders to the right. Once you have a quilted photo that is acceptable, then click the "Save" button.


Producing A Quilted Photo From Solid Colors

Since there are so many controls, you may be interested in knowing how to just produce a quilted photo from solid colors.

First, just click on the "Defaults" button so that all the controls are set to default values, in case you have been playing with them.

The first pulldown in the "Visual Appearance Options" panel allows you to select "Many Shades of Color". Select it. If you want better coloring, you can slide the "Add Source Colors" sliders to the right. If you want better brightness, you can slide the "Add Source Brightness" sliders to the right. Once you have a quilted photo that is acceptable, then click the "Save" button.


Producing A Texturized Photo From A Selected Texture

Since there are so many controls, you may be interested in knowing how to just produce a texturized photo from a selected texture..

First, just click on the "Defaults" button so that all the controls are set to default values, in case you have been playing with them.

Now check the "Texturize Photo" checkbox. On the right side of the window, you will see the "Texture Images" panel. You can scroll around to find the texture image you want to use. Then click the "Make Quilted Photo" button. If you want more color transferred from the texture image into your final output image, then slide the "How Much Colorization" slider to the right. Once you have a texturized photo that is acceptable, then click the "Save" button.


Trouble Shooting

Nothing Seems Right: Most problems are caused by selecting options and moving sliders into certain positions and then forgetting about it. If your final images don't look as you may expect, click on the "Defaults" button. Then try your options again.

Long Processing Time: If the output is taking a very long time, you can try using a "Photo Quilt Folder" that has less than 500 images. Make sure your that folder contains JPG files, because other file types will take much longer to load and thumbnail. Another common problem is having an "Ouput Size" that is very large (3000x2000) or larger. The larger the ouput size, the longer the quilting process time.

Poor Color Quality: If you final output image doesn't have very good coloring, then you may need to select a quilting photo that has a better range of colors. IE: If you select a folder of images in which most of the images all have similar coloring, then it will be next to impossible to produce a good looking output. You need to have a folder of images that have a wide range of coloring. IE: Have a folder that has some images with a lot of green in them, have some images with a lot of red in them. Have some images with a lot of blue in them. Have some images with a lot of white in them. Have some images with a lot of black in them. This is a good start.

Performance Enhancing

There are several issues that can affect the speed of the quilting process.

Quilt Folder image count: It's best to use a folder that has under 500 images. This produces decent quilted photos while not taking a long time to produce. Of course the images need to have a wide range of color representation. So, if all your images were mostly blue, then don't expect a good quilted photo of a picture of a LAWN. See, there would be no good way to pick thumbnails from blue images to represent the green in the lawn :) Of course, if you need the highest quality output and biggest range of thumbnails to pick from, the you can use up to 6000 images in the folder you selected for "Quilt Folder".

Folder image types: It's best to use JPG files only. So if your folder contains a mixture of JPGs and BMPs and GIFs and maybe some RAW, then your process time will be increased dramatically. The good thing is that Photo Jockey will cache the thumbnails. So, once you have waited to produce your first quilted photo, then next time it will go thru a lot faster. But if you want to speed up the FIRST time through, then you will need to convert all your images into JPGs. You can do this easily by using the JPG Convert Feature of Photo Jockey or the Batch Feature. Also, keep in mind that you may want to keep your folder of images' sizes at 800x600 or smaller.

Output Size: Once you choose an output size larger than 3000x2000 then the processing times will increase noticably. Try to keep your output size under 2400x1920 if you can.

Quilt Rows: If you select more than 80 rows, your processing time will be very noticable. Try to keep your rows under 60 if you can.

Photo Panning: If you select "Photo Panning", your processing times will jump up a lot. So, only use it if you really need it to increase the quality of the final output image.

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