A photographic composition assistant for intelligent virtual 3D camera systems

Abstract

A human photographer can frame an image and enhance its composition by visualizing how elements in the frame could be better sized or positioned. The photographer resizes elements in the frame by changing the zoom lens or by varying his or her distance to the subject. The photographer moves elements by panning. An intelligent virtual photographer can apply a similar process. Given an initial 3D camera view, a user or application specifies high-level composition goals such as Rule of Thirds or balance. Each objective defines either a One-D interval for image scaling or a Two-D interval for translation. Two-D projections of objects are translated and scaled in the frame according to computed optima. These Two-D scales and translates are mapped to matching changes in the 3D field of view (zoom), dolly-in or out varying subject distance, and rotating the aim direction to improve the composition. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.