Photosimulations

1
Photosimulations

• Put a Turbine in a Photograph

2

• Take photographs
• 90-180 panoramic The final image should be
  17x7.5
• Get enough sky and ground. Take three rows of
  pictures if you must.
• Take at 50mm lens
• Take GPS points
• From where the photographs are taken from
• At least three or four objects that can be easily
  seen within the photograph
• Process Images
• Convert from RAW into TIFF or JPG
• Change the white balance to be equal on all
  photos of a location

3

• Combine individual images into one whole image
• Use Photoshop CS or Photoshop Elements 3.0 or
  else youll have to do it by hand
• Photoshop Elements 3.0 Instructions
• Standard Edit
• New-gtPhotomerge, Select all Photos
• Preview how it looks with advanced blending
• if it looks fine, then continue and save that
  image.
• If it does not look fine, then approve with Keep
  Layers
• Manually alter each layer to blend into one whole
  image
• Crop a Working Version which has only the area
  the turbine will be in, in addition to at least
  two reference GPS points
• Save as a 24bit BMP

4

• In WindFarm
• Open Project
• Open Base Map
• New Layout
• Click on the Turbine Symbol next to the Arrow
  Symbol
• Double Click anywhere on the Screen
• Right Click anywhere on the Screen
• Enter the Turbines coordinates into the box that
  popped up
• Apply Changes
• Click Turbine
• Browse to the WTDB folder
• Select the known turbine, or use Nordex
• Select the one with the turbine size (600, 1000
  or 1500, etc)

Zoomed in View
5

• Click the Photomontage Icon (Top of the list of
  icons on the right)
• No Wire Frame (lags down computer)
• New Photomontage File
• Name it the location of photograph
• Browse to Layout File
• Browse to Image
• Browse to Turbine (in MTDB folder)
• Remember to NEVER move any of those files in the
  future or else it wont work anymore!
• Go back to the main WindFarm window
• Click on the Eye
• Double click on the map
• Enter the GPS coordinate from where the
  photograph was taken in the side menu
• Apply changes
• Click on the X
• Double click on the map
• Enter the GPS coordinate of one reference point
• Apply Changes
• Repeat for all reference points

6

• Under Included Angle Guesstimate the angle of
  view of the image
• Unclick Use Target Point
• Change Height Above Ground to the height of the
  photographer in metric
• Slide View Direction until the turbine and
  locator Xs are visible
• Change both the View Direction, Pitch Angle
  and Included Angle slides until locator point
  Xs line up as best as possible on their objects
• There will be a margin of error

7

• Edit -gt Add Exclusion Zones
• Right click on the screen to access the menu
• Zoom in and out as necessary
• New Exclusion Zone
• Just keep left clicking and surround all trees,
  buildings, etc, that the turbine would be behind
• Right click -gt Close Exclusion Zone
• Right Click -gt Exit
• View -gt (Uncheck) Locators
• View -gt (Uncheck) Exclusion Zones
• View -gt Rendered Turbines
• The rendered turbine will shift a little up,
  down, left or right from the wired version

8

• If lighting is wrong on the Turbine, use these
  steps
• Edit -gt Run Data
• Sunlight Tab
• Change Easting, Northing and Altitude to be
  roughly where the sun position is within the sky
  at the time the photograph was taken (more
  easting in mornings, more west in afternoons,
  etc)
• Color Shift and Blur Tab
• Change the colors to be appropriate to the
  lighting (reds and yellows for sun rises and
  sunsets)
• Options -gt Turbine Settings and Scale
• Change Yaw Angle so the turbine is facing in the
  prevalent wind direction
• Check the sites Wind Rose to see prevalent wind
  direction
• Using a map, check where the photograph is taken
  in reference to where the turbine is to estimate
  what angle the turbine is facing
• View -gt Animate
• Using Trial and Error keep changing RPM until it
  reaches 12-16 RPM (Or whatever the RPM of the
  specific Turbine being used for the average wind
  speed of the area look up the stats online)
• Use the second hand of your watch to measure
  while watching the animation
• Its usually -25 to -50

9

• Copy the images from the PHOM folder located
  within your project folder
• FILENAME00x.BMP
• X being one turbine number less than the turbine
  you are looking for
• if only using one turbine, this doesnt matter
• FILENAMEANI.BMP
• In Photoshop, Open the best photograph and open
  FILENAMEANI.BMP
• Move the FILENAMEANI.BMP image onto the best
  photograph
• Resize to fit perfectly onto the original
  photograph
• Erase everything on the second layer but the
  turbine

10

• In Photoshop, Open the best photograph and open
  FILENAME00x.BMP
• On FILENAME00x.BMP select and copy the very first
  image
• File -gt New
• Copy the height, cancel
• Edit -gt Preferences -gt Guides, Grid Slices
• Under Grindline every paste in the height,
  change to the appropriate unit (pixels or inches)
• View -gt (Check) Grid
• Check the bottom of the FILENAME00x.BMP image to
  ensure the grid is lined up on the border of each
  image
• Go back and change the Grindline every
  increment until it lines up
• Make sure View -gt Snap is checked, and snapping
  to grid
• Select the first image and drag it anywhere onto
  the original photograph
• Put the layer into a layer set (the folder on the
  bottom of the layer menu)
• Put a guide line on the left and top of the image
• Select the second image and drag onto the
  original photograph align it with the guide
  lines so both images are exactly on top of each
  other
• Ensure the new layer was created within the layer
  set
• Repeat this for all images on the FILENAME00x.BMP
  strip

11

• Remove the guides and lower the opacity of the
  layer set
• Resize and reposition the layer set so it fits on
  the original image
• Go back to each individual turbine layer and
  erase everything but the turbine
• Dont cut it too close, dont sacrifice any
  turbine image Just use a fat eraser tool
• Go in closer if pixelization is very noticeable
• Save this version as a .PSD
• Go through each image and find the best looking
  angle
• Save that image as a .jpg/.tiff/whatever this
  will be the final static presentation version
• Crop to the best view try to keep it around the
  ratio 17x7.5
• Do not lose a significant amount of ground or sky
• Save a new .PSD version as 800 pixels wide
• Turn off all turbine layers within the layer set
  except for the first one
• Save as 01.gif
• Turn off the first layer, and turn on the second
  layer
• Save as 02.gif
• Repeat for all layers within the layer set

12

• Open PaintShop Pro Animation Shop
• File -gt Animation Wizard
• Same Size as First Image Frame
• Next
• Transparent
• Next
• Upper Left Corner of Frame
• With Preceding Frames Contents
• Next
• Yes, repeat the animation indefinitely
• 1 1/100th of a second
• Next
• Add Image
• Add all images, only 10 images at a time
• This sounds weird, but in order to have the
  images come up in order
• Select the last image, hold down control, select
  the second image, hold down both control and
  shift, select the second to last image, hold down
  only control and select the first image
• Next
• Finish

13

• Save
• Save at Best Quality
• View file in Internet Explorer to ensure the
  speed is correct. If not, select all slides and
  set the speed higher
• Animation -gt Resize Animation
• Width 600
• Save
• Save at Level 2 (1/4) Quality
• Raise quality if it impairs image quality too
  much, such as lines of color
• Append the filename with -optimized