2.5 Gigapixels

[Andrew_A]

My 3 megapixel camera is so 2003.

Check out this photo.. 2.5 billion pixels (Amazing!)

http://www.tpd.tno.nl/smartsite966.html

WaySolid

[Sim]

Yeah, but I already do this with my little Canon S50 ... it's not that impressive really (although the accuracy of the stitching is way better than I could achieve).

The 2.5 gigapixel image is a composition of images rather than a single image. TNO developed a sophisticated approach to merge the many images - all 600 of them. The photos were taken automatically using a modern consumer camera and a powerful 400 mm lens. The camera was positioned automatically using a computer-controlled pan-tilt unit. Each of the 600 photos overlaps, an arrangement that ensured very accurate positioning and enabled us to stitch the images automatically into one giant image of 78,797 by 31,565 pixels. The most difficult tasks were processing these large images and comparing the overlapping images.

Here are some examples:

Note that these photos below were heavily scaled and cropped to make them look better and easier to display online, but the originals were huge - each photo was taken at 5 megapixels and stitched together into a very large panorama.

Click on the photos to see a slightly larger version (no more than about 1024 pixels wide - so files aren't that big)

Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas, NV - original panorama was 47,552,670 pixels
http://www.hampel.net.au/gallery/data/98/1redrockcanyon_panorama1-med.jpg (http://www.hampel.net.au/gallery/data/98/1redrockcanyon_panorama1.jpg)

Wellington, NZ (from the top of the cable car track) - original panorama was 45,239,747 pixels
http://www.hampel.net.au/gallery/data/72/1wellington_panorama_2-med.jpg (http://www.hampel.net.au/gallery/data/72/1wellington_panorama_2.jpg)

Natural arch near the 12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Victoria - original panorama was 14,151,216 pixels
http://www.hampel.net.au/gallery/data/79/1gorp3-med.jpg (http://www.hampel.net.au/gallery/data/79/1gorp3.jpg)

Some of the 12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Victoria - original panorama was 14,181,948 pixels
http://www.hampel.net.au/gallery/data/79/1gorp1-med.jpg (http://www.hampel.net.au/gallery/data/79/1gorp1.jpg)

[Andrew_A]

Thats very impressive.

I'm reminded of the scene from "Blade Runner" where Harrison Ford is examining the photograph by zooming in with minute detail.

The future is here!

[Kenny]

Nice photos, Sim.

Did you use any stitching software or did you eyeball them to alignment?

Was the camera on a tripod?


Thanks.

[wombat]

Sim, love the panarama's, especially the 12 appostles. I've played around with this feature on my IXUS 4 with believable results. Yours look fantastic!

wombat

[Sim]

Nice photos, Sim.

Did you use any stitching software or did you eyeball them to alignment?

Was the camera on a tripod?

Thanks Kenny ... yeah, I used the software that came with my Canon S50 (most Canon digitals ship with this I think) ... camera wasn't on a tripod - just hand held - no real need for a tripod (although it may have lead to better results) ... the stitching software can handle differences in height between photos if you can't shoot straight :D

That's why I cropped these photos ... the originals have a lot of blank space in them from where photos don't quite line up vertically and such (ie the top of one photo is higher than the next).

The panorama feature of the camera makes it easy to take the shots - it shows the previous photo for you on the screen so that you can line up the next one against some landmark.

[Kenny]

Thanks Sim,

Next question that popped to mind was;

Did you look at any properties during those trips? :D

Regards,

Kenny

[Sim]

No - I usually don't tend to mix work trips or holiday trips and investing trips (although it does occasionally happen) - mostly because I don't usually have time, and I don't tend to bother looking in areas I'm not seriously considering buying in.

I'm not like some of the property addicts here, who feel compelled to look at something no matter where they go :p

(although I do occasionally stop and look at stuff in the real estate agent windows !)

[TomL]

Some handy tips for anyone contemplating photo stitching panoramas ..

- Take the pictures by holding the camera vertically, not horizontally. You need to take more pictures, but the final picture has better proportions.

- Take the photos relatively quickly, and make sure you lock in (manually) the aperture, focus, iso etc This way the photos will come out mostly the same.


Enjoy.

[Sim]

That's a good tip about holding the camera vertically, TomL ... I'll try that next time.

I'll be spending some time in the US for work in January and should hopefully have some time to take photos (I'd be disappointed if I came back with less than 1000 this trip). I'll give this a go and see if I can come up with some good panoramas.

[asy]

Great Pano's Sim!!!

I loved the tip about having the camera vertical, great idea... now... how to attach it to tripod vertically :)

I use a programme called Panorama Maker (http://www.panoramafactory.com/) and it's brilliant...

It not only matches the edges, but warps to overlap, and also adjusts colour on edges to grade one photo into the other, so you don't get that stripe effect...

I think it cost about $50, but it was worth it!

It's much better than the software that came with my camera...

asy :D

[Sim]

Get a decent tripod asy ... mine cost about $90, is very light, extends to about 6' tall (which is useful for someone of my height), and the part that you attach the camera to can be rotated 90 degrees - which would make vertical photos a breeze.