Gigapixel Photography Techniques

Gone are the days when you could barely zoom your photos to see more details. Looking 35 years back the first digital camera was capable to shot a mere 0.1 megapixels. From then, the advancements in the digital world of photography have been staggering. Technology has opened up a doorway to the creative world of endless possibilities. One of the fascinating products of this advancement is the Gigapixel photography. It is the art of combing numerous photos to produce one ultra-high-resolution and super detailed photograph. You can zoom in several times and still see the minor details clearly. Such detailed photographs are the product of professional shooting and flawless post-processing, thus is a complex process.

Below is the same image that shows 100% crop detail thumbnails.

Why do so much work

The question is why to put so much effort when you can simply click photos with modern high-resolution cameras. The answer is that the photo from these cameras will not be so sharp when displayed on a larger scale. The size you can display the photo in will be very limited. For example, some of the highest resolution cameras today can give you images that can be displayed up to the size of 25-30 inches before the quality starts to degrade to the viewer. Gigapixel photographs can look sharp even up to 25 feet. Moreover, they give you a considerable amount of more resolution then any single photo from an advanced camera.

Tips and Techniques for Gigapixel Photography

Gigapixel photography is a complicated subject. In it, a number of photographs are shot and then stitched together to form huge panoramic photos. In the following article, we will cover all the tips and techniques to produce a perfectly sharp ultra-high resolution photographs. The basic points to highlight are:

• Planning and Scouting
• Shooting
• Post-processing

Planning and Scouting

Everything starts with planning. Checking for the lighting and weather will also be very influential, as we will be combing different photos into a single one. Even a small, unwanted lighting change can result in a visible flaw in your photos. Scouting the location should always be the first thing on your list before doing any kind of photography. There are endless perspectives and angles to shoot in a single location. As you are aiming for a gigapixel photograph, look for the frame that will cover the most area.

Shooting

Take into account that even small mistakes while shooting can ruin the whole photo. Keep the camera settings manual so you can coordinate with the lighting environment better. You will need extremely precise gear such as tripods, gimbal mounts, and also windshield in some conditions. The goal is to avoid any kind of camera movement so you do not have to face any problem while stitching the scene. This equipment enables us to maintain the same camera perspective throughout the whole process. Using a rotatable tripod will help especially when you are shooting a 360-gigapixel photo.

The number of photos for a gigapixel photograph needs can vary from up to 20 to even hundreds of photographs. You will have to shoot multiple rows of these photos. To avoid any kind of changes or adverse optical artefacts, it is recommended to use prime lenses such as 400mm, 600mm or 800mm, it depends on the location that how much focal length you will need to capture most details. Lenses with fixed focal lengths i.e. Prime lenses minimise the chances of any distortion.

If you are shooting a calm landscape scene, there will be one less thing to give you a headache and that is motion problems. If you have decided to do gigapixel photography of a cityscape or a scene with some motion, you will have to take care of any motion problems. For example, if an object was moving and while capturing multiple photos, that the same object might be captured in two or more shots, which can be an inconvenience.
Even with the landscapes, you can face this problem. Avoid shooting in cloudy and windy conditions as the moving clouds can cause a greater trouble than a moving person in the frame.

Gigapixel Photography Post-processing

Now you have tons of photos that need to be stitched. This will be done with the help of different stitching programs. There are special software such as PTgui and GigaPan Stitch. These software are specially designed for the purpose of stitching larger panoramic images. The stitching process in the software is completely automatic. The raw photos with overlapping features are processed together. Depending on the number of photos, this process can take time. Where the pictures are misaligned, you can align them further manually for them to blend smoothly.

Then load the stitched file into Photoshop for final finishing. Photoshop is the best option to process this kind of large files. Thoroughly review the image. If there are any minor flaws, you can easily fix them with powerful Photoshop tools. Colour correcting the photo before finalising is also very important. For exporting and sharing the final image you will have to use Photoshop’s PSB format because these large files will not go as .JEPG or .TIFF.

Quality over Quantity

You have to click tons of photos, especially in multiple rows. This takes time, and as time passes, the shooting conditions can also change. Suppose you decide to take 100 photos for your gigapixel photograph. In midway, you realised that conditions such as lighting are changing and are not suitable for more photos as after combining there will be a huge difference in different parts of the stitched image. Then you should stop, although you will not be able to capture most of the scene, but the scene captured in similar conditions will result in the highest quality photograph.

Conclusion

Gigapixel Photography is the most effective way of creating panoramas. You capture the whole scene and with the highest resolution. This product of advanced photography has revolutionized the concept of high-resolution photographs. We took an overview of the procedure of how to make a perfect and detailed gigapixel photograph. Form the shooting to the stitching you have to be careful as small mistakes can ruin the harmony of the whole photo.

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