My 300 megapixel experiment

Well, it finally came together. I captured 104 frames, ended up paring them down to about 80, saved in 8-bit mode. AutoPano Pro 1.3 was able to stitch them together overnight.

Here's a version that's about 40% of the full size and saved as low-level JPG so it only has a fraction of the actual detail, created using Zoomify in Photoshop CS3:

First Snow in the Wasatch Mountains

Will I do it again? probably not. This was a very impractical experiment. Having to work in 8-bit and not being able to use layers freely greatly limited my options. The added detail was not worth it for me. I think in the future I'll limit myself to 10-15 frames.

Guy

Goodness Guy, This is STUNNING. Have you any plans to print it???

Fantastic work!

Jim, I might print it at some point. I would love to have it as a mural in my own living room though I shudder to think of the mounting and framing costs. Not sure if I'll offer it for sale though (I have other images of the same scene on my site).

Guy

Pretty impressive Guy. Wonderful work.

Michael

Guy,

8 bit? was this because of memory issues to try and keep the size at a manageble level?

Wow nice sharp image Guy. Very nice.

Brian

For what it's worth, this won't load on my computer at work. The screen twitters and tweaks but never delivers.

John, you need Flash 9.0 to view it. Upgrade your Flash player and it should work. I had the same issue on FireFox until I installed the latest version.

Enrique, yes I had to resort to 8 bits to reduce the file size.

Guy

Guy: This is pretty neat. I'm interested in how you did the original captures. Did you maintain a manual exposure for all of the shots and what was the time span for getting the shots?

Guy - That's a really great presentation. Neat to be able to zoom and see the amount of detail captured. Not quite as good as being able to walk up close to it to see the detail in person , but a nice compromise. I'm, like Bill, somewhat interested on how long it took you to get the original captures. I know on the few panos I've done, I've had to hustle due to changing light conditions - especially tough when doing 6 or 8 second exposures to begin with. .

Bill and David - I kept the same (manual) expoure for all images and added a graduated ND filter for the row of images with the sky in them. The time difference from the first exposure to the last is about 15 minutes.

Guy

I think that was a stunning photo Guy! Don't know why you would need to edit it in 16 bit. I wouldn't change a thing! The dim light and the fresh snow takes me back to my home island on which the weather conditions are like that for most of the fall and spring.

Guy, this is really outstanding! One of the best images I've ever seen. Did the light change a lot during that 15 minutes? If it did it sure doesn't show or did you do some post processing to even out the exposures? Great shot!

Thanks everyone!
Bill, the light did change a little bit during this time but not enough to make a big difference. I did some basic adjustments to exposure n the raw converter, as well as minor color and contrast tweaks in Photoshop.

Guy