I posted a panorama image last week of the Enchanted Sunset that I took during a photo outing with some of my photography friends to the Enchanted Rock State Park. That panorama image consisted of 6 photographs that I stitched together using the PTGui panorama stitching software. What I didn’t explain at the time is that I was actually shooting with two cameras. It was fun multitasking and trying to get both cameras setup properly and to get the settings just right for the wonderful sunset lighting that we were going to experience. The more difficult task, was setting up my new GigaPan Epic Pro and to learn how to successfully shoot a GigaPan.
Ok, you are probably asking what is a GigaPan… Well, a photograph is usually a single image with a resolution of about 5,000 x 3,500 pixels. A panorama is usually a row of multiple photographs (usually 5-10 photographs). A GigaPan (Giga Panorama) is usually an image made up of multiple rows of photographs (in some cases hundreds of photographs). The one below is 3 rows of 7 photographs each (21 in total). This is stitched together in the same way a panorama is but the resolution is much higher (this one is 29,000 x 9,000 pixels). Why, do this? Well, you can make a very big print and you can see some amazing detail that would normally not be possible with a single image.
This image was taken with my Canon EOS 5D Mark III using my Canon EF24-105mm f/4 Lens set on 105 mm. The camera was set on Manual mode with the aperture set at f/5.6, shutter speed at 1/15th of a second and the ISO set at 100. I used a GigaPan Epic Pro to shoot the images and I used Photoshop to stitch together the Giga Panorama.
I uploaded two higher resolution versions of this image and provided the links below. Warning: these images are 30Mb and 130Mb respectively. Do no do this unless you are connected to WiFi and you have a good connection. Otherwise, it will not work well, and if you are on your phone without WiFi, it will eat up a significant portion of your data plan…
To see the high (30Mb) resolution image click here.
To see the very high (130Mb) resolution image click here.
Please use the section below to post your comments, questions or suggestions.
© 2015 T. Kahler Photography
I love it. Feel like I’m there!
Thanks Duncan. It was fun to shoot. I hope to do more soon.
Wow. How long did it take to “process”?
Hi Blaine. Actually, it took a lot less time than I expected. What was harder was completing the processing after it stitched it together. All in all it took about an hour to complete the photo.