Glyphs of Time :: a blog by jarvis grant

April 4, 2010

The Gigapan Pano Portrait

Filed under: Digital Tech,Photography,Photoshop — Jarvo @ 8:06 pm

A few days ago, in my “Couple of New Portraits” post, I spoke briefly about using my Gigapan Epic to shot my self portrait. One of the things I’m working on with this piece of equipment is intimate panoramas, instead of the usual “Grand Vista” panos. It’s coming along, but still needs some work. The idea of the intimate Pano is using the Gigapan rig as “large format” digital capture device. Hey, don’t ya just love techno speak! Digital capture device instead of camera! OK, I mentioned that the original self portrait was a 54 megapixel shot. That means, the dimensions of the final stitched file is 9341 x 5798 pixels.  

In the post I must reduce the file size down so to put the image on the web. The dimension on the long side is about 600 pixels. That;s quite a drop! So, you’re not really seeing the detail that is in the file. So, I’s thought I’d give you an idea of what this actual looks like, relatively speaking. Relatively because I still must reduce the file down to a 600 pixel width. I shot the files as RAW captures, and converted them to JPEGs for the Gigapan software. I’d rather control the JPEG conversation in Photoshop, than have the camera process the files.  

First, I would like to show you what the 12 images file look like in the Gigapan Stitcher image.  

Gigapan Screen Shot

Gigapan Screen Shot, with the 12 photos

 

 The next image is the full panorama with its Photoshop retouch.  

Self-Portrait Pano

Full panoramic image

 

Now, here is a detail that’s taken from the full panorama. The original selection that this image represents was about 1100 pixels wide.  

Pano-Self-Portrait Detail

This detail is a selection from the full panorama.

 

And finally, here’s one a little closer.  

Pano-Self-Portrait Detail #2

An even closer detail. Since this is a photo of me, I don't want to get too close!

 

The people over at Gigapan have just announced a new rig for DSLR cameras, the Gigapan PRO. I use a Panasonic LX3 10 megapixel point & shoot on my Gigapan Epic. I can wait for the bugs to be worked out. The also have released an upgrade for the Stitcher software. The program I was using was still in beta. I’m looking to see what improvements they’ve made. While the Gigapan can’t take quick snaps of moving objects, for what it can do, it’s around $2500 less that even the least expensive medium format digital camera out there. I’m gonna work it all I can.

 
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1 Comment »

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    Comment by bet365 — November 16, 2010 @ 10:05 am

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