100 Mpixel Pano Church

[drisley]

While I was in my hometown last week for a funeral, I took the opportunity the pleasant (-10c and no wind :)) weather afforded me to take some pictures of our beautiful old rural Ukrainian churches and fresh snowfall.

This is sort of a version of the Brenizer Method, but my main focus (no pun) wasn't to get a shallow DOF, but rather just a very wide angle and great detail (because of trees everywhere and only 24mm as widest lens focal length this was not possible with a single shot).

So here we have 107 shots taken handheld, and stitched to make a single 100 MP photo (after cropping the finished product is about 35 MP). I started from top left, worked over to far right, moved down about half way from previous row, then worked back, then down etc.

I toned it to give a bit of an HDR look, but tried not to overdo it.

This being my first time using such a method, it was really just a test, but it worked slightly better than I expected, so I plan to do this more often. Shot with 1DMkIII, 24-70L, F4, 1/500s, Cloudy WB.

C&C appreciated.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/8664/church107pano01.jpg

[Anke]

Wow. I'm very impressed.

[Cyclop]

Awesome image.

[Jigglypuff]

Cool, but I think you still went a little over with the HDR.

[masterwillems]

Really like it :).

[wtr3554]

very nice image

[drisley]

Here is another taken with 157 handheld shots. Because there are so many to stitch, there are quite a few distortions and anomalies. I changed the toning slightly too.

Keep in mind, I was standing maybe 10 ft from the steps of the church. This is only about 1/2 of the image after cropping out the edges.

Despite the flaws, this gives me some ideas for future usage.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/5756/church157pano02.jpg

[joayne]

Cheers.. These are beautiful.
I'll bet that the actual size is way larger than poster!

[drisley]

Thanks Joayne, this 2nd picture is about 200 mpixels raw, and 80 mpixels cropped. So yeah, it could be blown up pretty big. I've seen 8 mpixels shots that look amazing on large billboards, so I'm curious to print one of these out.

[MikeFairbanks]

I'm wondering what you were using for toning.....Adjust?

[Anke]

Another impressive image, did you use PS to stitch?

[drisley]

Anke, thanks, I used PS CS4 to stitch these and it does an amazing job. The first picture with 107 shots is flawless. The second image with 157 shots took a bit more work and has some flaws, but that's because it's a much wider angle, and I think I missed a couple areas of overlap.

Also, while PS Photomerge had no problems with 107 shots (10 MP each), it constantly froze up with the 157 shot picture. So, what you can do is take, say 25% of the pics, merge them, save out the PSD file, then do another 25%, etc. When you are done, then go back to Photomerge and let PS stitch these 4 large PSD files together. It has a much easier time.

[Anke]

...

Also, while PS Photomerge had no problems with 107 shots (10 MP each), it constantly froze up with the 157 shot picture. So, what you can do is take, say 25% of the pics, merge them, save out the PSD file, then do another 25%, etc. When you are done, then go back to Photomerge and let PS stitch these 4 large PSD files together. It has a much easier time.

Good tip.