Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Gigapixels are a great way of experiencing a place remotely or reliving a moment, and the Super Bowl is the perfect venue for this awesome photographic technique.
James Blakeway of Blakeway Worldwide Panoramas was lucky enough to be able to create one of these massive images before the Denver Broncos took on the Carolina Panthers, offering a chance to feel what it’s like to be on the grass.
This time last year we wrote about the mind-blowing 8-terapixel 360-degree interactive virtual tour of Dubai, simply called Dubai360.
Celebrating the 1 year anniversary of the incredible project, Gerald Donovan has updated his famous Burj Khalifa pinnacle shot. The new image, and largest ever taken in Dubai, is 45 gigapixels in size and offers improved visibility.
How often do you get to interact with the universe? This 46 Gigapixel ‘panorama’ of the milky way, was made at the German university Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, and took half a decade to complete. .
Actually, this image of the Milky Way is so big that it had to be broken down into 268 sections, each photographed over a period of a several days and composed into a single image. Those 268 sections were then combined into an enormous 194 Gigabyte file which contains several “layers” of information. This interactive tool can be accessed here.
Photographic technology keeps getting better and better while society keeps getting dumber and dumber. But, perhaps we’ll hash out some of those specifics at a later date and time.
That being said, the new influx of giant gigapixel images is fascinating, whether it’s exploring nature or cities. Now these images are being brought onto a more personal level, complete with the capabilities to tag yourself and friends in these massive images. Blakeway Gigapixel, purveyors of giant, 360-degree panoramic photos, is pushing their new service of creating “exciting interactive social media engagements within a huge multi-gigapixel image,” and despite the blatant commercialization undertones, it’s still pretty cool.
Anybody who has visited one of the grandiose churches or cathedrals has come across this problem; how do you photograph the sheer size and magnificence of this holy architecture?
If you capture the chancel, you miss out on the ceiling murals. Try photographing the murals and you’ll probably be giving up on most of the stained glass.
One way to capture as much as possible would be a 360-degree panorama but that will result in a very distorted imaged with some of the most impressive features of the building – the ceiling, murals and unique lighting fixtures, left out of the frame.
Obviously such detail-filled gargantuan structures require an out-of-the-box solution, and this is where travel photographer Richard Silver (previously) and his vertical panoramas come into play.
We all know Google Earth as a great tool to get a feel for a distant location with its satellite and Street View maps. Now imagine Google Earth after a massive dose of epic combined with state-of-the-art technology, and the result is the most brilliant virtual tour ever created.
Dubai 360 is the first virtual city tour to exclusively use interactive 360 degree content, including gigapixel panoramas, time lapses and video. That’s right, all in a fully interactive 360 degree view!
Panoramas are a simple and practical way for combing multiple photographs into one with the result that you get a good overall overview of a landscape or cityscape.
Often people are struggling with mediocre in-camera panorama modes or very complicated image merging techniques in Adobe Photoshop when trying to create panomaras.
Today I want to share how I created a few huge, Gigapixel photos, using a DIYed panoramic head. Actually, it is not a panoramic head because it not only goes right and left, but also up and down.
I’ve been a big fan of panoramic photography and of landscape in general for a long time. But four years ago I was climbing a mountain and the view from the top simply took my breath away. I felt an urgent need to share the image with people don’t climb and therefore will never get access to such views.
Here is the thing though, standard photos do not have enough details. Our eyes have far more resolution that your standard digital camera, so a new project began: I wanted to build the best Gigapan Robot – an automated panoramic head for DSLR.
[editor’s note: things get highly nerdy techy from this point on]
Ben Bloom and the team at Onion Creek Productions took the little planet panorama one step further and made a video that totally plays on the concept. In a video they did for Wild Child they mounted 6 GoPros on a device to create a continuous little planet video. We have shared small planet GoPro videos before, they were more of a proof-of-concept type of show. (I think they used the same mounting device)
This video incorporates the small planet perspective warp as a creative element which I find pretty interesting
About two years ago the web was sweat with the latest panoramic trend – small planet panoramas (AKA spherical panorama). It was only a matter of time until someone got the clevers to elevate this into the next stage: Small Planet Time Lapse Video.
Photographer Jonas Ginter used a 3d printed a 3d device that allows him to capture photos from 6 different GoPros simultaneously and then combined the footage in post to create a movie of the same effect:[Read More…]
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
Find my work on My website or follow me on Facebook or My page
