OK, I have finally done it! I made a GigaPan on Saturday with 1515 source images in it. I am using the Canon 1ds Mark II camera, so each image is 60.2 MB. These combine to make an image that is:

384,728 × 40,736 pixels

When I attempt to open it in Photoshop, the program tells me it cannot open an image greater than 300,000 pixels in either dimension. I am running Photoshop CS5.5 on a big Mac Pro tower with 8 processors and lots of RAM; I don’t think I have other limitations.

This is the largest photo I have ever made, and I would like to continue to work at this resolution. Any suggestions on how to work with files this large in Adobe Photoshop?

Thank you,
Brian Lawler

I have only one GigaPan that rivals this in size and I didn’t even attempt to open it in Photoshop, as I recall.

Please consider uploading an unPhotoshopped version, even if just temporarily until you figure out how to clean it up to your liking. I, for one, would love to see how a GigaPan produced with this hardware looks before being touched up. What lens were you using? I’d love to see all of that metadata that GigaPan Stitch outputs (and that you lose after editing in Photoshop).

[Update: I see it’s already up on the site. Beginning to explore it now…]

Good Luck!

Photoshop will not open a file with greater than 300,000 width or height. There is no Photoshop flow around that limit. Best thing is to re-stitch the file in parts that stay under the limit and then open the exported TIFF files and re-scale just enough to be able to paste the pieces into a single file under the 300,000 limit. Photoshop can merge the files and blend so that the seam should be invisible. In your case, you will need about .78x reduction of the Photoshop image and you will be under the 300,000 limit for a re-combined file of two partial stitches. Needless to say you will have a lot of wait time during the process.

Another thing to consider is you could select a lower resolution setting on the camera that will give a smaller total pixel width. Also you could batch process reduce the originals you have already taken before you stitch.

You will need a lot of patience as it takes a long time to find out that something didn’t work.

Dave

I use CorelPaint – no problems.

I would probably:

-Sample some of the darkest and lightest images in a RAW editor, find a happy medium of adjustment that applies to all.
-Batch process adjustments and slight resize (like David said) to get under the pixel limit.
-Stitch

If you do your editing in RAW before converting, I don’t see any reason to stick with TIF format. JPG would be 1/7 the size and save you some Methuselah-length load times.

Hope you get it figured out! Post a link when it’s up.

bkaylor

Hi all,

Thank you for the input. I had reached the conclusion that I could redo the photo in Gigapan Stitch in two parts. Then, when I print it, I can print it in pieces and put it up in parts.

The final image is posted now (search for San Luis Obispo) and you can see it has an immense amount of information in it.

The lens was a Canon 100-400 mm set to 400 mm. The number of images totaled 1515. Stitching took about 8 hours. Uploading it took a long time, also. The camera is a Canon 1ds Mark III. I’m shooting Camera Raw so I have the greatest amount of flexibility. I could also process the images at slightly lower resolution (with Image Processor in Photoshop), and restitch in one piece.

I don’t like JPEG, as I found out that he is Voldemort in disguise!

I am very pleased with the photo as it is posted on GigaPan.

Tomorrow I am doing another one… I call it My Peak of the Week. I’ll scale Bishop Peak (alt. 1556) and take another one from up there. It’s a great view, and it should be spectacular.

Brian