Forum

Topic: General Gigapanning / which is the best file format for printing and web use?

Hallo Thomas,

there are two options for using your panorama at the web:

1) Rescale your panorama (Photoshop: Alt + Strg + I) to a size, which is appropriate for the internet (for example 1800 × 300 pixel) and save it as a JPEG file, or

2) Upload your gigapixel panorama to the GigaPan platform and use the “embed” feature to integrate a viewer based version of the panorama into your website.

kind regards
HaPe

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / EPIC Pro menu options

Hallo,

right now I try to understand the different firmware options, offered by the Gigapan EPIC Pro menu.

What exactly is the benefit of the “Bracket Delay” option? As far as I understood, it effects the same as the “Time/Exposure” option does: It extends the time until the EPIC Pro starts moving to the next position. The “Bracket Delay” option was introduced to improve the timing for HDR series, but in fact it does nothing else than the “Time/Exposure” option. Instead of setting the “Bracket Delay” option to – let´s say 2 sec, I can increase the “Time/Exposure” option with the same value. Is it for quick switching between single- and multi-image panos without changing the options?

Thanks in advance!
HaPe

Topic: General Gigapanning / which is the best file format for printing and web use?

Hello!

I am quite new to gigapixel photography and I would like to ask which is the best file format to save my photos before stiching both for printing and web use.

I have a giga-panorama that is 5,5GB, psb format. To do it I stiched 258 photos. Each photo is tiff, 58MB, 300dpi. The result is satisfing for printing but really “heavy” for web use. Photoshop doesn’t let me save for web the psb file. Is there a way to make it “lighter” for web use?

thanks in advance for your answers and time
kind regards
Thomas

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Explore Scores and Other Views

Excellent news!

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Computer setup your using

cwinhall, I disagree with your statement regarding a low end video card. Most graphics programs now using the GPU in these high end cards to process the stitching or other processes instead of the CPU, or as well as. Since the CPU is usually 2, 4, 6 or 8 cores and the GPU are 128 cores using then can reduce stitching time from 30 minutes to less than 5 minutes. That is when processing 300 to 500 photos. The current card I use is the GTX 640 which is a dog but OK, I am not trying to source a GTX 690 which uses over 3000 cuda cores will be even faster. I have 2 SSD drives in my machine as you suggest, but using a SSD Drive as C: for programs and scratch drive makes very little difference since access speed is so fast not to slow down the process.

http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2012/10/how-t…

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Explore Scores and Other Views

Hello Everyone:

Gigapan’s Explore Score – a complex measure of how explored a gigapan is by others – went offline last fall. Gigapan engineers have fixed it and turned it back on in early February. The Explore Score is calculated using numerous weighted variables. Part of the calculation is a measure of the intensity of viewing, that is, how new a gigapan is relative to how many people are viewing it and, particularly, interacting with it. Interaction is weighted more heavily than page views alone. Newly uploaded gigapan images may rank initially higher on this measure than older gigapans because of their newness.

Gigapan is in the process of back-populating Explore Score values for gigapan images uploaded and explored through fall 2012 to work to correct the inequality caused while the Score was not calculating.

Thanks for your patience!

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Taking 2 shots at a time

Worked this one out so if anyone else is having this problem check that youe camera is not set to high speed drive mode but insted make sure its on single frame.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Explore Scores and Other Views

Not certain, but I’d say they implemented a new/modified algorithm late last week. I know one of my suggestions in the past was that making the minimum Explore Score 1 rather than zero would be somewhat less daunting for those who are new to GigaPanning.

What will be genuinely interesting is to see how frequently these new Explore Scores are updated. If they don’t update at least daily I suspect they’ll be as non-functional as the old ones. In any case, I’d still like to see a more open conversation between developers and (power) users about statistics on the site – I think there’s still a lot more they could be doing to make the site more engaging.

Topic: Digital Cameras on Gigapan / Panasonic LUMIX FZ-150 on EPIC 100

I think I have enough parts, but my soldering is anything but pretty. :-/

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Computer setup your using

Hi Alan,

I am a professional photographer so having a computer that can handle photoshop to the max (gigapans especially) is essential.

My suggestion for building a computer for gigapans is this;

i7 processor – this is an absolute must, so much computing power is needed for stitching etc.

ram – as much as you can afford, ive gone with 32gb of ram and am already thinking of upgrading to 64gb.

hard drive – get 3 hard drives, 2 x SSD and 1 by normal 7200rpm. The first SSD is used for windows and photoshop. The 2nd ssd you use solely as a scratch disk for photoshop (this can be set in your preferences). The 3rd you use as a backup for your files.

graphics – most low end graphics card will be fast enough for the gpu needs of photoshop. Dont stress too much about this!

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Explore Scores and Other Views

I see that the last 11 of my GigaPans have explore scores of exactly 1. What’s up with that?

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Computer setup your using

Thanks Dylan I will try that, it does only seem to happen when I try and automate a panorama in photoshop and although microsoft ice does things really quickly it does not always line things up.May have to bite the bullet and get something faster than an i3 processor as would like to use autopano giga 3 or pt gui as they give more control over stitching.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Computer setup your using

if you are using photoshop to edit you images make sure you go into your preferences, go under performance and let photoshop use all the ram on your computer this will help.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Computer setup your using

I was just wondering if people would share what computer setup they are using to create there gigapans as mine is really struggling with large files so would appreciate some input from others on processor, amount of ram graphics card and any other things you can suggest.

Topic: Stitch / misaligned columns

Was this shot as a single row? If it is , your pro may be creeping down on the tripod column. I would rule out the hardware , tripod first , then look at the amount overlap setting on the pro.
I’m thinking about paying a visit to cherry beach when it’s a bit warmer.
Eddie

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Pro battery

Has anyone opened a Gigapan Epic Pro battery, the one with a 5.5mmx2.5mm connector on one side and there must be six NiMh cells enclosed.
I bought an Epic Pro second hand with two batteries, one completely dead and the other almost.
On ebay I found electrical compatible cells (the size maybe wrong), and if I only knew how the housing of the battery pack could be opened without destroying too much I would like to give it a try to exchange the set of cells and close the pack again.

Don’t worry about the electric intricacies, for that I think I am well qualified.
But I would like to pass the real test: the opening of the pack in such a way that it can be reused.

Any clarification is welcome and if possible a picture tells a thousand words.

Topic: Stitch / misaligned columns

I am new to shooting with the Gigapan. I purchased the EpicPro in order to do a particular assignment. But I am routinely having stitching errors where rows are off by just a bit. I have created a low-res crop and indicated the errors. I would love it if someone could tell me what is happening. Thanks!

I am using version 2.1.0160 of Stitch. I am shooting using manual mode and typically at 200mm.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g51hgsp9kn70d7z/Stitc…

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Taking 2 shots at a time

Hi there. I am fairly new to using the gigapan and this question may have come up before on the site but thought i would ask. I have taken a couple of gigapans using the epic pro and a canon 7d camera and what I find is the camera takes the first shot and then is taking 2 shots for every position of the movement from top left to bottom right, at first I thought it was just the sound of the shutter lockup happening but then noticed I had 2 identical shots of eah picture so a 240 shot picture turned into 479 as the first picture taken was only taken once, I dont have bracketing on on the camera and the gigapan is set to normal 1 for the bracket. Any help in figuring this out would be much appreciated, got a lot to learn but with help of people on the site will hopefully be turning out some nice images, although might have to upgrade my computer to cope with them.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Trigger Pro Remotely

Any solution to this yet?

Topic: General Gigapanning / Finding Nodal Point in Canon 100-400mm

Here is how I set the entrance pubil/nodal point (whatever you want to call it) of a Canon EF 100-400mm on the Gigapan Epic Pro with a Canon Rebel t4i.

First, I found the nodal point when the lens is at 400mm zoom is behind the camera body just maybe a bit less than an inch from the back of the camera body.

Well, you can’t set that up with the normal configuration of the Gigapan Epic Pro. So, I took the slide off, turned it around, and put it back on, now the camera mount is at the front of the Gigapan not the back. Then I turned the mount around on the lens and mounted the lens and camera back on the Gigapan. After that I moved the slide forward until end of the slide was about 1/4 inch past the end of the clamp. That’s a bit convoluted to describe so here is a picture of the setup and the left/right shots of a distant light and the aluminum bar of the window:
http://i45.tinypic.com/dxe82e.jpg

I hope the motor can handle all this weight forward of the axis of rotation.

lelapinblanc

Topic: Stitch / Export stitch in high res?

Hi there.

I have downloaded the gigapan stitching trial software, and I just love the stitching results. But it seems to me that the normal workflow is to upload the results to your website. I would prefer to have my stitches stored locally instead. There is a possibility to export stitches into tiff or raw, but the tiff quality is nothing less than horrible.

I am really enjoying the sticher, and would love to buy it when my trial version has run out. But first I need to know if the bought version has better ways of exporting a stitch (or parts of a stitch) in higher quality and preferable directly as jpegs (so I can use them as background images or so my friends can watch them without having to hassle with imaging software).

What I would love to be able to, is to mark out a crop area, and set the desired pixel width and height (and jpg quality) on the output file, and that your software then would do the calculations needed to spit out a jpg file of the desired size and jpg compression.

Can I do anything like that with the full version – or do you have any workaround workflows that would help me obtain somthing like this?

Thanks in advance
(-:Hasse

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Explore Scores and Other Views

Clicking any of the thumbnails now opens a blank page without any error message. MSE 8 on Windows 7.

Topic: General Gigapanning / Printing?

^ No, there isn’t any control once you enable public printing. I think there should be an option to set a “Print Password” on each of your gigapans, or some way for the photographer to regulate print orders. As it is, there is room for abuse:

You set your amazing gigapan to “Public” so your friend can get a print.
I see it and order 10 copies at lab price to sell in my art shop.
I resell the prints as my own work at twice the price.
You never find out, get no compensation, and no credit for your work.

Now I don’t think any of my own gigapans are even worth stealing, but there are some truly amazing gigapans on this website and those members need better control.

[edit] Didn’t mean to sound too alarmist, I’m still super pleased that we have a print service now. =)

Topic: General Gigapanning / Small space advice please

You need to get your camera/lens set up for parallax, otherwise you might not even get past the stitching phase. That involves adjusting the position of the camera so that the X, Y, and Z axis revolve around the entrance pupil of the lens.

You should also find out how much depth of field you have to work with so you can position your camera to get the best focus.

And since you are both new and will be in a hurry, you need a detailed checklist that you follow religiously. I can’t tell you how many times I forgot one little thing and wasted the entire shoot.

Tripod hinges latched – check
Enough space on SD card – check
Autofocus off – check
etc.

If you need more detail on any of these things let me know.
-bkaylor

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Old forum posts ported to this forum?

I whole heartily fourth it. I have a bunch of interesting posts lost on there. Very good information, both historical and of current interest. Please bring it back. I do not feel comfortable investing my time in this new forum if the contents will potentially get flushed…