Recently, British Telecom and partner 360Cities, which specializes in panoramic photos, shot 48,640 individual frames that were digitally collated into a single panorama. Photographers creating a multi-gigapixel image of Seville, Spain were horrified to discover that their shot - composed, as most are, high up in the sky - was being altered by the blowing of the wind.

The process is complicated by the fact that wind, weather, and the simple time it takes to compose the shot can alter the light. Later, all of the shots are 'stitched' together by computer, which attempts to digitally match the edges of each image with its neighbor, producing a composite whose individual pieces blur into and are indistinguishable from each other. In many cases, special robotic mounts are used, carefully exposing shot after shot after moving a predefined period of arc. In the largest gigapixel images, however, these 'small' images may be individual shots made up of 20-megpixel images. Each 'gigapixel' image is carefully composed of possibly thousands of smaller images. By that, of course, I mean gigapixel imagery.Īt this point, save for the gigapixel-class camera that the government is developing (Opens in a new window), gigapixel imagery requires careful planning, an eye for detail, and a lot more work on the back end than you might imagine. But any doubts we might have, living in the age of Photoshop, can be alleviated with the possibilities that digital photography also offers. With the emergence of digital photography, we can't absolutely be certain of the veracity of an image. Twenty years ago, it was a documentary, an indelible record of a snapshot in time. How to Set Up Two-Factor Authenticationįine photography - truly fine photography, the kind you find hanging in galleries, and not adorning the average Web page, is art.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.

Gigapixel photoshop