Stitching Several 6x12 Images

[Richard Wasserman]

Please humor me, I am trying to determine the feasibility of an idea I've had. I have no experience with stitching and am a Photoshop kindergartener. I am considering stitching together maybe 6-8 6x12 color photos and printing them as one continuous image several feet long. I use an Imacon Precision III scanner. I am in the market for a new computer anyway—how powerful would I need? Before I thought of this project, I was thinking an IMac. Any software suggestions—Photoshop or is there something better for stitching? I assume if I keep the camera level and squared to the scene and overlap each image I should be OK. Am I missing anything?

[Tin Can]

Not really, but Ram is your friend, so you want max Ram.

I would consider a 5K screen iMac.

But, I bought a PC because they are way cheaper.

[Bob Salomon]

Please humor me, I am trying to determine the feasibility of an idea I've had. I have no experience with stitching and am a Photoshop kindergartener. I am considering stitching together maybe 6-8 6x12 color photos and printing them as one continuous image several feet long. I use an Imacon Precision III scanner. I am in the market for a new computer anyway—how powerful would I need? Before I thought of this project, I was thinking an IMac. Any software suggestions—Photoshop or is there something better for stitching? I assume if I keep the camera level and squared to the scene and overlap each image I should be OK. Am I missing anything?

Overlap should be 30% and watch your exposures so the frames match.

[Richard Wasserman]

Overlap should be 30% and watch your exposures so the frames match.

More overlap than I anticipated—I might need another frame or 2....

So this is doable??

[djdister]

I'm not sure why you would need to stitch more than two together - if you scan a single 6x12 frame at just 2400dpi, you would end up with an image that would print about 3 feet (actually 33") wide. Stitching 6 to eight frames together, even with overlap, would give you an image in the multiple yards category...

Assuming you have a printer that can handle roll paper and print any length, just how wide and how high do you want the print to be?

[Richard Wasserman]

Assuming you have a printer that can handle roll paper and print any length, just how wide and how high do you want the print to be?

I need to stitch multiple negatives together to get the image I want, it can't be done with only 1 or 2 exposures. I haven't thought all this through yet, but I am thinking about prints in the 5-6 foot wide range, maybe longer, by whatever height they work out to. Doing some rough math I'm thinking they will only be about 6 inches tall. I may need to refine my concept a bit...

[Greg Miller]

I need to stitch multiple negatives together to get the image I want, it can't be done with only 1 or 2 exposures. I haven't thought all this through yet, but I am thinking about prints in the 5-6 foot wide range, maybe longer, by whatever height they work out to. Doing some rough math I'm thinking they will only be about 6 inches tall. I may need to refine my concept a bit...

I've done what you are planning (albeit with digital). I stitched 2,000 photos taken from a moving boat. So parallel movement and varying distances from the boat to the shoreline. And shooting for an entire day with constantly changing exposures. End result was a panorama covering 150 miles of shore line (printed to 80 feet). All very doable. The biggest concern I would have is that the auto-stitching softwares available did not handle the stitching very well - I ended up manually stitching it (twice - I had to do both shores of thew river; so 300 miles of shoreline). So you'll probably want to learn some Photoshop skills like Free Transform and layer masking.

Actually by biggest hurdle was layers of buildings, and distant mountains. Areas of buildings (like New York City) are very problematic. The Empire State Building is very tall but also far from the shore. So it appears pretty static while moving parallel to it, while shorter building along the shore will move significantly form frame to frame. Distant mountains behave the same way relative to closer objects.

(shameless pitch; if anyone wants to see the end result they can order a signed copy form my web site)


As for a computer, by far most important is having as much RAM as possible. The more RAM, the faster the processing. I currently use 32 GB on my Photoshop computers, but would complain at having more.

[Richard Wasserman]

I've done what you are planning (albeit with digital). I stitched 2,000 photos taken from a moving boat. So parallel movement and varying distances from the boat to the shoreline. And shooting for an entire day with constantly changing exposures. End result was a panorama covering 150 miles of shore line (printed to 80 feet). All very doable. The biggest concern I would have is that the auto-stitching softwares available did not handle the stitching very well - I ended up manually stitching it (twice - I had to do both shores of thew river; so 300 miles of shoreline). So you'll probably want to learn some Photoshop skills like Free Transform and layer masking.

Actually by biggest hurdle was layers of buildings, and distant mountains. Areas of buildings (like New York City) are very problematic. The Empire State Building is very tall but also far from the shore. So it appears pretty static while moving parallel to it, while shorter building along the shore will move significantly form frame to frame. Distant mountains behave the same way relative to closer objects.

(shameless pitch; if anyone wants to see the end result they can order a signed copy form my web site)


As for a computer, by far most important is having as much RAM as possible. The more RAM, the faster the processing. I currently use 32 GB on my Photoshop computers, but would complain at having more.

Well if you can stitch 2,000 images I guess I can do half a dozen! Thanks, this is encouraging. Any chance your 80 foot prints can be seen anywhere? They must be astounding and I'd love to see them.

[Greg Miller]

Well if you can stitch 2,000 images I guess I can do half a dozen! Thanks, this is encouraging. Any chance your 80 foot prints can be seen anywhere? They must be astounding and I'd love to see them.

Right now they are in storage at the museum. I need tpo make time to get them displayed in more venues.

You can see the museum exhibit at the bottom of this page. This was a very large gallery room in the museum - I think 60 feet across.

[sanking]

Right now they are in storage at the museum. I need tpo make time to get them displayed in more venues.

You can see the museum exhibit at the bottom of this page. This was a very large gallery room in the museum - I think 60 feet across.

Greg,

Wonderful project, and fabulous work in shooting and creating the panorama. I assume you had to do lot of free-hand work in assembling the panorama.

Wonder if you would comment on how the logistical aspects of image capture traveling in a boat.

Sandy