A gigapixel photograph is an ultra-high-resolution image that contains at least one billion pixels, or the equivalent of 1,000 photos captured by a 1-megapixel digital camera. Gigapixel photos can be created by shooting hundreds or thousands of individual photos of a scene, generally with the help of a robotic camera mount that automatically moves the camera and triggers exposures. The photos are then typically loaded into specialized software that can automatically "stitch" the images together into a single high-resolution panorama. Gigapixel photography is usually employed in landscape and cityscape photos, though it also has uses in other niches such as macro photography to capture tiny details of small subjects. These are sometimes called "gigamacros."
Matt Growcoot
Two Photographers Create Magnificent Gigapixel Image of Annular Solar Eclipse
With less than a month to go before the 2024 total solar eclipse, astrophotographers Andrew McCarthy and Dan Stein have released a gigapixel image of last year's annular solar eclipse.
Matt Growcoot
Photographer’s Epic Gigapixel Photo of Huge Concert Hides 3 Waldos
A photographer has created a stunning four-gigapixel, super-high-resolution photo of a vibrant Rammstein concert featuring 55,000 revelers and three Where's Waldos.
Jaron Schneider
EarthCam’s New X1 Shoots 4K and Creates 5 Billion Pixel Panoramas
EarthCam, makers of rugged and wireless enclosures for the purposes of outdoor streaming video or timelapse, has announced the X1 system that is capable of capturing 4K video and creating five billion pixel panoramic images.
Jeremy Gray
Photographers Made an Incredible 114-Gigapixel Tour of Barcelona
George Palov and Michael von Aichberger collaborated to create an impressive 114-gigapixel virtual tour of Barcelona, Spain, complete with tagged landmarks, camera information, and controls for exploration.
Jaron Schneider
New Gigapixel 3D Microscope Camera Captures Life in Incredible Detail
A group of researchers has created a new type of camera microscope that is able to capture gigapixel-scale images of extremely small subjects, allowing for a detailed and unprecedented view of life.
Matt Growcoot
Can You Find the X? Photographer’s Gigapixel Images Contain Hidden Code
A promotional campaign has used a photographer's gigapixel images to hide an X containing a code that could win you a cruise.
Jaron Schneider
3,200 Megapixels: The World’s Largest Camera is Almost Complete
Researchers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are nearly done with the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera, the world's largest digital camera ever built for astronomy.
Matt Growcoot
Gigapixel Photo of Burning Man Shows Desert Festival in Extreme Detail
Photographer Jamen Percy shot a mind-boggling gigapixel photo of this year's Burning Man festival held in the Nevada desert.
Jaron Schneider
Lab to Create 1,600-Gigapixel ‘Digital Twin’ of 1893 Panoramic Painting
An EPFL lab is preparing to digitize The Panorama of the Battle of Murten, a 100 by 10-meter painting created in 1893 by Louis Braun, in an undertaking that will yield one of the largest digital images ever made.
Matt Williams
The Best Plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom in 2024
Photoshop and Lightroom are mainstays in most photographers’ workflows for a reason. While other options abound, no other set of programs matches the popularity and widespread adoption of Adobe’s signature photography software. But while Photoshop’s manipulation capabilities and Lightroom’s processing and editing power are certainly robust, both offer even more power beyond the software itself in the form of plugins.
Jaron Schneider
Gigantic 360-Degree Panorama of Barcelona is a Staggering 45 Gigapixels
Photographer Jeffrey Martin has been creating massive gigapixel photos for the better part of a decade. His latest is an enormous 45-gigapixel photo of Barcelona that provides incredible detail of one of Europe's most beautiful cities.
Jaron Schneider
Canon Captures 4.2-Gigapixel Photo of Priceless Japanese Artwork
The Japanese Cultural Heritage Inheritance Project partnered with Canon to make a visually identical copy of an ancient and priceless piece of Japanese art by combining a 4.2-gigapixel photo with the skills of artisans who practice ancient techniques.
Jaron Schneider
This 717-Gigapixel Photo is the Highest-Res Ever Captured of Artwork
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has released an interactive photo of The Night Watch painting by Rembrandt in a staggering resolution of 717-gigapixels. The museum claims it is the highest resolution photo of artwork ever captured.
Jaron Schneider
EarthCam Collabs with Sony in New All-Weather High-Res Timelapse Rigs
EarthCam, which recently made waves when it took the largest photo ever captured of New York City, has launched two additional high-resolution timelapse camera rigs that use a Sony Alpha 7R Mark IV at their core.
Jaron Schneider
Massive 2.2 Gigapixel Photo of the Milky Way Was Taken in Just 4.5 Hours
Accomplished astrophotographer Bartosz Wojczyński has created a gigantic 2.2 gigapixel photo of the Milky Way that he was able to capture in just one night, which is an astounding achievement given that a similar 1.7 gigapixel photo took another photographer 12 years to complete.
Jaron Schneider
This 120 Gigapixel Photo is the Largest of New York City Ever Taken
EarthCam recently unveiled the GigapixelCam X80, which is a robotic camera that can produce more than 80,000-megapixel panoramas. To prove it, the company used the X80 to make the highest resolution photo of New York ever captured: 120,000-megapixels.
Michael Zhang
This $22,000 Photobook of the Sistine Chapel Was Made with 270,000 Photos
If you're always on the hunt for limited edition photobooks and have ultra-deep pockets and bookshelves, here's one for your collection: the The Sistine Chapel. It's a giant $22,000 trilogy that contains views of the Sistine Chapel's art captured in gigapixel glory through 270,000 individual photos.
Jaron Schneider
This Insane 2.5 Gigapixel Image of the Orion Constellation Took Five Years To Complete
In a project that took 5 years to capture, 500 hours of editing, and 42 total hours to process, astrophotographer Matt Harbison has completed a dream started in 2013: capturing, processing, and making available an incredibly detailed 2.5 gigapixel photo of the Orion Constellation.
DL Cade
The Curiosity Mars Rover Just Captured Its Highest-Resolution Panorama Ever
NASA's Curiosity Rover has just sent back the highest-resolution panorama its ever captured of the Martian surface. Made up of nearly 1,200 individual images stitched together, the 360° panorama weighs in at a whopping 1.8 billion pixels, AKA 1.8 gigapixels.
DL Cade
YouTuber Used AI to Upscale a Classic 1896 Short Film to 4K and 60fps
YouTuber Denis Shiryaev used publicly available AI-based technology to take a grainy, low-resolution short film from the year 1896 and upscale it all the way to 4K and 60 fps. The results, while not perfect, are downright astonishing.
Michael Zhang
This is a 7.3-Gigapixel ‘Timelapse’ of London
The UK contact lens retailer Lenstore has released a 7.3-gigapixel "timelapse" of London. Titled 24 Hour London, the images show a view of England's capital city over a period of 24 hours in February 2018.
Jeff Cremer
How I Created a 16-Gigapixel Photo of Quito, Ecuador
A few years ago, I flew out to Ecuador to create a high-resolution image of the capital city of Quito. The final image turned out to be 16 gigapixels in size and at a printed size of over 25 meters (~82 feet), it allows people see jaw-dropping detail even when viewed from a few inches away.
Michael Zhang
This Lightning Photo is 5.45 Gigapixels
Gigapixel photos and lightning photos are generally created two different ways. One requires a mosaic of photos stitched together, and the other is usually a wide-angle view that's exposed at the moment of a lightning strike. That's what makes photographer Dan Piech's image "The Hand of Zeus" so amazing: it's a 5.449-gigapixel photo of a lightning strike in New York City.
DL Cade
Bentley’s New 57.7 Gigapixel Ad is the World’s Highest Res Landscape Photo
Bentley has captured what they're calling "the world's most detailed landscape photo": a 57.7 gigapixel interactive ad stitched together from 1,825 individual frames captured from atop one of the tallest towers in Dubai.
DL Cade
Explore a Zoomable 360° Gigapixel Photo of the Trump Inauguration
Using gigapixel technology, CNN managed to capture an ultra-high res, interactive, 360° photograph of the presidential inauguration on Friday—a great way to explore the crowd in detail and maybe (just maybe) spot yourself in the crowd.
Michael Zhang
Bentley Used NASA Tech to Create This 53-Gigapixel Car Photo
Check out this photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's no ordinary photo: Bentley calls it "the world's most extraordinary car photograph." Why? Because it's a 53-gigapixel photo that you can zoom waaay into.
Michael Zhang
Astronomers Unveil a 46-Gigapixel Photo of the Milky Way That Took 5 Years to Make
Last year, NASA released a 20-gigapixel photo of the Milky Way that was made up of over 2 million infrared photos. Back in January, NASA published a 1.5-gigapixel photo of the Andromeda Galaxy. If you thought those were big photos, get this: German astronomers have created the largest astronomical photo ever made: a ridiculously big 46-gigapixel photo of the Milky Way that took 5 years to make.
Michael Zhang
365-Gigapixel Panorama of Mont Blanc Becomes the World’s Largest Photo
Say hello to the new largest photo in the world. An international team led by photographer Filippo Blengini has published a gigantic panoramic photograph of Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain. This new record-holding image weighs in at a staggering 365 gigapixels.
Michael Zhang
The World’s Largest and Most Powerful Camera Gets Funding for 3.2-Gigapixel Sky Photos
The world's largest camera is now one step closer to becoming a reality. The 3.2-gigapixel camera being built for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) in Chile has secured the funding it needs to ensure it will go into operation according to schedule.
Michael Zhang
What 100 Million Stars Looks Like: NASA Releases a 1.5 Gigapixel Photo of the Andromeda Galaxy
NASA has released the largest and sharpest photograph ever made of the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest spiral galaxy to ours that contains an estimated 1 trillion stars. The new image (above is a crop showing a portion of it) weighs in at 1.5 gigapixels (i.e. 1.5 billion pixels); it's so big that you would need 600HD televisions to display the entire digital photo.
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