Paris 26 gigapixels

Intel wrote a case study about the Paris 26 Gigapixels project and the way Kolor used Intel hardware to stitch the image. You can read the report by clicking on the image below.

After the shooting that took place on September 8th, photographer Arnaud Frich developed the RAW files and Kolor is now stitching them. Thanks to its partnership with Intel, Kolor relies on the performance capabilities of Intel® Server System 2600UR and Intel® Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series for the image processing of the Paris 20 Gigapixels project!

Next steps: validation of the stitching, editing, creation of the website.

First of all we would like to thank all those who took part in this project. It took more than one year to get the perfect day: not too hot, not too cold, not too cloudy, not too windy and the most important the right light.

We “climbed” on the top of St Sulpice tower around 9am and we left it at 5pm. So what happened during these 8 hours? We will reveal all the details about the problems we got during the shooting , the stitching and some anecdotes at the end of this adventure. This project already became an adventure for sure ….

We will give you more details about the technical aspects when the panorama will be stitched.

In the meantime enjoy the pictures of that beautiful day.

Shooting day on September 8th, 2009.

Kolor and photographer Arnaud Frich intend to create one of the biggest panoramic image of the world: Paris 20 Gigapixels. This project was announced a few months ago.

Technically, everything is ready to shoot the 2000 images needed to create such a panorama. We are only waiting for the weather. As the event needs to meet all partners’ agendas, the project can only be undertaken during a week-end. All week-ends of November and December were cloudy or rainy in Paris, thus the project is postponed to the next sunny week-end.

As a reminder, Paris 20 Gigapixels will be shot from one of the towers of St Sulpice church, where the viewpoint covers nearly all interesting monuments of Paris.

A profesional filming team from Alter Persona Films agency will cover the event. They already sent us some images of the spotting they did in November :

On the way to the tower roof:

Preview of Paris 20 Gigapixels image:

Arnaud Frich and Kolor tested the panoramic head that will be used to shoot Paris 20 Gigapixels.

Paris 20 Gigapixels will be a stitching of more than 2000 individual photos. The image will be visible on its own website and anyone will be able to zoom in the minor details of the French capital.

The panoramic head was designed specifically for this project. It enables the mounting of 2 SLR cameras so that the shooting will be twice as fast and thus the lightness variations will be minimized.

For the final image, 2 Canon 1DS Mark III will be used, each one with either a 100/400 mm, f/4.5-5.6 lens or a 400mm f/5.6L lens from Canon.

Arnaud Frich and Kolor were awarded last week the 2008 Photo Innovation prize by French telecommunications company SFR (Vivendi), during the international photo meeting of Arles (France).

This prize rewards the project ‘Paris 20 Gigapixels’ that photographer Arnaud Frich and Kolor are planning to undertake this summer. Paris 20 Gigapixels will be world’s biggest assembled panoramic image, with more than 2000 individual photos stitched together.

Here is a presentation video from SFR (in French):

A world record!

Photographer Arnaud FRICH and image stitching experts KOLOR, editor of panorama creation program Autopano Pro, announce their project to shoot Paris in a very high definition. The final image will be a stitching of more than 2000 individual photos and will have a resolution of 20 Gigapixels, that is 20 billion pixels: the biggest assembled panoramic image of the world!

This resolution enables very exciting uses: printing on large supports (the image can be printed on a 6500 sq.ft support whilst keeping an excellent quality!) or online viewing with absolutely amazing deep zooming capabilities.

Gigapixel panoramas ? A habit for Kolor

This is not the first world record achived by Kolor and partner photographers. In August 2006, American photographer Gerard MAYNARD collaborated with Kolor to produce the world record at that time: Harlem 13 Gigapixels. You can have a look at the image and zoom in to see the smallest details of Harlem: http://www.harlem-13-gigapixels.com

Stay tuned!

The project is to be acheived during this summer. You will be able to see the image on this website. Come back often to learn more about the project and be among the firsts to see this beautiful image.