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Zoom in on faces in this high-rez photo of Inauguration crowd

7:02 AM Sat, Jan 24, 2009 |
By Sheila Lennon    Email this author |   Email this entry

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How I Made a 1,474-Megapixel Photo During President Obama's Inaugural Address by NYC photographer David Bergman.

I made a panoramic image showing the nearly two million people who watched President Obama's inaugural address. To do so, I clamped a Gigapan Imager to the railing on the north media platform about six feet from my photo position. The Gigapan is a robotic camera mount that allows me to take multiple images and stitch them together, creating a massive image file.

My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.

Use the controls to zoom and pan around the photo. You can also double click to zoom in and double click again to get even closer.

Here's a direct link to the full-screen photo from which to start zooming.

How good is it?

In this screenshot made after I zoomed into the crowd are 4 former presidents, 5 first ladies, 2 vice presidents and Aretha Franklin -- a once in a lifetime moment. See it double this size by clicking on it.


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Former Vice President Dick Cheney is off to Former President George W. Bush's right, in the aisle in a wheelchair.

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At the moment this photo was taken, Obama was giving his speech from the jutting semicircular balcony by the bottom bunting.

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3 Comments

TimmyB said:

Incredible! That's one of the most amazing things I've seen. I couldn't help but to think this would be a great tool for law enforcement. Thanks for sharing.

Link | January 24, 2009 10:07 AM
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Sheila Lennon said:

It looks so candid -- no one is aware of the camera. The new President is speaking, and they're applauding, or not.

The photographer said Yo-Yo Ma is taking a picture in this photo. I finally found him, and an applauding Itzhak Perlman, in the foreground of the section of red band uniforms on the top level, above the red arch.

Link | January 25, 2009 12:05 AM
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Phil P said:

What an amazing picture! Looking around the crowd is addicting! You can even see the music sheets for the band. Try finding the rows of portable bathrooms, tent-like rooms on the roof of a distant building, and people sitting on a street bench. It's like a "Where's Waldo" game with the inauguration!

Link | January 25, 2009 6:50 PM
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