Yes, I do so, for seafloor mapping. My biggest one so far consisted of 15.000 images. Unfortunaletly, I can't do them in one step, I need to produce submosaics of up to 250 images and then stitch them together manually after rendering.

Since I reach limits, some exchange of thoughts concerning "extrem photomerging" would be great. Has anyone of you similar experience with photomerge compositions that big?

What hardware would you recommend for maximum photo merge performance (PC only)?

Regards,
Gerhard

While most of your problem is going to be system resources, I doubt that any
one at Adobe ever thought of stitching that many images together at one
time. Probably the way you have been going is still the best option. Thought
with CS4 you may get better end results. I doubt that it can handle that
many images at once. I doubt that Photoshop could handle that many images at
once. I don't think you could have enough computer to handle that many
images at once. Good luck.

Robert

<http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/11/050411fa_fact>

I have found that trying to stitch even 20 images in CS3 taxes resources enough to get the "Photoshop needs to Close" message.

Try PTGui.

"What hardware would you recommend for maximum photo merge performance
(PC only)?"




Heh....More. And something with "massively parallel" in its description.

XD

Sorry. That's all I got.

What hardware would you recommend for maximum photo merge performance
Deep Thought!





Or after reading this amazing story that J Maloney linked to, C64!
<http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/11/050411fa_fact>

<Gerhard_Seiffert@adobeforums.com> wrote in message
news:59b6cc4f.-1@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI...
> Yes, I do so, for seafloor mapping. My biggest one so far consisted
> of 15.000 images. Unfortunaletly, I can't do them in one step, I need
> to produce submosaics of up to 250 images and then stitch them
> together manually after rendering.
>
> Since I reach limits, some exchange of thoughts concerning "extrem
> photomerging" would be great. Has anyone of you similar experience
> with photomerge compositions that big?
>
> What hardware would you recommend for maximum photo merge performance
> (PC only)?
>
> Regards,
> Gerhard

Gerhard,

Not an easy question to answer. What is your budget and what are the
Photoshop's limitations?

Going from there is a matter of finding the hardware to fit. Memory is
the biggest issue, then GPU performance and CPU architecture.
Multi-core is nice for programs designed to use those capabilities but
you need memory and processing speed. Staying away from unrealistic
systems that cost big bucks, I would be looking at a (true) server
class motherboard with all the trimmings.

Price range will vary from around $7K USD (low-end system) to $25K for
a top line system. Of course you can always spend more....or less
depending on what is important to you.

Look at the Dell site and use their system configurator. If a server
is over the top, then a good gaming system with 4 to 8 Gb of memory and
video cards (GPU's) and some fast hard drives will still set you back
an easy $5K or better.

Bob S.

Hi,

that's of course dependend on the image resolution you use. I downsize my seafloor images of course before I use them. Typical sizes are 640x480, 72 or 90 dpi. Still good enough to spot cm-details on a large area.

Thanks for your answers so far,
G

"I doubt that any one at Adobe ever thought of stitching that many images together at one time."

I agree, the expected user for Adobe uses max. 20 images or so, for large scale panoramas of houses, mountains and such.

That might be the reason also, that they "improved" the photomerge function in CS3 in a way to reduce options for manual image placement. I know, it is still possible if you choose "Interactive Layout" but only after PS tries to place the images before. And with seafloor images with lots of "background" and minimal features, the result is simply crap and ends in a chaotic stack of images in wild order. And since the only help I have is the image name and the linear placement in the image tray in CS2, I can't use CS3 for initial stitching.

In CS2, if you uncheck the "Attempt..." option, it simply puts the images in the tray from where I can grab them in the order they were shot on the seabed. and look for overlapping features.

Does CS4 allow this again, like in CS2? Maybe someone could try?

Thanks,
G

In case someone with Photoshop product responsibilities reads this, I would appreciate some "official" feedback very much. I know, I might be a freak in the way I use photomerge but still it might be an interesting change of thoughts...

In case someone here owns a "max performance" PC (64-bit) and would like to try a merge, I could send images, let me know. Just a question... In case of positive results I could use that for convincing my bosses to invest in hardware :-)

Regards,
Gerhard