About this Gigapixel

This panorama was shot using a special process using a high-resolution camera and a 600mm lens. The location is very unique - while the clock tower at Prague's Old Town Square is accessible on a daily basis to the general public, this vantage point is only available approximately once every thirty years! This was shot from the very top of the scaffolding which was installed on the tower in 2017. This is about 5 stories above the normal observation level on the tower. It was possible to access this place for a period of only three days, so time was very limited, and the weather was not very cooperative, as this was late autumn. It was only on one day that the weather was really decent and reasonably clear, so most of the images used for the final image came from that day (although some images came from other days).

The process of shooting a 360º panorama with a wide angle lens is fairly simple and straightforward; the process of shooting a 360º panorama with a 600mm lens, where the angle of view of a single photo is around 2 degrees, is another matter entirely. The depth of field is one major issue. When focusing on something that is 500 meters away, everything from 400m to 654m away is "reasonably in focus"; closer and farther away than that, and things are not in focus! Making sure that all 8000 source photos are focused properly is a significant challenge with this type of photography. Additionally, there are a lot of issues with the exposure to worry about. All in all, shooting 8000 overlapping images, and combining them into a single, seamless, 900K resolution panoramic photo, is a really serious challenge. All told, this image took over 5 months of full time work to complete.

Commission a gigapixel We will shoot and deliver a specially commissioned spherical gigapixel photo for you to use in connection with your marketing campaign, tourism promotion, etc. It's a great way to generate publicity. Read more here. About 360cities.net We show you the world's most beautiful places in 360°. We publish, license, and distribute the world's largest collection of geolocated panoramic photos, created by our talented community of member photographers. We offer businesses of all sizes a beautiful presence on the Web through our PRO Member photographers. If you want to order panoramic photos or a virtual tour of your business, please contact us. If you are a photographer and you want to publish your own panoramas on 360Cities, you can join us. If you would like to learn more about licensing panoramic photos from 360Cities (or commissioning new ones) for advertising, Film VFX, or stock photography, please contact us.

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