What software would appropriate for tonemapping a 5 gigapixel image?

Question

I've shot a 5 gigapixel 360 degree panorama, totaling around 1400 shots in a -1.3-0-+1.3 bracket, and I'm trying to stitch it and tone map it. So far I've managed to decently assembled the panorama in Autopano Giga and render it a few times, but I'm unable to tonemap the resulting image. I'd rather not tonemap before stitching as this has the potential to create uneven exposures, particularly across a 360 degree panorama.

Steps I've tried:

• Exporting a .psb with layers - Photoshop's tone mapping won't deal with this
• Exporting a .hdr and tonemapping with Photomatix - Photomatix tries to save the .tiff as but this results in a file over the 4gb limit which is corrupt
• Exporting individual .tiff files and merging with Photomatix - Photomatix crashes immediately after (apparently) finishing the merge to HDR.

Note that I have Photoshop, Autopano Giga and Photomatix Pro available currently, and possibly more from my university. I'm a fan of Photomatix's control and the resulting images but it seems unable to handle such large images.

What software would appropriate for tonemapping an image this large?

Answer 1

It turns out I manged to find a way to tonemap this monster of an image. Theoretically this should work for any image size up to 300000x300000 (90GP), which is the maximum supported by Photoshop. Of course, a full 360x180 panorama would end up as 300000x150000 (45GP). Either way, most likely not on anyone's radar, even mine. I suspect at those resolutions a dedicated panoramatic head is required, and its associated stitching software.

Onto the procedure!

1. Export from Autopano Giga in Radiance HDR format. I tried a few different options but in the end Radiance HDR provided the best compatibility in the next step. Time: ~12 hours
2. Using VIPS, transform this .hdr into a BigTIFF file. This is done using the vips tiffsave command, which takes HDR but not OpenEXR (the two 32-bit formats supported by Autopano). Time: ~15 minutes
3. Open the .tiff in Photoshop. Save as a .psb immediately. Time: ~1 hour

Overall, not a particularly involved process when you get it down. Unfortunately, it turns out that there was only one combination of likely hundreds of image processing programs and libraries, and file formats, which is capable of this. I expect to make more panoramas in this format, and most likely in the same size (using the same 135mm/3.5 prime lens), and so far this seems reliable enough on my system. I'll edit this answer later to show the completed panorama.

Answer 2

_1. Merge to 32-bit HDR all 1400 bases

If you are only Tone Mapping (not fusing) in Photomatix I would suggest to merge to 32-bit HDR all 1400 bases first, since memory-wise a 32-bit HDRI is handled more economic in Photomatix than 3 LDRIs.

If your bracketed sets contain proper EXIF information I don't expect any exposure differences since Photomatix reads the EXIF data to retrieve the EV of each image.

• Photomatix 'Batch Bracketed Photos'
• Check 'Create 32-bit unprocessed merged file'
• Output as .hdr or .exr
• Check 'Skip HDR processing' (!) to skip any tone mapping / LDR output

_2. Stitch 3 low-res panoramas

• Stitch the 0EV base images (JPG, TIF, not RAW) in PTGui/Autopano first
• Output a low-resolution panorama, maybe as TIFF 8-bit
• Stitch the -1.3 and +1.3 images by applying the 0EV-stitching template (strg +T in PTGui)

_2.A Merge 3 panorams to 32-bit HDRI

• If you like and the RAM your machine offers allows it, you could merge the low-res panoramas to an 32-bit HDR image (hdr, exr)

_3. Find Tone Mapping setting you like using 3 low-res panoramas

• Tone Map the three low-res panoramas (2.) or the 32-bit panorama (2.A) to find a setting you like in Photomatix
• DO NOT check the 360 Degree option in Photomatix since you will be using these settings for the bases
• Save the Tone Mapping settings as preset/xml in Photomatix Pro

_4. Tone Map bases using the settings

• Tone map the 1400 32-bit bases from (1.) in Photomatix' batch using the preset/xml from previous step (3.)

_5. Stitch high-res panorama

• Create empty project in Autopano/PTGui
• Load the tone mapped bases from previous step (4.)
• Apply the 0 EV template project
• Save stitched gigapano as flattened PSB, 8-bit, no packbits

I only use PTGui, but I assume Autpano has the same possibility to apply a template project to loaded images of a panorama. So please replace 'PTGui' with 'Autopano';-)

Answer 3

With many of these suggested Programs you can ToneMap RAW unstitched Images and get a perfect result, that's the whole point (ease and exact results, indistinguishable from a single Photo).

Its been a while since I've used some of these Tools I'm suggesting, sometimes Bugs creap in an wreck the Feature you specifically downloaded for so YMMV. These are either free or have free Trials.

My Favorite (and I am recommending it both as a great Program and as your answer) is PTGui (many Updates since I last used it): https://www.ptgui.com/hdrtutorial.html - Uses GPU(s) and multiple CPU Cores for fast processing.

If you want to look further (don't know why) then I also (last I tried it) liked EasyHDR.

See: http://alternativeto.net/software/easyhdr-pro/ for EasyHDR and suggested (by that Website) alternatives, it can do LDR (single image).

Also look at the List at: http://wiki.panotools.org/HDR_and_Tonemapping_dialogs_in_detail which is a Wiki page from one of my favorites 'Pano Tools' - it lists the Features of various competitors (some of which can 'Stitch and ToneMap', what you want).

Most of those will chew up and spit out your puny Image collection, some don't go quite that big (but I've no control over what those Links suggest, only to offer that I've used some of the ones that others have suggested).

You really want a Program that supports multiple GPUs to speed up the calculations.