Our Technique

We often get asked how VAST photos have resolutions that are orders of magnitude greater than the resolutions of the best digital cameras ever made...
We create the highest definition images ever made by seamlessly stitching together many individual photos of a scene. Each individual photo that contributes to the final VAST photo is only a small section of the scene and is only a few dozen megapixels. However, after all of the individual photos are compiled together into a single final image, the result is a photo of the entire scene with a resolution that can be thousands of megapixels.
Example of the stitching technique for creating very high resolution VAST photos using photo of sunrise Manhattanhenge in New York City
The "panorama mode" on your phone camera is similar.
However, phone cameras use lenses that have very wide angles of view and thus only require a few images (taken while you're panning your phone) to capture an entire scene. On the other hand, we use lenses that can be more than 10 times as zoomed in. This means that a panorama photo that would have required your phone to take 3 images, requires us to take 300. And, as you can imagine, 300 50-megapixel images from a very high-end professional DSLR camera results in a dramatically more impressive photo than 3 8-megapixel images from a poor-quality phone camera.
Size comparison of photo types showing the very high resolution large format print sizes of VAST photos

We are perfectionists

We ensure that every step in the creation process is flawlessly executed to guarantee that the final VAST photo is the highest quality.
  • Every individual image that contributes to the final VAST photo is exposed in the exact same manner in order to prevent incorrect color shifts between sections of the final photo. This requires more than just using the same aperature, shutter-speed, and ISO settings. We also use techniques like physically locking our apertures and carefully adjusting circular lens filters.
  • Given that it takes some time to expose the matrix of images required for a VAST photo, we give great thought to how a scene is evolving (e.g which direction the clouds are moving) in order to determine the best order to take the images.
  • We are very careful with the demosaicing algorithms we use to convert the raw image data from our camera sensors into visible images. This is because we need to ensure a consistent reproduction of luma values across the entire final photo.
  • We use advanced software to stitch the images together, making careful determinations for what geometric projection method to use for the most pleasing final result with the least distortion.
Very high resolution camera equipment, gimbal, and tripod made by Really Right Stuff, Manfrotto, and Canon 5Ds

The Gear Matters

We use a lot of advanced gear in the creation process.
  • We use specially-made gimbal mounts for our cameras that enable us to adjust the point in space our cameras rotate around as we expose the matrix of images. We do this so that the camera's perspective on the scene remains precisely the same between shots. This prevents parallax shift that would otherwise cause asymmetries between images.
  • We use the best prime lenses and cameras available. Most of us shoot using the leading 200mm-800mm prime lenses and the latest high-megapixel (30-100 megapixels) 35mm and medium-format image sensors. As a result, VAST photos are strikingly devoid of typical adverse optical artifacts such as chromatic aberration and lens flare.
  • We use extremely powerful, custom-built, liquid-cooled supercomputers that have enough horsepower to efficiently process huge volumes of image data. A single raw VAST photo alone can be tens of gigabytes in size and take many hours to render.
  • The entire creation process from capture to edit to print is executed using a finely-tuned, color calibrated workflow. We use only the best wide gamut monitors to ensure the most accurate, vibrant, consistent, and flawless colors are revealed in a final print.
Autopano Giga software made by Kolor being used to create and stitch a very high resolution VAST photo
Extreme computing power:
  • The computing power needed to create a VAST photo is immense. We custom build our own computers from the ground up becuase you quite simply can't buy pre-made computers that are powerful enough. A single one of our computers is more powerful than a dozen high-end MacBook Pro computers combined. Here are specs for one of the computers we use:
CPUIntel Core i7-5960X:  8-cores/16-threads
Overclocked Speed5.1 GHz
Memory128GB DDR4
Solid State Cache Drive1 TB PCIe SSD @ 3500 MBps
Hard Drives12 TB RAID-5 Array @ 830 MBps
Video CardNVIDIA GTX 970
CoolingCORRSAIR H110 Extreme Performance Liquid Cooling
Monitor31" @ 4096x2160

Printing, Mounting, & Framing

Our focus on perfection doesn't stop once we have the final VAST photo image file.
We want to ensure the highest quality all the way through to the final wall artwork. Therefore, we have developed a custom printing, mounting, and framing process to create VAST prints - the highest quality ready-to-hang photographic displays ever created.

Learn about VAST prints  

Your wall wants one.

Explore the Gallery