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Gigapan

The picture is of the pioneering photographer Mathew Brady, who recorded many of the images we have of the American Civil War. It is by Thomas Nast, and I found it here, on www.sonofthesouth.net, which is a site concerned with the war and which contains a huge collection of images.

I've been sent a remarkable example of technology. The gigapan image of the recent American inauguration at this link can be resolved down to the level of an individual face. I found one image, to Obama's right and behind, which was a cap and nothing else, with a soldier having been photoshopped in, which I assumed meant that the person in the picture originally had been removed or that there had been some fault in the process. However, the main feeling was how amazing it is that anyone can do what used to be a mysterious, practically arcane process of camera enhancement.

Actually, I wondered if the photo wasn't another argument for traditional education in disciplines that would give minds the wherewithal to use the technology properly. If anyone with access to a computer can all do these amazing things now, then we all need to draw from the history, philosophy, cognitive skills or moral depository that can show us what to do with the technology. I don't mean that in a traditionally academic sense; masters of manual craft can have disciplined minds too, and classically educated people can be fools.

Amazing though, for all that. I wonder how many times the inauguration image will be searched for faces and expressions in the future?

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