By Raffy Paredes Panorama tools allow photographers to combine hundreds of photos together to create gigapixel landscapes—but what about macro? A group of photographers at the SIGGraph Conference, led by Gene Cooper, recently crafted a macro photo that’s 1053.07 gigapixels or more than a terapixel, a world first for macro photography. That’s 1,053,070 megapixels, enough to print the image as 1/4 mile long and still have an excellent resolution. The image is of a mosaic created with food items, which took five days for the conference attendees to assemble. Combining the 629,370 images along with edits like focus stacking took a total of 2,187 hours—or about three months straight editing without stopping to sleep. The full image is available for scouring online. Just google Terabite: World’s First Terapixel Macro Photograph. And the creators even hid several non-food items as Easter eggs to find (digitaltrends.com). A group of researchers from the University of Illinois joined forces with a team from Intel to develop a neural network that is able to perform post-processing enhancements on extreme low-light photographs. The AI is able to make photographs (that are otherwise pitch black or full of noise) look clean and colorful. The researchers created a SID (See-in-the-dark) data set, a group of over 5,000 short exposure images in RAW format and passed it over to a deep learning system. The AI was trained to compare the information within the low light images to the information of photographs taken at longer exposure. The AI is important in this aspect as it can, theoretically, be optimized to provide real-time image processing. In the future, we might see this AI used to develop devices that would allow us to see in the dark perfectly (techthelead.com). Data analysis shows the biggest takeaways from Flickr’s top 25 photos for 2017 are: Adobe is a clear winner again this year when it comes to software for post-processing images. Color photographs are the most dominant, to be precise 96 percent of the images (24/25) are color. Long exposures are on the increase with nine shots coming under this category. two panorama shots have made their way into the top 25 and both were images combined to create a picture of the Milky Way galaxy. Portraiture has not made it to the top 25 this year, which may well be suggesting that one needs to be mindful of perfect composition, lighting and postprocessing techniques to create an outstanding portrait (lightstalking.com). And now to our featured readers. Angelica Rita Bernales shares her photo titled “Nightfall.” “I took it because I love its fetching image,” writes Angelica. “And its essence that not all endings are painful, some endings in life can also be ravishing. All we have to do is to look at its brighter side. Every photo for me has a story to tell, has a deeper meaning.” From Elena Taeza is the photo, “Kidlat.” She writes: “Sharing  my first kidlat shot taken in Malolos (startrail po sana  pero swerte na-capture ang kidlat). The cityscape sunset photo “Set at 6:10” comes from 18-year-old hobbyist photographer, Angelo Rosales. He shares: “I was invited to attend a debut party of my friend at the Bayleaf Intramuros Hotel. It was my first time to enter that hotel and I have heard so much about its roof deck. Some of my friends said that it would be a good overlooking area for Manila and Intramuros. When we arrived, the party had not started yet, so, I and my dad had the chance to see the roof deck ourselves. At the right time and moment, the sun started to set. I got my camera and started photographing the scenery. Sunsets for me are very magical. Each sunset has its own beauty and story. As per Kristen Butler, it is a proof that no matter what happens, everyday can end up beautifully.” Rudielee Gadiano sent in the landscape photo, “Layers.” “This photo was taken at Mt. Kabugbugan also known as Mt. Puraw in Bauang, La Union,” relates Rudielee. “It isn’t every day that we are welcomed by skies that look like they’re painted for us. From portraits, I started to shoot landscapes now because it is pretty amazing how He can create these wonderful things.” Public school teacher/traveller/photographer Mark Wynn Combo from Cardona, Rizal submitted the photo, “A Gadgetless Day.” His description reads: This is how kids in Cardona, Rizal spend their summer vacation, playing with their burador (local term for kite). “Whenever I go to the beach, I make sure that I do not miss the sunset,” writes Japol Oroña who shares an untitled photo of a sunset with silhouettes of people flying a kite. “There’s nothing like a beautiful sunset to end a wonderful day,” he adds. Justin Reyes contributed the black-and-white photo titled “Shadowed Faith.” He shares: “I love to play and capture shadows especially when there’s enough source of natural light. I took this photo last Palm Sunday at our local church.” The photo, “Bangui Windmills” comes from Mark Fitz Borre. He writes: “Catching the first light in Ilocos during the Holy Week. Woke up early just before the sunrise.” Chak Ian Flores sent in “Sayaw ng Bati.” The photo was taken at last Easter Sunday’s “Salubong” in Angono, Rizal. The “Sayaw ng Bati” is a tradition of the town. And from Kyle Cezanne Francisco is an untitled photo of what people in his community endure on rainy days.   Readers may now view issues of Picture Perfect including this column at www.mb.com.ph. For comments, suggestions or just to share an image or idea, email [email protected] or [email protected].