Thanks to the very responsive team at Publiclab.org – Stewart, Jeff and Liz! –  MapKnitter is back up and running exports.  Here’s a before and after version of one student’s work with the balloon photos:

Overall, a fine result, but a few anomalies might bear some experimentation.  For instance, the dropouts toward the top of the north/south path on the left-hand side, and a small faded out area near the bottom left, just above where the east/west and north/south paths join.  If I had to guess, I’d say these were the result of too many overlapping images in those particular sections.  I think I’ll see about thinning out some of the overlaps to see if I can’t get a cleaner export.