1. A computer-implemented method in a computing environment utilizing a processor and memory for collaging image data, the method comprising: receiving, through a computing network, a first plurality of image data inputs at a first node; intra-node merging portions of the first plurality of image data inputs at the first node forming a first merged image data set; receiving, at the first node, data from a second node about a second merged image data set, the first merged image data set and the second merged image data set represent portions of a common image; communicating, memory-to-memory from the second node to the first node, a portion of the second merged image data for a cross-node merge, wherein the portion of the second merged image data set is not written to the file system memory prior to being communicated to the first node; at the first node, cross-node merging the portion of the second merged data set with the first merged image data set at the first node to form a cross-node merged image data set; and writing the cross-node merged image data set to a file system memory on a computer readable storage media.