360 Panos stitching failures in LightRoom Classic CC

wco81 · Jan 19, 2020

Gotten some good results out of the DNGs I save using the built-in pano mode in DJI Go app (on iOS).

The resulting rectilinear file, when uploaded to 360 hosting sites, look much more vivid and detailed than the JPG the the M2P stitches. Not surprising, the JPG I export from LightRoom Classic is about 400 MB while the one out of the drone is about 10-15 MB.

But LightRoom Classic has been failing to stick all 26 DNG files in some cases. It says x number of images failed to be merged.

Typically these are in situations where some of the photos are shot over a body of water so a number of the files are just images of blue-green water, so the panoramic merge feature of LR Classic probably can't line them up. I do sometimes end up with a very long horizontal pano fro the other files which the software was able to stitch.

Has anyone else run into this?

Or is anyone using other software, such as some dedicated stitching software?

Or maybe using a different app. to shoot the panos, like Lichti? Or maybe shooting the overlapping shots for 360 panos manually?

Chrislaf · Jan 19, 2020

wco81 said:
Gotten some good results out of the DNGs I save using the built-in pano mode in DJI Go app (on iOS).

The resulting rectilinear file, when uploaded to 360 hosting sites, look much more vivid and detailed than the JPG the the M2P stitches. Not surprising, the JPG I export from LightRoom Classic is about 400 MB while the one out of the drone is about 10-15 MB.

But LightRoom Classic has been failing to stick all 26 DNG files in some cases. It says x number of images failed to be merged.

Typically these are in situations where some of the photos are shot over a body of water so a number of the files are just images of blue-green water, so the panoramic merge feature of LR Classic probably can't line them up. I do sometimes end up with a very long horizontal pano fro the other files which the software was able to stitch.

Has anyone else run into this?

Or is anyone using other software, such as some dedicated stitching software?

Or maybe using a different app. to shoot the panos, like Lichti? Or maybe shooting the overlapping shots for 360 panos manually?

I use PTGui to stitch 360 equirectilinear panos. I often have to move images manually especially ones shot over water or add control points manually.

Chris

Not A Speck Of Cereal · Jan 20, 2020

Chrislaf said:
I use PTGui to stitch 360 equirectilinear panos. I often have to move images manually especially ones shot over water or add control points manually.

Chris

Hey Chris, I use PTGui as well, but I've never tried the 'move' trick with sequences that have orphaned frames. Do you save as an unblended and then move the un-aligned images in Photoshop?

rhberg · Jan 20, 2020

I, too, use the moving feature. In PTGui use the "panorama editing window". Click (on the upper left) "edit individual images". Then click the magnifying glass icon to get a new "detail viewer" window layered on top of the editing window. Then it is a matter of identifying the image that needs to be moved. Dragging the panorama in the detail viewer helps to find this, helped by referencing the entire panorama in the editing window (you will sometime have to drag the detail viewer window in order to see the appropriate part of the panorama). Drag that image while using the detail window to get a more precise alignment. Like a puzzle, sometimes the new alignment will require other images to be realigned. When finished, I switch from "edit individual images" back to the default "edit panorama" (next icon to the right) so that I don't mess up my new alignment.

Lots of words, hope this helps.

wco81 · Jan 20, 2020

Yeah I've gotten recommendations for PTGui.

A lot of money so I'll have to think about how much I want to save 360 panos. I've uploaded some to one of the hosting sites, kind of cool to view once or twice.

Not A Speck Of Cereal · Jan 20, 2020

rhberg said:
Lots of words, hope this helps.

Better than not enough. For these kinds of panos, I had been going into the PTGui "control point editor", which is a painstaking process. And it doesn't always work. To think that I could have just grabbed frames and aligned them visually ... because our eyes can see things like wave patterns in the water that are not so easily matched by algorithms looking for high-contrast pixels to place control points at.

Thanks much!

rhberg · Jan 20, 2020

I agree that the control point editor is exasperating, so I avoid it. With things like hard-to-stitch water there is a bit of forgiveness (the errors are subtle), so the moving approach is ok.

Chrislaf · Jan 20, 2020

Like @rhberg has outlined, that is how I manually move my images. Also you can rotate the individual images as well. On a Mac it is either the option or control key - can’t remember which. This is handy if some of the images are ‘tilted’.

I too find the control point editor a pain and only use it if I have well defined features to set control points. One thing I wish PTGui would add is the ability to use the arrow keys to make micro movements. Using the mouse/trackpad for micro movements is next to impossible.
Overall, PTGui is fantastic software and well worth the cost. Support is excellent an quick and the software is constantly updated.

Chris

wco81 · Jan 20, 2020

But is the cost worth it if you are mainly generating 360 panos with the drone and your flying opportunities are relatively limited?

For instance, I don't have any problems with the handheld pano shots I take with my Nikon.

Chrislaf · Jan 20, 2020

wco81 said:
But is the cost worth it if you are mainly generating 360 panos with the drone and your flying opportunities are relatively limited?

For instance, I don't have any problems with the handheld pano shots I take with my Nikon.

Depends on what you are using it for and what you want out of it. It is advanced software with tons of features. You can always try it out and see if it is worth it for you. The trial version has the same features as the paid version. It just puts watermarks over your final output pano, but it will give you an idea of what it does.

Chris

Not A Speck Of Cereal · Jan 20, 2020

Also, PTGui isn't just for 360 panos (I think it wasn't at all when it first started). It is for advanced pano stitching of any kind. After it first aligns the image, it gives you something like a dozen types of projection.

You could advance your Nikon captured panos. Maybe you have, I don't know. Have you tried stitching multi-row panos in an Adobe app? Some with lots of water or sky that could be difficult to stitch? Or astro work -- I haven't tried stitching milky-way stuff in PS.

I also do bokeh panos, which can mean multi-row panos of sometimes up to and over 60 images. I use PTGui and also MS Ice for those. I'm not sure of PS/LR could handle those.

But yeah, you might not want to shell out for PTGui just the Mavic produced 360s.

Chris

rhberg · Jan 20, 2020

To add to Chris' comment, sometimes I use just some parts of the 360. So I just can take a 360 and select the composition of interest from those data.

wco81 · Jan 20, 2020

rhberg said:
To add to Chris' comment, sometimes I use just some parts of the 360. So I just can take a 360 and select the composition of interest from those data.

I do 180 panos too. Want a mix of both.

I like the auto mated shooting too. I would guess doing manually would take longer, use more battery that I would use for something else.