360 photo light\dark spots?

[Badkitty]

Hello all, new here OBVIOUSLY ....i'm been doing video and photos with my MA2 and just started playing with 360 photos. (Been using Gear 360 (both versions) and Insta360 OneX for a bit now)

My problem is the exposure of each pano shot that the drone takes. Doesn't matter where the sun is, over head mid day or sunset, i keep getting photos with light areas right in the middle of each shot, which when stitched looks horrible.

This is in PTGui, it looks like this after stitching as well.

This first screenshot is with AE on.



This shot is with AE locked


How do i get rid of that light\dark pattern in the middle of each column?

 

[tlswift58]

Shooting in to the sun is NEVER good. Throws the camera way off. You want the sun to the side or behind you.

Best times for any photography - drone, DSLR, etc is close to sunrise and sunset. Mid day is typically horrible unless very overcast.

Know nothing about the software you're using - so no help there.

 

[Badkitty]

Well being a 360 photo, kinda doesn't matter where the sun is lol. I've taken the same 360 photo at midday and sunset and i keep having them come out like that. Those DNG stitches above came straight from the drone into Ptgui. No other software touched them.

I even tried with ND filters just to see if it changed anything. I know the sun will affect the photos facing it's direction or the glare from the sides, but 180degrees away?

 

[Pedro0287]

Pt Guy software is my favorite stitching software for panoramic, i always shoot in manual mode and nevers had problems with my MP. Not sure what happen here but very often i did pano in middle of the day with sunny conditions ...

 

[Badkitty]

The first pic is a 360 pano i just took. I used PTGui on all the DNG files to create this. It's after sunset so no direct sunlight.

I'm still seeing the light to dark pattern. It's brighter in the CENTER of each picture and darker around the edges. It doesn't matter where it's pointing, at the lighter part of the sky or the darker.

View attachment PANO0001 Panorama-2.jpg


The second photo is the auto generated pano from the MA2 , in this the brightness is much more blended, but you can still see the distinct pattern.


View attachment 1 Auto Exp-1.jpg

I still can't figure out why i'm getting this. I can't use these 360s because of this.


Can anyone else help with this?

 

[Meta4]

I still can't figure out why i'm getting this. I can't use these 360s because of this.

Do you have any sort of filter on that lens?

 

[Badkitty]

no. I did use them to test and i still got the same thing. I got a reply back from Mavic support, they said the auto-generated photo looked OK. Wouldn't comment on what 3rd party apps do to photos. Great help.

 

[lilewis]

Have you tried to use manual exposure and keep the 3 settings that affect exposure (shutter speed, ISO, and aperature) constant in all of your pano shots?

 

[Badkitty]

yes...the last pic i posted was completely manual. 80iso 1\80sec. i still see the vignette effect after stitching

 

[Meta4]

yes...the last pic i posted was completely manual. 80iso 1\80sec. i still see the vignette effect after stitching

Can you post the individual images and I'll see if different stitching software makes any difference?
Maybe uploading to Dropbox or similar and post a link.

 

[Chrislaf]

Are you shooting your panos manually or are you using the automated function in a flight app and if so what flight app? It almost seems like your panos don't have enough overlap between the images. Also, what version of PTGui are you using - standard or Pro? The Pro version has more options and can reduce exposure differences between images with tone mapping.

If you post a link like Meta said above. I could try running the images through PTGui Pro and see what happens.

Chris

 

[Badkitty]

i'm using Pro 10, can't afford to get new version right now. but i also tried with the current trial version and it does the same.

Here is a zip of the DNG files. 100_0206.rar

Thanks for your help.

 

[Meta4]

Here is a zip of the DNG files. 100_0206.rar

I can't get that file to un-compress
Can you double check it at your end to see if it works for you?

 

[Badkitty]

ok i'll use winzip...give me a few to upload

 

[Badkitty]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rkkqty8p5agn6cd/PANO0026.zip?dl=0PANO0026.zip try this one

 

[Chrislaf]

i'm using Pro 10, can't afford to get new version right now. but i also tried with the current trial version and it does the same.

Here is a zip of the DNG files. 100_0206.rar

Thanks for your help.

I ran your images through PTGui Pro and the first time it couldn't stitch all the images because the source images are dark so the resulting pano ended up like your second screen shot (stitch lines evident), so I ran it again and this time all of the images stitched and the image below is the result. Other than tone mapping and Exposure compensation applied within PTGui Pro I did not alter the resulting image. I would probably lighten it a bit more.



You still have the light and dark areas in the sky but that is likely the result of the time that the pano was shot. Not sure, maybe Meta has more info to add.

Chris

 

[Badkitty]

I see the pattern in that picture too.

I'm going to reshoot this tomorrow at midday when the sun is at it's zenith...so that it's not in any of the photos. I've done it before but i don't have any of those photos saved.

If you look at the pics in the first post, you can see the sun in one of the photos, yet this pattern continues all the way around, even opposite the sun and has a more pronounced color shift. rrrr...this is bugging me.

After it's stitched, but before creating the pano...you can tell the LIGHT are is in the middle of every shot, not just the sky. The ground is lighter...this is leading me to believe maybe there is something wrong with the camera lens?

Thanks for giving it a go.

 

[Chrislaf]

I see the pattern in that picture too.

I'm going to reshoot this tomorrow at midday when the sun is at it's zenith...so that it's not in any of the photos. I've done it before but i don't have any of those photos saved.

If you look at the pics in the first post, you can see the sun in one of the photos, yet this pattern continues all the way around, even opposite the sun and has a more pronounced color shift. rrrr...this is bugging me.

After it's stitched, but before creating the pano...you can tell the LIGHT are is in the middle of every shot, not just the sky. The ground is lighter...this is leading me to believe maybe there is something wrong with the camera lens?

Thanks for giving it a go.

I have taken panos at sunset with my drones, but I have not not seen this effect in the whole pano - in parts of it yes but not the whole 360 degrees.

Chris

 

[Meta4]

How does this look?
It's only about half the image, done for a test

 

[Meta4]

The problem is that you are using (misusing?) raw image files.
The dng file has uneven shading toward the corners (vignetting) that gets corrected by the camera when you shoot jpg files, or by Adobe software when you open the dng file.
But if you just try to stitch the dng files in software that does not correct the vignetting in each file, it shows up in the stitch like this:

I know that folks on this forum think that everyone should shoot in raw, but I tend to think otherwise.
I get perfectly good professional quality results shooting jpg images for single images and panoramas.

Try assembling one of your panoramas from jpg files (that's what I did in the test above) and see how that works for you.