Are panoramas adjustable?

[MavicKhan]

I am currently traveling through Sardignia and, given how normal UAV rules and restrictions are, in Italy, it is the first I've taken my Air 3 out of my own country.

(...Last year, we traveled to New Zealand and after some good help from fellow forum members, here, I came to the very sad conclusion that it wouldn't be worthwhile taking the drone there given how draconian and restrictive drone rules are in that country).

The Air 3 is certainly enhancing our enjoyment of this beautiful Mediterranean island, but I’m a bit puzzled about the panorama mode.

When I start a 180° panorama, the first thing the gimbal does is level out, then it proceeds to take as many vertical exposures above the horizon as it does below (in addition to the horizontal sweep, of course).

The result is that the panorama ends up with far too much sky, whereas everything of interest is typically below the horizon.

Is there any way to adjust this behavior so that the panorama is more balanced, perhaps closer to the rule of thirds?

Thank you in advance for any replies.


MK

 

[Meta4]

The result is that the panorama ends up with far too much sky, whereas everything of interest is typically below the horizon.
Is there any way to adjust this behavior so that the panorama is more balanced, perhaps closer to the rule of thirds?

If you want to use the automated panorama feature, you can always crop the resulting panorama.
Or for more creative control, you can shoot panoramas manually in whatever way you like and stitch them yourself instead of the limited options that the built-in feature has.

 

[wco81]

I am currently traveling through Sardignia and, given how normal UAV rules and restrictions are, in Italy, it is the first I've taken my Air 3 out of my own country.

(...Last year, we traveled to New Zealand and after some good help from fellow forum members, here, I came to the very sad conclusion that it wouldn't be worthwhile taking the drone there given how draconian and restrictive drone rules are in that country).

The Air 3 is certainly enhancing our enjoyment of this beautiful Mediterranean island, but I’m a bit puzzled about the panorama mode.

When I start a 180° panorama, the first thing the gimbal does is level out, then it proceeds to take as many vertical exposures above the horizon as it does below (in addition to the horizontal sweep, of course).

The result is that the panorama ends up with far too much sky, whereas everything of interest is typically below the horizon.

Is there any way to adjust this behavior so that the panorama is more balanced, perhaps closer to the rule of thirds?

Thank you in advance for any replies.


MK

Does your Air 3 have a C1 CE label? Did it come with it when you purchased it presumably in Portugal?

Yeah to add to what Meta 4 says, I've heard that third party apps like Lichti has configurable panoramas. However it appears DJI isn't publishing SDKs for the drones released in the last couple of years so it appears you either shoot manually or crop after stitching in a program like Lightroom.

I visited Portugal in 2022, hoping to shoot around Cascais and Cabo da Roca. I got permissions from AAN.

But it got very windy when I was there, not too much blue sky either.

Then I went to Algarve and managed to shoot maybe once down there because it was also windy there.

Had some better luck shooting in Porto and Douro Valley.

 

[Fizzbang]

You need to adjust the drone height to suit the horizon.
Start at a low height to include more ground.
Start at a high height to have more sky.

 

[DougMcC]

I have had great success with an App called Panovolo which is represented here on the forum. I don’t have any association but I am a happy user. I shoot in DNG and the drone then produces a JPG Panorama. Usually 21 shots are taken. Yes, I then point PanoVolo at the folder with the 21 DNG raw images and it will create a DNG raw or a Tiff pano. There is a good review of the inexpensive but very useful application at fstoppers.com August 10, 2024. There is a free trial period. And, yes I usually crop the desired image from the inside of the panorama.
Recently a panorama I shot in Long Beach is now a 7 feet by 21 feet image with wonderful detail and color.

 

[wco81]

The main issue with the built in panorama in my M2P is that the 180 degree panos are too wide, so you have curving, unless you are some distance from the horizon.

So while you can crop, if you for instance flew out over the water from the coast over the ocean or a lake, shooting back at the coastline results in a curvature.

So you'd have to fly way out to get a pano of the coastline which isn't artificially curved.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Try shooting a 360 sphere, settings to save the individual pictures.

You'll then have 3 rings of images, the bottom one might meet your needs... stitch the images you want to make any width pano (120°, 180°, etc.)

If the bottom ring is angled too far down, you can stitch together images from the lower and middle rings, then crop.

 

[wco81]

Try shooting a 360 sphere, settings to save the individual pictures.

You'll then have 3 rings of images, the bottom one might meet your needs... stitch the images you want to make any width pano (120°, 180°, etc.)

If the bottom ring is angled too far down, you can stitch together images from the lower and middle rings, then crop.

Only issue with that is it's not easy to pick out which images are the bottom ring.

You have a lot of sky and a lot of water depending on where you shoot.

 

[MavicKhan]

You need to adjust the drone height to suit the horizon.
Start at a low height to include more ground.
Start at a high height to have more sky.

I love photography and have been into it for nearly 25 years now.

(...in fact I almost use my A3 for photography and very rarely do video...)

What you suggest is, indeed, a solution. However, it suffers from the same problem from the old discussion regarding prime lenses vs. zooms, in Photography, when people who favor primes say "just zoom with your feet".

You see, the problem with lowering the drone height is that the perspective changes.

This is specially problematic when doing aerial photography because the various elements composing the scene may stretch in multiple layers all the way down to the horizon.

MK

 

[MavicKhan]

I have had great success with an App called Panovolo which is represented here on the forum. I don’t have any association but I am a happy user. I shoot in DNG and the drone then produces a JPG Panorama. Usually 21 shots are taken. Yes, I then point PanoVolo at the folder with the 21 DNG raw images and it will create a DNG raw or a Tiff pano. There is a good review of the inexpensive but very useful application at fstoppers.com August 10, 2024. There is a free trial period. And, yes I usually crop the desired image from the inside of the panorama.
Recently a panorama I shot in Long Beach is now a 7 feet by 21 feet image with wonderful detail and color.

Will try this, for sure. Thanks!

MK

 

[MavicKhan]

Does your Air 3 have a C1 CE label? Did it come with it when you purchased it presumably in Portugal?

Yeah to add to what Meta 4 says, I've heard that third party apps like Lichti has configurable panoramas. However it appears DJI isn't publishing SDKs for the drones released in the last couple of years so it appears you either shoot manually or crop after stitching in a program like Lightroom.

I visited Portugal in 2022, hoping to shoot around Cascais and Cabo da Roca. I got permissions from AAN.

But it got very windy when I was there, not too much blue sky either.

Then I went to Algarve and managed to shoot maybe once down there because it was also windy there.

Had some better luck shooting in Porto and Douro Valley.

Yes, my A3 has the C1 marking.

Flying in Portugal, it is important people understand that the AAN (a Portuguese Airforce body) just issues authorizations for the image retrieval part of the flight.

All other matters related to drone flying are regulated by the ANAC, the aeronautical governing body, that mostly enforces EASA criteria on this type of flights.

AAN is only involved because of national legislation dating from the 60'.

It took them a while to deal with the avalanche of requests (...theoretically, even if you put your drone in your own garden to take a photo of your own house, 15 meters up in the air, you need the AAN formal clearance to do so...) but, now, they pretty much rubber stamp every request, unless it pertains an actual military sensitive area, because, they too, are fully aware how the legislation is outdated.

Mind you that, to fly over national parks we need authorization from the ICNF (ICNF - Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas) and to fly over the coastal areas and beaches we need authorization from the local maritime authority (Capitanias dos portos).

It's a maze of legislation, authorizations and restrictions that only burden and complicate the activity for those of us who actually want to comply, whereas I keep stumbling upon images from operators that, clearly, don't give a **** about all that.

MK

 

[wco81]

I love photography and have been into it for nearly 25 years now.

(...in fact I almost use my A3 for photography and very rarely do video...)

What you suggest is, indeed, a solution. However, it suffers from the same problem from the old discussion regarding prime lenses vs. zooms, in Photography, when people who favor primes say "just zoom with your feet".

You see, the problem with lowering the drone height is that the perspective changes.

This is specially problematic when doing aerial photography because the various elements composing the scene may stretch in multiple layers all the way down to the horizon.

MK

I tilt the gimbal upwards or downwards before starting the panos to get more sky or land.

 

[wco81]

Yes, my A3 has the C1 marking.

Flying in Portugal, it is important people understand that the AAN (a Portuguese Airforce body) just issues authorizations for the image retrieval part of the flight.

All other matters related to drone flying are regulated by the ANAC, the aeronautical governing body, that mostly enforces EASA criteria on this type of flights.

AAN is only involved because of national legislation dating from the 60'.

It took them a while to deal with the avalanche of requests (...theoretically, even if you put your drone in your own garden to take a photo of your own house, 15 meters up in the air, you need the AAN formal clearance to do so...) but, now, they pretty much rubber stamp every request, unless it pertains an actual military sensitive area, because, they too, are fully aware how the legislation is outdated.

Mind you that, to fly over national parks we need authorization from the ICNF (ICNF - Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas) and to fly over the coastal areas and beaches we need authorization from the local maritime authority (Capitanias dos portos).

It's a maze of legislation, authorizations and restrictions that only burden and complicate the activity for those of us who actually want to comply, whereas I keep stumbling upon images from operators that, clearly, don't give a **** about all that.

MK

Yeah there are drone panos of Peña and Mouros in Google Maps Street View and there aren’t too many places to take off and land around them unless they did it near the actual grounds of those monuments, which I would assume is prohibited given the usual crowds at those places

 

[MavicKhan]

I tilt the gimbal upwards or downwards before starting the panos to get more sky or land.

....Errr...Ok...I am missing something here because, no matter the initial tilt, the first thing my A3 does when starting a 180° pano, is level the gimbal for the first shot.

...maybe I am doing something wrong.

MK

 

[MavicKhan]

Yeah there are drone panos of Peña and Mouros in Google Maps Street View and there aren’t too many places to take off and land around them unless they did it near the actual grounds of those monuments, which I would assume is prohibited given the usual crowds at those places

Yes, they were probably done from inside the grounds.

There's a 200/300 yards track from the palace to a place called "Cruz Alta" that sits at a perfect distance to operate a drone.

I was obsessed with Palácio da Pena for aerial views for years and it was the very first place I went when I first got a drone, 7 years ago.

I just went, paid the admission to Palace and surrounding grounds walked up to Cruz Alta and just filmed.

Little did I know I had to secure authorizations from both AAN and ICNF, at the time.

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MK

 

[Droning on and on...]

Only issue with that is it's not easy to pick out which images are the bottom ring.

You have a lot of sky and a lot of water depending on where you shoot.

Maybe sorting by time taken would help?

 

[wco81]

....Errr...Ok...I am missing something here because, no matter the initial tilt, the first thing my A3 does when starting a 180° pano, is level the gimbal for the first shot.

...maybe I am doing something wrong.

MK

On my M2P, doing 180 degrees panos, it seems to help where the gimbal position is before tapping the button to start shooting.

Maybe it's different now.

But even 180 mode, it takes too much of the area at the bottom so cropping does help.

 

[Xi Zhou]

You need to adjust the drone height to suit the horizon.
Start at a low height to include more ground.
Start at a high height to have more sky.

That is an idiotic oversight; one should have creative control over the gimbal/cameras.

Annoys me to no end.

 

[jephoto]

I have had great success with an App called Panovolo which is represented here on the forum. I don’t have any association but I am a happy user. I shoot in DNG and the drone then produces a JPG Panorama. Usually 21 shots are taken. Yes, I then point PanoVolo at the folder with the 21 DNG raw images and it will create a DNG raw or a Tiff pano. There is a good review of the inexpensive but very useful application at fstoppers.com August 10, 2024. There is a free trial period. And, yes I usually crop the desired image from the inside of the panorama.
Recently a panorama I shot in Long Beach is now a 7 feet by 21 feet image with wonderful detail and color.

I didn’t know you can choose the output to be DNG or Tiff. Where is the setting to have it output a DNG??

 

[DaveR1977]

1. Adjusting the gimbal angle will not change the outcome of the 180-degree pano. It would be nice to be able to do this, but considering the lens's distortion, it would be impractical for the software to calculate the overlaps and account for anything other than shooting each frame through the center of the lens, utilizing the horizon for reference.

2 Lightroom does a pretty good job of assembling the pano DNGs. The "Boundry Warp" feature allows you to recover some of the foreground that the default settings may crop out. Crop to suit your purposes, there are plenty of pixels to play with.

Cheers!