Can you guys help an old guy

[MikeyST1957]

Ok. I’m a great old school photographer( film)
Fairly new to drones
I was never very good at digital … so I left photography. No regrets
I see posts , where people post” newest shot… stitched together from 12 images”

Or something similar
What does that mean
?

So they're not flying their drone… taking pictures… just posting individual shots?
I take photos with my mini2….send to my phone… add contrast… crop
But that’s it.
So multiple images are combined? All these awesome images are composites of lots of exposures?
Mike

 

[GFields]

Ok. I’m a great old school photographer( film)
Fairly new to drones
I was never very good at digital … so I left photography. No regrets
I see posts , where people post” newest shot… stitched together from 12 images”

Or something similar
What does that mean
?

So they're not flying their drone… taking pictures… just posting individual shots?
I take photos with my mini2….send to my phone… add contrast… crop
But that’s it.
So multiple images are combined? All these awesome images are composites of lots of exposures?
Mike

Are you referring to panoramic photography?
Instead of sending the photos to your phone, remove the SD card and transfer them to your PC for better results

 

[MikeyST1957]

I’m not sure
Apologize
I’ll just see some great photo, and the comment will say
“ stitched together, or combined images”
Just honestly didn’t know what that meant

They don’t usually look panoramic I guess ?
But maybe they are and I don’t know the difference?

 

[GFields]

I’m not sure
Apologize
I’ll just see some great photo, and the comment will say
“ stitched together, or combined images”
Just honestly didn’t know what that meant

They don’t usually look panoramic I guess ?
But maybe they are and I don’t know the difference?

They most are, or individual photos stitched together to make it panoramic.

 

[Bob in Savannah]

Ok. I’m a great old school photographer( film)
Fairly new to drones
I was never very good at digital … so I left photography. No regrets
I see posts , where people post” newest shot… stitched together from 12 images”

Or something similar
What does that mean
?

So they're not flying their drone… taking pictures… just posting individual shots?
I take photos with my mini2….send to my phone… add contrast… crop
But that’s it.
So multiple images are combined? All these awesome images are composites of lots of exposures?
Mike

Do you have a PC? Are you familiar with software like Lightroom? You can do so much more on a PC. You are so limited on a mobile device. What youre talking about can be accomplished in a button push or two.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/using/hdr-panorama.html#:~:text=Lightroom%20desktop%20lets%20you%20easily,exposure%20photos%20into%20a%20panorama.

 

[MikeyST1957]

So they are taking multiple images?
Hitting the camera button a bunch while flyingthen digitally combining the images later?
Sorry…. Just don’t understand
It’s not you guys… I’m just old school , where you hit a shutter button and then deal with the image 1at a time

I honstely didn’t know you could combine multiple images into one

 

[Meta4]

I see posts , where people post” newest shot… stitched together from 12 images”
Or something similar
What does that mean

One of the great things you can do with digital images is use software to combine (stitch) overlapping images and create a large composite image or panorama.
Here's a simple example:
Take a series of overlapping images of a wider scene than you can fit in the frame.

With the magic of some panorama software the images can be seamlessly stitched to create something like this:

Or you can create more complex panoramas like this:

 

[GFields]

So they are taking multiple images?
Hitting the camera button a bunch while flyingthen digitally combining the images later?
Sorry…. Just don’t understand
It’s not you guys… I’m just old school , where you hit a shutter button and then deal with the image 1at a time

I honstely didn’t know you could combine multiple images into one

What drone are you flying?

 

[SmilingOgre]

So they are taking multiple images?
Hitting the camera button a bunch while flyingthen digitally combining the images later?
Sorry…. Just don’t understand
It’s not you guys… I’m just old school , where you hit a shutter button and then deal with the image 1at a time

I honstely didn’t know you could combine multiple images into one

A lot of these drones have an automated feature whereby they will hover and take a number of pictures each overlapping the other by a small area of the shots. These still pictures can be then lined up in software to create an extended image. Many software packages have a built in facility to do just this. DJI calls the routine a panorama and the software process is called stitching. This can also be done manually but takes a lot more effort to get each still lined up correctly.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

They don’t usually look panoramic I guess ?

They most are, or individual photos stitched together to make it panoramic.

Or, if the photos you refer to look like a normal ratio photo, they are probably multiple images stitched together to make a very large (physical and storage size) and detailed photo, usually for mapping type purposes, or to be able to print in a very large print / canvas size.

Many DJI drones have the photo option to shoot panoramic, these can be horizontal or vertical format to give a pano image as most of us call them, or they can take 180o or other such, OR can print a grid of say 9 normal photos to gather more of a scene in the image, but they keep a normal photo ratio size.
Technically these aren't pano shots as most people refer to them, but they are lumped in the pano menu normally (at least in Go4 with my older drones).

 

[mobilehomer]

Think of it as a mosaic. Same as they did military aerial photography. But now, instead of a magnifying glass and hours of tedious matching, software does it in seconds.

 

[akdrone]

Ok. I’m a great old school photographer( film)
Fairly new to drones
I was never very good at digital … so I left photography. No regrets
I see posts , where people post” newest shot… stitched together from 12 images”

Or something similar
What does that mean
?

So they're not flying their drone… taking pictures… just posting individual shots?
I take photos with my mini2….send to my phone… add contrast… crop
But that’s it.
So multiple images are combined? All these awesome images are composites of lots of exposures?
Mike

In addition to panoramas you can take full 360 image. Those, however have to be uploaded to places that support them. Google Photos is, for me, the easiest place but Facebook and others also support 360 images. Sometimes you may have to click on a little icon in the middle of the opening image and wait a bit till it all comes together. With a slow connection that can be an issue. Once the blurriness has abated you can click and hold with a mouse and move around the entire sphere although the very top and bottom are not perfect. Here is one example. Click for a 360 image

 

[buddb55]

I'm an even older guy that lives in Oswego. If you ever want to hook up and take some photos let me know.

 

[funflyer]

Ok. I’m a great old school photographer( film)
Fairly new to drones
I was never very good at digital … so I left photography. No regrets
I see posts , where people post” newest shot… stitched together from 12 images”

Or something similar
What does that mean
?

So they're not flying their drone… taking pictures… just posting individual shots?
I take photos with my mini2….send to my phone… add contrast… crop
But that’s it.
So multiple images are combined? All these awesome images are composites of lots of exposures?
Mike

I’m an old guy too (73) I started flying a drone about 2 yrs ago now. You don’t need to worry about stitching photos together, just fly the drone and get used to using the camera. Read the manual, or go online do a search for the drone you have and look at the camera tutorials.
I often use my drone as what I call an extended selfie stick for taking group family pictures, etc. Just hover your drone out in front of you and just try taking pictures of yourself, the surroundings, etc. and at various heights. A great way to get used to using the camera settings without having to worry about too much drone flying. Just have fun. I attached one of my family ”selfies”. Have fun!

 

[Dale D]

Ok. I’m a great old school photographer( film)
Fairly new to drones
I was never very good at digital … so I left photography. No regrets
I see posts , where people post” newest shot… stitched together from 12 images”

Or something similar
What does that mean
?

So they're not flying their drone… taking pictures… just posting individual shots?
I take photos with my mini2….send to my phone… add contrast… crop
But that’s it.
So multiple images are combined? All these awesome images are composites of lots of exposures?
Mike

I am way older than you are! You are a youngster, relatively speaking. Age is not an excuse. I've been doing photography all of my life. Stitching is easy as can be. But you need to get some photo software. Why not do a 30 day free trial of Adobe Photoshop (FREE), use it for a month then cancel and decide from there what you want to do.

As far as stitching goes, put the drone up to about 100 feet, be sure the grid is turned on, take three images with a 30% overlap using the grid for guidance. Take 3 pictures from left to right with a 30% overlap. Upload SD card to your desktop. Upload the three images into Photoshop or Lightroom. Preferably, set the drone for DNG or RAW but JPG is acceptable. In Photoshop, go to top menu "filter",open the images into Camera RAW. Select all three images (CTRL+A). Right click on any image to get drop down menu- "merge to Panorama", and voila, you have a stitched panorama, from which you can then adjust in RAW and open into Photoshop and do further adjustments.

I'll be happy to teach further on private conversation.

Dale

 

[MikeyST1957]

Thanks for all the responses
Starting to make a little more sense!

 

[Glenh]

Dale D good advice. I have bookmarked this link and will come back for some advice. Thank you. I have a DJI Mini 2. Initially I could do panos and 180s but not now. Did I change some vital settings by accident?

 

[CaseyK]

Post #13 offers you a great opportunity to accelerate your learning curve. He can observe and answer questions that may come up. I'm an advocate for learn by doing. Many things are hidden until you know where to look. (follow me mode) I think you will like digital photography. So much can be done with the touch of a key stroke.
Have fun!

 

[Dale D]

Dale D good advice. I have bookmarked this link and will come back for some advice. Thank you. I have a DJI Mini 2. Initially I could do panos and 180s but not now. Did I change some vital settings by accident?

There are not that many things that can be changed in the setting of my Mini 2. I tend to do old fashion panos-e.g.: by taking 3 to 5 shots horizontally from left to right with a manual press of the shutter button, using the grid as my guide and trying overlap each image by about 30%. Once I have these images (I use the RAW ones), I upload the RAW images in Photoshop and never use the JGPs. The Mini 2 does not allow me to take only RAW. I must stake JPG+RAW. So on my MAC, after uploading the image, they are mixed together (JPG-RAW)> I separate them into a new RAW folder (right click, "type" or size, or rename). I work with the RAW images. I open them in Adobe Camera RAW (ACR). Select all (CTRL+A), right click on any image, to get a drop down menu, then high "merge to Panorama."

My Mini does not assemble or put together a pano for me! My M3 does. The drone generated pano is always thrown away (I find it a poor image).

Dale

 

[waltermitty]

<....> I'll be happy to teach further on private conversation.

Dale

haha...just point me to the class sign up sheet and I'll bring my senior bus pass