Mini 3 David Dunlap Observatory

[Robert Prior]

Sunset on the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill.

David Dunlap Sunset from 123 Hillsview Dr, Richmond Hill, ON L4C 1T3, Canada

Hovering over the David Dunlap Obervatory, a National Historic Site in Richmond Hill. This is where Cygnus X-1 was shown to be a black hole.

roundme.com

This is no longer a research observatory (too much light pollution). It's now a National Historic Site because of the many discoveries that were made here. It still has the largest reflector telescope in Canada.

David Dunlap Observatory - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Lister]

My Mini 3 replacement (long story) is inbound from DJI. I'm from SE BC and I'm headed to the Great Lakes in a week or so and I'd love to know before I go the workflow to create such spectacular images.

Is this image stitched by the drone? I didn't have time to investigate the camera app much before mine failed. Is 360 pano just a menu choice? If so, once you have the 360 image, is there any further processing other than grading to make it available online?

I went to roundme.com and I see that it allows 15 uploads per month for free. Is that all there is to it?

 

[FASTFJR]

Nice! He's an excellent guitar player also

 

[Robert Prior]

My Mini 3 replacement (long story) is inbound from DJI. I'm from SE BC and I'm headed to the Great Lakes in a week or so and I'd love to know before I go the workflow to create such spectacular images.

Is this image stitched by the drone? I didn't have time to investigate the camera app much before mine failed. Is 360 pano just a menu choice? If so, once you have the 360 image, is there any further processing other than grading to make it available online?

I went to roundme.com and I see that it allows 15 uploads per month for free. Is that all there is to it?

I shot the images as a set of spherical panoramas, exposures bracketed 2 stops apart, individual photos saved. (As JPEG because I still haven't figured out the right settings to devignette the Mini 3 raw images.)

Combined all the images using PTGUI Pro, which produced a set of blend planes (separate panoramas for each exposure level, already aligned with each other) 18000 x 9000 pixels.

Used Affinity Photo to fill any missing bits (like the sky, because this was shot before the latest update).

Used Photomatix to tone-map the blend planes together. Ticked the 360° image box and used the most natural option in lighting effects.

Duplicated the resulting tone-mapped image and ran Detail Enhancer and Tonal Contrast filters on it in Color Efex.

Used Affinity Photo again to combine the duplicate images, masking out the sky from the Color Efex image so that it wasn't enhanced (softer skies look batter, IMHO). Touched up the image again, fixing some minor ghosting and removing myself.

Imported into my photo library, which is in Aperture (no longer supported by Apple, but I have a 10+ TB library so don't want to switch until I absolutely have to). Exported to the maximum size supported by the free version of Roundme.


Roundme is pretty easy to use, but not really supported anymore. I used to have a pro subscription but a few years ago they stopped responding to tech support help requests and other enquiries, as well as no longer updating the Explore page or the map, so I let my pro subscription lapse. There are annoying glitches, and I suspect that eventually the site will stop working, but for the moment it's still mostly good.

 

[Lister]

Wowsers! Thanks, Robert. That's a lot of steps. For some silly reason, I thought that the Mini 3 stitched the 360 file itself. It certainly does a lot of other amazing things.

I guess I'll wait until I'm back home to do all the post work, but for my trip, all I have to do is shoot "spherical panos" using the camera controls, right?

I've never tried this, nor do I recall seeing it in my ten minutes with the new drone. When it gets back from DJI, I'll have a look.

Thanks for your detailed workflow. The results are certainly worth it. Spectacular!

 

[Robert Prior]

For some silly reason, I thought that the Mini 3 stitched the 360 file itself.

It does. I just discard those files because I can do a better job of stitching. As well, the Mini 3 can't do HDR panoramas.

for my trip, all I have to do is shoot "spherical panos" using the camera controls, right?

That, and also save the original images. It's an option under the camera tab. It defaults to "off", but you can select JPEG or raw as well.

 

[Lister]

It does. I just discard those files because I can do a better job of stitching. As well, the Mini 3 can't do HDR panoramas.


That, and also save the original images. It's an option under the camera tab. It defaults to "off", but you can select JPEG or raw as well.

Excellent info, Robert. Thanks. I always save the originals and always shoot raw. I've done HDR panos with my (RIP) Mini 2, but not 360.

Simply amazing capability from a camera that also flies.