Exposure issue in panorama mode [Resolved]

[delta2niner]

Why is this thread listed as resolved? I've read all the comments and didn't notice a definite resolution. So is it a software issue or not?

I've had the same issue shooting in manual mode with and without a polarised filter. It was slightly better without the polarised but still have the different levels of exposures throughout the pano. Haven't tried software update nor a gimbal re-calibration.

I was attempting to shoot the sunrise and thought this may have been the issue. Then I tried starting my shot 90 degree away from the sun and still got the lines. I tried in cloudy conditions as well as partly cloudy in the afternoon to no avail.

 

[Kilrah]

Because the OP's issue was indeed resolved, by a hardware repair.

Exposure issue in panorama mode [Resolved]

Further posts were made later by other people.

 

[delta2niner]

Ohh right I see. Ok thank you.

 

[RomekCyborg]

Yes indeed; I’m the original poster. I had this issue in maybe 50% of panoramas on my first drone, and on the replacement drone 5% max. So problem is not gone entirely but panorama mode is usable now.

 

[mfc]

Yes indeed; I’m the original poster. I had this issue in maybe 50% of panoramas on my first drone, and on the replacement drone 5% max. So problem is not gone entirely but panorama mode is usable now.

But not spherical panoramas, correct? On my Mavic Pro, all panos are exposed very sensibly -- except spherical ones which are about one stop over-exposed if I start with the camera pointing down, and 2 stops over-exposed if I start with the camera horizontal and pointing North. The former results in a just-usable pano, the latter is unusable ... both land and sky are burnt-out. This tested in more than 30 tests, in cloudy and bright conditions.

 

[monty.roman]

Still having the same issue even with brand new Mavic Air on latest .560 firmware. It happens on both auto and manual mode. Happened on once even with vertical pano from 3 pictures where the top one was drastically underexposed.

Well, guess I'm keeping my Spark for photo shooting and Air for video.

 

[monty.roman]

tried to review the issue once more and discovered that despite the auto-stitched version and individual jpeg files are wrongly exposed, the RAW *.dng files are exposed perfectly well and can be stitched with no problems.

 

[itsneedtokno]

But not spherical panoramas, correct? On my Mavic Pro, all panos are exposed very sensibly -- except spherical ones which are about one stop over-exposed if I start with the camera pointing down, and 2 stops over-exposed if I start with the camera horizontal and pointing North. The former results in a just-usable pano, the latter is unusable ... both land and sky are burnt-out. This tested in more than 30 tests, in cloudy and bright conditions.

Have you tried using LightRoom to stitch and develop the photos?

I take big pano sunset photos almost every night. I've had under and over exposure issues in the past, but now using LightRoom, stitching together 3AEB pictures to make "HDR"s, then stitching those together to make panos.

^^^THANKS TO THIS FORUM FOR THE ADVICE^^^

and have been getting absolutely stunning results.

 

[mfc]

Have you tried using LightRoom to stitch and develop the photos?
and have been getting absolutely stunning results.

No program can get good results if the original photograph is grossly overexposed (which only seems to happen with spherical panoramas -- other panoramas are fine).

See the 'sample 360° panorama' included with PanGazer (PanGazer - introduction ) for how I expect exposure to be -- I was only able to get that using manual exposure (which is a slow process, and loses flying time).

However, a recent post suggests that the RAW images might be OK -- I've only used RAW for stills, so I'll definitely try that.

 

[monty.roman]

tried in various light conditions and can confirm - RAW files are exposed correctly (JPEGs not so much).

 

[mfc]

Inspired by this thread, I took a number of panoramas this morning, all of the same space and within a few minutes of each other. I recorded both JPG and DNG (raw), and used DxO PL2 to process the DNG files to JPG (so I could use the same stitching tool -- MS ICE).

In summary:

• While the DNG files certainly had more recoverable detail than the DJI JPEG files, the exposure was essentially the same. That is, if the JPEG files were all over-exposed, the DNG files were, too.
  
  
• The best results were using manual exposure setting, using the value (speed) that the drone used for a still taken facing North and horizontal.
  
  
• The 'lock exposure' icon seems to be ignored during panoramas.
  
  
• The quickest way to get a usable spherical panorama seems to be (a) point camera to ground then (b) start the panorama. This results in a pano that is about one stop overexposed, which is recoverable (especially if working from DNG). Without step (a) (i.e., with the camera horizontal before start) the pano is 2 or more stops over-exposed, which is unrecoverable.

Mike

 

[yzguyfl]

Just got a Mavic Air, and sun set 360 panorama's are just not usable the way they come out of the drone. (I had not kept the raw images)

when I saw this marked as resolved, I was really hoping to find something usable for everyone. I did just submit my own support request, we will see what they say.

 

[mfc]

Just got a Mavic Air, and sun set 360 panorama's are just not usable the way they come out of the drone. (I had not kept the raw images)

when I saw this marked as resolved, I was really hoping to find something usable for everyone. I did just submit my own support request, we will see what they say.

No idea why this was marked as 'Resolved'; DJI never fixed the problem on the Mavic Pro, even though I formally raised a ticket and managed to get it escalated.

One thing I forgot to say last May is that my panoramas are made by copying the 34 JPG files from SD card to PC and then stitching them on PC (for details, see: PanGazer - making panoramic images). This gives good results (once the exposure is right).

 

[yzguyfl]

in reading some of the other replies again I'm not even sure I'm having the same issue. My exposures seem to be all over the place, here you can see light ones stitched together with dark ones. I have tried to contact them with the email form online, but it does not appear to even be sending, just stuck at loading after I click the submit button... I guess I'll try to call

 

[monty.roman]

in fact this isn't resolved at all. I've tried to contact DJI support myself with similar issue with no luck (in fact they don't really seem to be able to advise anything else than resetting camera to factory settings or sending drone for warranty repair which is a bit shame for such big and well known company). My Air does exactly the same thing when shooting in JPEG so I gave up on that and shooting strictly in RAW with excellent results. RAW (DNG) is in fact a bit more to be worked on but with much better results. I believe this issue is nothing but a software bug occuring when compressing output files to jpeg in camera firmware. I've tried to shoot both JPEG and RAW files for a short time and 90% of JPEGs came out randomly exposed resulting in panorama chessboard mentioned above but the corresponding DNG files were always perfectly fine.

It's definitely not ok to have such bad output in JPEG especially when DJI is putting panorama as one of key features of Mavic Air, but the good thing is that RAW capture works perfectly.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

That's an excellent shot monty, well done! And you are absolutely spot on about the cause of this issue - it has to do with how the MA produces the pano from JPEGs. Shoot in RAW, choose to keep the individual files, and stitch them in LR, PS, ICE or any other panorama stitching software and you will not have this issue. I do this and have never gad any issues with this particular glitch.

 

[monty.roman]

That's an excellent shot monty, well done! And you are absolutely spot on about the cause of this issue - it has to do with how the MA produces the pano from JPEGs. Shoot in RAW, choose to keep the individual files, and stitch them in LR, PS, ICE or any other panorama stitching software and you will not have this issue. I do this and have never gad any issues with this particular glitch.

just like you said..plus DNG format has so much more to offer than JPEG, especially when it comes to color toning and exposure corrections. Next level is exposure bracketing to improve dynamic range radically when used properly.

 

[yzguyfl]

Well trying what I saw in this thread, starting the picture away from the light source, instead of pointing at it, it does seem to do better. These are 2 done back to back from the same location, the only difference was the direction I started the capture from

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Well trying what I saw in this thread, starting the picture away from the light source, instead of pointing at it, it does seem to do better. These are 2 done back to back from the same location, the only difference was the direction I started the capture from View attachment 92083View attachment 92084

You can do better; switch the exposure to manual and adjust it properly, choose to keep the individual jpegs or better yet raw files of the pano, and stitch them in LR. If you don't have LR, use some thing like Microsoft's ICE application - nice free little program you can do wonders with.

 

[yzguyfl]

I really have no idea what I'm doing (not really that much into photography) "and adjust it properly " yeah, not very likely I'd get that right I do have the jpg and dng files from the 2 I posted. I tried to recreate the better one in ICE, and I'm probably not doing something right but I tried a couple of times real quick and they just don't come out right, and I don't mean colors, I mean they are twisted up and curved wrong.

When started away from the light source, they are at least ok Maybe I'll play with ICE a bit and see what I can do with them.